Safe Speed Forums

(Just wrote this whole post then accidentally clicked on a link and lost the lot. Still, my enthusiasm undimmed.... here we go again)

Driving round a long right-hander, I only became aware of a car coming the other way as it passed me. It had managed to be obscured by my windscreen pillar from the moment it came into sight until it went by, not helped by this being a long corner of fairly constant radius.

I was somewhat nearer the middle of the road than I should've been, so if in the unlikely event the owner of a red Maestro reads this, I'm sorry!

Scary!

I was here:

[url]http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=369818&y=152182&z=3&sv=kilmersdon&st=3&tl=Kilmersdon,+Somerset+[Town]&searchp=newsearch.srf&mapp=newmap.srf[/url]

going east to west.

PS Nice village, pity about the "Community Speedwatch" signs everywhere. I suppose if I had hit the Maestro, the residents would've been even more convinced that they had a speeding problem, despite it not being a factor.

Firstly, well done for posting this Johnny.

I have a parallel situation - a stretch of road on my route home, NSL (but only good for 45 - 50 on that stretch even if the blind spot was not present). Anyone witnessing my antics as I negotiate this 7 - 10 second stretch of road would think I had just followed through. I am moving my head/upper torso nearly continuously from side to side by several inches, to the point of discomfort, looking alternately through fdront and side window to complete and keep "topping up" the picture of what I am about to receive. I think I get in about 5 "wiggles" in the time until I am comfortably past the apex of the sweep.

For the safety of all road users, I recommend this technique be considered until such times as the safety pundits and car manufacturers either overcome this design problem or wake up to the fact that primary safety is of far greater importance than secondary.

Yep. Thanks for posting.

For those that aren't aware, screen pillar blind spots are a campaining issue for Safe Speed.

See: http://www.smidsy.org.uk (maps to http://www.safespeed.org.uk/smidsy.html )

And this recent PR: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SafeSpeedPR/message/136

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

You're welcome

I knew it had been recently discussed elsewhere, but this was a classic example.

There are two bends I go round on my way home from work where this happens. One of them winds up from the other direction so people frequently approach faster than they should and end up going wide. It's pretty scary knowing that something could be coming straight at you that you can't see properly.

A lot of modern cars seem to have very wide pillars - presumably for strength, but I would rather be able to see and avoid a crash.