Blind Spots And Skid Marks

Today's Thoughts 11/19/11 Blind Spots And Skid Marks

Well, it looks like we are back into the Holliday season again. Personally, I'm going to try and be home this year on the major travel days. Looking back, I cannot remember just when the last time I was home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. This year would be a good year to remedy that I think. As for the rest of you that will be out there wandering around, I thought I would just throw in a little something I wrote because I would like to see everybody back next year. So here goes.

I was pulled up at a stop sign one day doing what I was supposed to be doing. That is looking both ways before turning left out onto the highway. Each truck has just a bit different set up when it comes to the positioning of windows and mirrors and such things. With my truck that day, I leaned forward and looked out my passenger window past my right side mirror. The road looked clear but to be safe I leaned back and look to the right past the other side of the mirror one more time, still clear.

A quick look to the left at a clear highway and I started to roll forward to make my left turn onto the highway. As I make that last look to the right to make sure I had not missed anything, a complete sixty five foot long eighteen wheeler goes right in front of me at highway speed. Where did he come from I'm thinking. I know I look not only once, but twice around that mirror and still I missed a complete eighteen wheeler. WOW.

How did I do that? The answer might just keep you alive no matter what you drive. Remember that out there on the road, you not only have to watch what you are doing, but you have to know and understand what the other guy is doing. That will help you see their mistakes as they happen so you can adjust and keep yourself out of an accident.

Here's what happened as I looked to the right past that mirror. Objects as I'm sure you know always look smaller the further they are away from you. So as I leaned forward and looked down that highway, the far away truck was small enough and at such an angle that it was hid behind the mirror that I was looking around.

Keeping in mind that that truck was traveling at about sixty miles an hour, as I leaned back to look around the back side of that mirror, the truck traveled forward in a path that kept it hid from my view behind the mirror as it moved toward me. So in essence, I lost a whole eighteen wheeler behind a ten inch wide mirror. Imagine trying to find something as small as a car.

It's a good thing I'm in the habit of checking three or four times before I pull out onto a road. That could have been the end of not only my career right there, but the end of me too. Lessons we learn as we move through life.

Blind spots are on every vehicle that is out there on the road. You cannot count on the driver of another vehicle to know and understand those blinds spots. Yes they should know them I'll give you that. It is just not going to happen all the time is all that I am saying.
For one thing, people rent cars and drive them. It takes time and experience with any new vehicle to learn the blind spots. Truckers, especially company drivers are all the time swapping trucks. It takes time to learn that vehicle and its particular blind spots. So that leaves you and your ability to see what they cannot. Right off I think everyone knows the old saying "If you cannot see a driver in their mirror, they cannot see you". I think that is very true in most cases but not all.

The biggest blind spot I see in most cases is people just not looking far enough in advanced for a sudden situation. Always know where traffic is around you so that when you need to move out of the way fast, you already know where to go. Know your escape route in advance.

Truckers I think have a lot more blind spots the most people think they do. And most of them are not on the truck itself. I received a ticket one day from an officer that told me that I made a car put on its brakes as I pulled out from a side road. I was wondering just what car that was because as far as I could see, there was nothing on the road I was pulling onto. Or was there?

When a car driver pulls up to a intersection, any stop sign or other traffic device is usually above the head of the driver of the car. A very good idea our government has in doing this. Unfortunately for truck drivers, above the head of car drivers means right in a truck drivers face. The traffic device actually blocks a trucker's view of oncoming traffic. And as I described earlier, you can lose a whole eighteen wheeler behind an ten wide inch mirror.

As if this was not enough, at this intersection that I received my ticket at, the city decided to make the area look pretty by planting trees. Of course all the lower branches were trimmed back so car drivers could see under them, but the truck drivers were left to look through the leave covered branches. A major blind spot built in by the city.
This is where team work out on the road comes in. If you're coming up on an intersection that in itself creates a blind spot for the traffic pulling out in front of you, then you need to take the time to slow down and allow for the fact that you are probably not going to be seen by the people pulling out.

One of the best signs that this has been happing at this intersection is by the number of skid marks on the road in front of you. The more skids marks, the more you can bet your butt you had better slow down because you know it happens a lot at this intersection. Skid marks show us lots of things depending on where they are. Like a red light that is quick to change or just a turn off of the highway. Wherever you see them, figure out why they are there and be ready so that you do not add a new set of skid marks of your own, on the road or in your shorts.

Anyway, be safe out there this holiday season. Take the time and the patience when the other guy screws up. And they will, you can bet on that. Then you be the one that avoids the accident. Remember, it's a whole lot easier to tell them that they are number one if you're not eating your air bags.

Be safe peeps …
Jeff Head.
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