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A warning goes out today to Britain’s
‘white van man’ as new research released today by road safety
organisations reveals that many popular van designs have dangerous
blind spots, caused by the A-Pillars on either side of the
windscreen, which are wide enough to hide a cyclist, motorbike or
group of people from view.
In order to raise awareness of the
problem, the top 20 best and worst vehicles for driver visibility
are revealed as the Government is urged to urgently act to educate
learner drivers.
With 1,599 pedestrians mown down by
vans each year, almost 50,000 (35%) accidents and over 500 deaths
per year due to drivers ‘failing to look properly’ and almost 17,000
cyclists injured on the roads each year, today Roadsafe, the
cycling charity CTC and Autoglass launch a campaign to
press the government to review vehicle manufacturing guidelines to
improve driver vision. They are also pushing the Driving Standards
Agency to provide guidance for driving instructors on educating new
drivers about the ‘A-Spot’ and for educating drivers on the
road about A-Pillars.
MIRA (formerly the Motor Industry
Research Association) was commissioned to test driver vision in
different makes and models of modern vans and cars. The tests
included a calculation of the A-Pillar blind spot, or ‘A-Spot’ – the
width of objects obscured from a driver’s vision at 23 metres; the
stopping distance required when travelling at 30mph.
In 2006, the same group of motorist
experts first commissioned A-Pillar testing in a number of vehicles,
revealing worrying blind spot results. Encouragingly, recent tests
results show that manufactures have addressed the thickening
A-Pillar in some newer models of cars, however many vehicles still
have large blind spots and vans cause a particular problem so action
is now been urged on the Government to change manufacturing
guidelines.
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