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When Brussels voted in the EU truck mirror regulations, it
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Page 39
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probably thought it would solve the problem of driver vision. Instead, it created a new one. CM examines the blindspots created by large HGV mirrors.
Words: Kevin Swallow and Brian Weatherley /images: Tom Lee On the face of it, European Directive 2003/ 97/EC sounds pretty innocuous, as does 2007/38/EU. But then, similar to a lot of legislation coming out of Brussels, you need to know what they refer to before you can relax. Both of these directives are responsible for solving and, ironically, creating a problem because they govern the set-up of mirrors on heavy goods vehicles.
Since 2006, EU directive 2003/97/EC requires truck manufacturers to fit revised and improved mirror systems on all trucks to extend their rearward vision. Likewise. 2007/38/EU was the retrofit directive that came into force in March, which applied to vehicles that weren't already covered by the revised mirror regs.
While the bureaucrats in Brussels had the right intention — to provide better rearward vision for the millions of HGV drivers in Europe — not long after the new mirror clusters started to appear, truck drivers started to complain about the creation of lateral blindspots caused by the large collection of mirrors fitted to a truck, especially on the off-side.
Moreover, as truck manufacturers have, understandably, tried to make the large mirror 'packs' more aerodynamic, the previous opportunity to move them around on mounting rails has all-but disappeared.
Generating problems
Thus, in a bid to solve one problem, regulators have ended up creating another, which clearly wasn't what the legislation was intended to do.
Truck drivers aren't the only ones aware of the blindspots created by the larger mirrors packs.
In 2007, Motorcycle News (MCN) raised the problem from a biker's perspective. With such a small profile, it's easy to lose a motorcyclist behind a mirror, especially at a T-junction or at a roundabout.
Through our sister title Truck ck. Driver, we were able to give the HGV driver's perspective to MCN and explain the issues. 'thus. when it came to holding our own investigations into HGV mirror blind spot. CM invited a member of the MCN editorial team to witness and participate in our test. •