Eyes in the back of your head
Page 42
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
FEW years back, the crash hat came into prominence, then the safety belt pegan to catch on (and still is doing so), ollowed by bigger and better mirrors for ;uses and trucks—all in the interests of 'educing accidents and saving lives. Yet week by week thousands of light and medium :ars are released from the works, equipped with only a handbag-size mirror inside the ar.
There has been a lot said and written around this feature and many arguments about the value and dependability of wing mirrors, yet the absence of these mirrors is the known cause of many accidents, not necessarily serious, but enough to add very considerably to the growing third party claim aspect.
The interior mirror needs an unobscured rear window, not an easy thing to guarantee in damp or frosty weather with a loaded car, and neither screen heaters nor double glazing will keep the rear passengers rigidly in place on starting a journey, a crucial time on busy roads.
Many a heavy vehicle driver has made an excursion into some front garden due to some unpredictable move on the part of a fogged-up car equipped with an interior mirror only. And quite long queues are regularly formed in side streets or roads, headed by a car so equipped and unable to filter safely into the main stream until a long gap appears.
Ask any goods driver or p.s.v. man how he reacts on seeing a car move from the right into the outer lane in front of him with flasher operating. He will tell you that if the car in question is fitted with exterior mirrors, he will pass confidently on the left, but if there are no outside mirrors, he feels compelled to brake hard until quite sure what is happening. The correctly equipped car is rarely a hazard to those behind, and breeds confidence in the driver himself, cutting out the need for guesswork and sudden moves.
The important point, however, is to have exterior mirrors fitted by an expert. He will position them to suit that particular car, eliminating head turning and eye strain. He will also select a mirror that will give a true distance image, another important feature, and once so equipped the driver will act safely and confidently. Mistakes are often made by the driver himself buying a pair of mirrors and choosing the easiest rather than the most suitable mounting position.
It is difficult to obtain accident figures covering cars with or without wing mirrors, but a browse around four car graveyards showed 23 out of 29 rear-end and sideswipe accidents were to cars with interior mirrors only. And from personal experience of driving a single-mirror car on a motorway after a long period with wing mirrors, I can say that this was more than a little frightening.