Today morning I was going on my Bike, Unicorn, around Srinagar Colony and Banjara Hills area. There was a sudden accident there with a Bike hitting the rear end of an Escorts Van. It was not a head-on collision, the road was not a highway and these vehicles were not going in great speeds. I started to think how this accident might have happenned. I was about 10-20 feet behind this bike when it got hit and was just behind it for about 1 Km. When I tried to recollect this incident after I reached home, I realized that the Bike was actually in the Van's Blindspot and hence it got hit when the Van applied a sudden break before a speed breaker. I was in the situation many times but was lucky to have survived these blindspot accidents.
A Blindspot is a spot which cannot be seen by a vehicle. 2 Wheelers do not have many blindspots and turning the head they can avoid all the blindspots. Helmets come along with a few blindspots on the side. Cars have blindspots on the sides which are out of the side mirror's range. Read mirrors can be used to avoid blindspots at the read end of the car. Turning the head a bit, the side blindspots can also be eliminated to some extent. The real issue of Blindspots starts with heavy vehicles like Vans, Buses and Lorries which have a very limited view with the side mirrors. Following these vehicles without maintaining good distance can often prove fatal.
Many times I get startled while riding a bike as vehicles zoom past me through my blindspots and for a moment I dont react. I feel it is necessary to know that blindspots exist for any vehicle and always have it at the back of mind while on road. Not just the vehicle drivers, but the pedestrians also should be aware of this and try to be far from blindspots of the vehicles to avoid getting hit.
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4 comments:
Nice post. Regarding those who use car, the rear blind spots can be reduced dramatically if the rear view mirrors and side mirrors are overlapped to create a seamless view of whats happening behind you.
Found this article very interesting: http://www.topspeed.com/how-to-avoid-blind-spots-ar10553.html.
For blind spots ahead, I agree the best policy is to keep safe distance which allows you to break in time, also where possible no sudden diving out of lanes for overtaking, it should be progressive (unfortunately this hardly ever can be used within city).
For bikers blind spots, best solutions - stop driving bikes. :)
Good post! Not many of us here know about or think about blindspots!
I agree with you Anshu. We can greatly reduce the blindspots by using a combination of rear and side view mirrors.
The article is cool too, interesting one.
Many of us really know about blindspots till your car gets smashed :P
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