Many vehicles nowadays have blind spot warning alarms, in the form of lights and/or beeping sounds, to warn a driver about someone in his or her blind spot. The blind spot referred to is the one slightly to the side and close to the rear of your vehicle, where another vehicle cannot be seen by you while you are looking forward or in either of the side or rearview mirrors.
With these new vehicle warnings or alarms, along with camera monitors everywhere, we are lulled into a false sense of security and safety. You would almost be inclined to think that you are now fully protected while driving a vehicle. Such is not the case.
There is at least one more blind spot that is at least as dangerous and deadly, if not more so, than the foregoing. This is the blind spot caused by the passenger-side front pillar of a vehicle. It is that part of the vehicle to which the passenger side of the windshield is attached. It also attaches to the roof and forms part of the overall structural integrity of the vehicle.
Regardless of its width, the passenger-side pillar can totally obscure a vehicle coming from the driver’s right-hand side along an intersecting road or highway. The speed at which other vehicles are approaching your intersection, both from the left and the right, plays a major role in how safe you will be if attempting to make a left turn out onto that highway. The higher the speed, the quicker your decision time is required to be. The quicker your decision time, the less of your surroundings you take into consideration.
One method to increase safety in such situations is with an underpass, and a merge in order to access the highway from its other side. In other words, you drive under the highway and merge on the other side with traffic going in the same direction as you.
The speed at which other vehicles are approaching your intersection, both from the left and the right, plays a major role in how safe you will be if attempting to make a left turn out onto that highway.
For instance, you can see examples of this underpass/merge for certain communities off the Veterans Memorial Highway. There are a number of other communities where a simple stop sign represents the extent of planning that provides for access to this highway.
I can say from experience that the old adage “Look left, then right, then left again” does not work when accessing this highway to go left by way of a stop sign, if you happen to be coming up from one of the adjacent communities. A vehicle coming from your right along that highway, and in your pillar blind spot when you look to the right for oncoming traffic, will be directly on top of you when you actually access the highway. All it takes is that split-second for you to proceed from the full stop to the point at which your vehicle has just come onto the highway. There is nowhere for either vehicle to go, because the resultant crash is totally unexpected by either of the drivers.
Other than see-through pillars from the manufacturers, what can be done to remedy this serious safety concern? Ask the experts. But I would think that the use of the underpass and the merge would provide a much higher degree of safety than that provided by a stop sign. However, if you have to deal with a stop sign under these conditions, you would be well-advised to look left and right several times, certainly more than the once or twice that we have grown up with.
And, before actually hitting the highway, ensure that you have looked quickly left and then right again for one last time.
And, no, that’s not overkill. In fact, it’s just the opposite!
Dave Randell
Mount Pearl
