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A VIEW ON TWO WHEELS
Page 41
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Steve Farrell, senior reporter at Motorcycle News, brought his bike to the test.
He says: -It's three years since MCN first covered lorry mirrors. We were stunned by just how big an obstruction the wing mirror and windscreen pillar in a Volvo FM12 truck made.
"Together they could almost hide the whole road looking right at a T-junction.
`Shortly afterwards, Volvo told us it was redesigning its fleet to put bigger spaces between the mirror cluster and pillar, which is a step in the right direction.
"But this latest investigation shows there's still a long way to go. As a vulnerable road user, it's worrying to sit in a truck cab and see just how much of the road is still hidden by the mirrors alone, and how easily a motorbike fits into that space.
-Of course, drivers will move around in practice and check what's behind. But the fact that it's there still creates the potential for a mistake, and, therefore, its a hazard. I've been informed by drivers that over-sensitive locking mechanisms on seatbelts can sometimes restrict movement
"Depending on a motorcycle's speed and path, there's always the possibility it would stay behind the mirror from the driver's perspective — even when they do move.
"Obviously, blindspots to the rear and sides were a problem that needed fixing, but these mirrors seem only to have replaced it with a new problem. No wonder the proportion of lorry accidents in which 'vehicle blindspots' are blamed is rising, according to the latest government figures (up from 6% in 2007 to 7% in 2008).
"To put that in perspective, for cars and motorcycles, 0% of collisions are blamed on blindspots, and for coaches it is just 1%.
"But you don't need statistics to see it's time to try a new solution, whether it's cameras or `praying mantis' coach mirrors. Until it's fixed, MCN will continue to monitor the problem."