Safe Speed Forums

May well apply equally to other cars too.

Drove for the 1st time in heavy rain in my new Golf yesterday. Joining dual carriageway on a slip road. Accelerate to match speed of traffic on road. Suddenly a couple of seconds before joining a dark Mondeo appears from behind my 'A' pillar. Not a problem, I eased off and tucked in behind it, but I certainly lost it somehow on the approach. You can lose a cyclist in the pillar if you're not careful, but a whole car?

Much has been said here about the obstruction of vision from the 'A' pillar. Personally I do think its not ideal but you basically alter your observation to take account of the obstruction. But something made my little incident much worse. The windscreen on the Golf is pretty flat and recessed. Yesterday I noticed that water coming off the driver's side wiper tends to pool on the far right of the windscreen. It also ripples with the slipstream, rendering it impossible to see through, (about 3-4 inches wide obstruction). This created a roughly 8 inch 'blindspot'. Given the colour of the Mondeo, the heavy spray and the lack of light (dull but not dark enough for lights to stand out) I realised that my poor observation had been made considerably worse by this pooling water.

Any one else noticed this? 'A' pillar obstruction is dangerous enough without adding to it.

Thing is, the attitude to safety these days is "You're going to crash, so we're going to make the cars stronger with more air bags and crumple zones to save your life" The thick A pillar is obviously to do with strengthenng, which in my opinion this is the wrong approach as the blind spot it leaves, leads to potential accidents that wouldn't otherwise happen. Its the same with speed, they want to reduce deaths by making accidents happen at slower speeds. How about some common sense to reduce the amount of accidents in the first place?

I agree with fitting cars with better braking and handling capabilities, even ABS/traction control etc to some extent, but all this other safety stuff is rubbish, better driver training and appropriate traffic laws would save more lives.

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www.clubrwd.com - For all things rear wheel drive

Completely agree Dave and if you must fit a thick A pillar you should probably ensure its not made any thicker by trapped rain water etc.

Is that your S13 on the avatar? Used to love mine.

You might want to try a water dispersant coating (e.g. Rain-X) for your windscreen. This might help.

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“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” - H. L. Mencken

I was watching a program on TV not long ago (I think it was the news) and it was showing a new model car (maybe a Volvo) where it had small windows in the A Post giving additional viewing. So it seems some manufacturers are already looking into this area, maybe other manufacturers will follow by example.

Cheers
Dixie

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Thanks antera309, I'll give it a go. I think the main problem is that the flat windscreen is recessed, so that the water literally has no where to go but trickle down towards the bonnet. When you are driving at 50-60mph the aerodynamics of the windscreen prevent the water from running down and 'hold' it against the screen next to the pillar. Any water which does drift away from the screen is replaced by the action of the driver's wiper.

Most cars I've owned have had a curved windscreen which is relatively flush to the pillar. The water is just pushed down each side of the car and away from the driver's field of vision.

Changing the subject slightly, yeah, it is. I love it when it works, but a tuned 12 year old engine with 120k on it isn't the most reliable in the world.

Never tried Rainex or whatever, but never found visability in any car a problem, I keep my car very clean though and the slightest sign of dodgy wipers and they get replaced so I never have a problem with rain water on the screen.

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www.clubrwd.com - For all things rear wheel drive

Did you, or the Mondeo, have dipepd headlamps on?

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“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

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