Safe Speed Forums

Quite bad on the Pug 807 despite the pillar being miles away from the driver and having what is supposdly the largest screen area on a production car.

After a couple of near misses we have learnt to do a lot of head bobbing.

Ditto Ford Puma and new style VW Caddy van, both of which I drive at present.

I tend to wiggle my head from side to side as I look at junctions, which wastes all of half a second of my life, and could save it one day.

I drove a Citroen Xsara Picasso the other day and was astonished by the degree of obstruction presented by the, distinctly substantial, "A" pillars.

Talk about moving your head about to see round them - you end up looking like you're auditioning for a dancer's role in a "Bollywood" movie!!

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They are huge on some vehicles, I remember a Pug Boxer being very very bad for it, along with a number of people carriers. Yes of course the problem can be mittegated by a lot of movement of the head, but it's less then ideal.

In the persuit of the ultimate in secondary safety, car designers must not lose sight of the best way to pervent injury in cars - that is to avoid the crash in the first place.

thats something i'd consider a design flaw on my delica. wide pillar with useless quarterlight, then onto a verticle mirror on the door with a wind deflector coming off right above it. all in several blind inches which "top of my head" triganometry becomes several blind feet very quickly.

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

As Paul mentioned - moving your head is only part of the answer - it can lead to matching the movement of whatever is hidden behind the pillar.
LOL at the Bollywood look!

As a TALL driver, the position/view of pillars, rear-view mirrors, tax disc, and side door pillars is different to a shorter driver. With the seat back to accomodate my long legs, seat back straight up to reach the wheel, you are forced into a poor driving position, in which a look over the right shoulder before an overtake/pull out is blocked by the rear-door pillar, and at junctions, the look left gives a great view of the passengers ear.

Older Vauhalls have a rear-view mirror which swung UP towards the roof - ideal for taller drivers.
I was once told my poppy sticker next to the tax disc was reason to fail the MOT - until I pointed out that I could see over it, whereas the examiner was of diminuative stature, and looked at it when at crossings etc.

The answer might be that we just need to know something is there - and a fresnel lens like the rear parking type, in the quarter light, or corner of the screen might fit the bill.
Volvo's approach is a lattice pillar with clear spaces. Great idea - needs refining, researching and if suitable, FITTING in all new cars!!

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The worst car for this that I've driven was a 04 plate Fiat Punto (not through choise I might add - it was a courtesy car!). The A-pillars in that were huge. Couple that with TINY wing mirrors and a stupid shaped body shell so you couldn't see the back end at all. Bloody awful thing.


Like Scutter said, on the bike you have to position yourself with this in mind - I tend to move as far away from the emerging vehicle as possible while still in my lane, and get myself ready to brake / swerve to avoid it.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

My 53 plate Vectra is bloody awful as well - especially with the smaller glass area on these cars compared to older vehicles. You cannot get away with just moving your head to get around the blind spot- you physically have to move yourself in the seat to see around it.

Its far worse than my R plate Mondeo was, and I thought that was pretty obtrusive!

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Actually I though they had started that a year ago - perhaps that was prelim, and now there's a large scale study. I'll check.

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Paul Smith
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I was at the roundabout on the M69/M1 junction. With the angle of the approach to the roundabout you need to see traffic on the roundabout over your right shoulder. I found the B pillar was blocking my view.

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Speed camera policy Kills

New VW Golf is shocking for A & B pillar obscuration. Previously, on another thread I've also mentioned how water pools on the recessed windscreen between the pillar and the offside wiper. Adds another 3-4 inches of blindness in medium to heavy rain at speeds over 30-40 mph. I've never driven another car with this kind of problem.

The water pooling thing is a well known design fault on the Golf mk5. I'm surprised VW haven't sorted it yet.

Thick A & B pillars are a two-edged sword. On one hand they help to keep the cabin intact in the event of a front or side impact and without doubt make the car safer. On the other hand, they do obscure visibility.

"One box" design cars (such as MPVs) do seem to have much thicker A pillars than the traditional two & three box designs. Presumably this is to make up for the smaller crumple zone at the front.

It's something to be mindful of when choosing a car. If you test drive a car and don't feel comfortable with the amount of head movement required to see out of it, then don't buy it.

I'm not sure what else to suggest...

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