WINDSCREEN PILLAR DANGERS IN THE NEWS AGAIN
03 February 2006 - Safe Speed

The Times today reports on the ongoing scandal of the risks to roadsafety posed by ever-thickening windscreen pillars obscuring drivers'' vision.

Increasing standards of car passenger cell strength have led directly to
thicker windscreen pillars (also known as ''A pillars''). At junctions these
modern strong and thick windscreen pillars can totally obscure other vehicles,
pedestrians, motorcyclists or cyclists. It''s possible in the ''wrong''
conditions for a crash to occur without the conflicting vehicle ever having
been observed. This is one way in which ''looked but failed to see'' (LBFTS)
crashes take place. Such crashes appear to be quite commonplace and LBFTS is
the 3rd most frequent crash contributory factor.

Motorcyclists are especially at risk because their visual profile means that
they can be more readily obscured, while their speed makes the zone of
conflict larger. LBFTS crashes involving motorcycles are so common that the
motorcycle community have their own term for this crash type. They call them
''SMIDSY'' which is short for ''Sorry Mate, I didn''t see you''. These words are
(supposedly) spoken by drivers to the fallen motorcyclist immediately after
the crash.

Screen pillars obstructing driver''s vision driver''s first made headlines last
year after Safe Speed''s Paul Smith approached Bike magazine to highlight the
issue. As a direct response to this publicity, the Department for Transport
(DfT) commissioned a small research project from TRL Limited (formerly
Transport Research Laboratory). This research project has yet to report.

Previously unreported simulator research by the University of Minnesota
suggests that the risks are very considerable. In tests drivers were divided
into four groups based on their observation techniques. In the poorest group
almost 70% of drivers crashed because of screen pillar obscuration and even in
the best group 11% of drivers crashed.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: ''The official response to this serious issue is
unfortunately typical of modern weak road safety thinking. It''s very important
that we warn road users of the risks and explain how best to manage them. It''s
all too easy to attempt to look around the screen pillar and in the process to
''opposite track'' the movements of a conflicting road user. Very few road users
understand the issues in sufficient detail.''

''I have been working hard to get the issue given the attention it desperately
needs. I set up smidsy.org.uk in 2002, but there was a bit of a breakthrough
when I got Bike magazine interested in the issue in 2004.''

Speaking in 2004, Rich Beach, News Editor of Bike magazine said: ''When Paul
Smith raised the screen pillar issue with us, we were astonished by how little
research has been done on the subject, but in the course of investigating and
writing the Bike magazine feature, it became clear that it is a huge problem,
and one that we need to draw attention to.''

Safe Speed recommends the following ''coping strategies'' for drivers and
motorcyclists:

Car drivers:
============

* Car drivers have the greatest responsibility - at least until we have better
designed screen pillars.

* DON''T make a ''glance check'' then go.

* DON''T Look around the back of the screen pillar - always look around the
front. This is because of the risk of ''opposite tracking'' another road user on
a conflicting path. Take the case of the offside pillar - if another road user
is moving towards you, and you move your head right to look around the screen
pillar the risk of opposite tracking is considerable. On the other hand,
moving your head left to look around the screen pillar is unlikely to opposite
track another road user on a conflicting path. An easy way to remember this is
to always enhance your view through the windscreen, not the side windows.

* DO be aware of the screen pillar obscuring your vision.

* DO - And this is the best tip of all - always look twice. If another road
user was behind the pillar on either check, then there''s an excellent chance
that they will have emerged when you make the second check. Normal procedure
for pulling out of a side road, left, into a main road is as follows: Look
right, look left, look right again, look left and drive off looking in the
direction of travel.

* Tell your friends.

www.safespeed.org.uk

More News
  For February 2006
  From Safe Speed
  For Safety
  Driver247.com Home Page