Awareness of Blind Spots Can Help Avoid a Crash

No matter what motor vehicle you drive, you will always encounter visibility issues. In small vehicles, it may be difficult to see around larger vehicles that could be hiding danger just up ahead. With large vehicles, it may be difficult to see smaller vehicles, leading to serious or even fatal crashes.

With blind spots a plenty, it’s not difficult to see why so many motor vehicle accidents happen every year on roadways across the nation. But this problem with visibility is not just limited to cars, trucks and semis. Even motorcyclists have difficulty spotting and avoiding danger from time to time.

When changing lanes or passing another vehicle, most motorcyclists know to turn their head to make sure that there is not a vehicle in their blind spot with which they could collide. Unfortunately, not all motorists extend the same courtesy to motorcycles, which is what leads to a number of motorcycle accidents across the state.

With larger vehicles such as buses, commercial vehicles and semi trucks, blind spots are even more of a problem because these zones are much larger. Accidents with large, heavy vehicles such as semis are incredibly dangerous because of the force they can exert of a relatively unprotected motorcyclist. Collisions with these large vehicles are almost always severe if not fatal.

But it’s important to point out that it’s not just drivers of other vehicles that should be aware of their own blind spots and actively checking these zones before changing lanes. Motorcyclists should also know the size of these zones so as not to inadvertently cross into one of these zones and put their own lives in danger.

If both motorcyclists and drivers actively check their blind spots, they can help reduce the chances of a serious or even fatal accident later on, perhaps even protecting a life in the process.

Source: motorcyclbasics.com, “Motorcycle blind spot,” Accessed Sept. 29, 2014

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