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Do all these new mirrors make it much easier to see?
Page 21
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I READ WITH growing interest the latest coverage in Commercial Motor of the planned blind-spot mirror regulations (CM 19 February 2009).
Considering how many accidents there are on UK roads involving left-hand-drive trucks, I'd say the new mirrors can't come soon enough.
However, before we all rush to judge the poor old haulier, isn't it about time that more was done to educate car drivers, cyclists and pedestrians as to how to stay safe around HGVs.
I've lost count of the number of times I've had to brake sharply while turning left or on a roundabout as some idiot motorist has tried to commit suicide by sneaking down the inside of my artic.
If now straddle as many lanes as possible to prevent that happening — not a popular manoeuvre, I will admit, but at least I can be sure that those idiots have no room to get through.
And while I'm on the subject of the new EU mirrors, I find that my lateral vision is being increasingly obscured by all the extra mirrors and other devices in their massive housings.
If anything, the new regulations have ended up just creating a bigger problem than they have solved.
Run into a roundabout and look right and it's easy to lose a car, or motorbike in the blind spot created by the larger mirror cluster. Does this really make any sense at all?
It's had enough when the local council puts up road signs in the exact sightline of an HGV driver, but having so many mirrors attached only adds to the problem of seeing everything.
Perhaps the answer is to genetically modify HGV drivers to add an extra set of eyes?
K Wilton St Michaels Kent