Safe Speed Forums

A good mention for SMIDSY / screen pillars:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/ ... 43,00.html

Carmakers' drive for safety puts other road users at risk
By Ben Webster

Motorists are told be vigilant as study highlights dangerous blindspots in many modern vehicles

HUNDREDS of people are killed or injured in crashes because modern cars have forward-looking blind spots, a study has found. The Department for Transport is so alarmed that it has ordered an investigation that could mean manufacturers will have to redesign vehicles.

The department has also altered its guidance to drivers, telling them to “take a longer look” for motorcyclists, who are in particular danger of being hidden from view.

The blind spots are caused by the spars that frame the windscreen, known as the A-pillars. These have been thickened in recent years to prevent the main structure crumpling in crashes.

The risk is greatest at junctions and roundabouts, where the driver looks to the right before pulling out but may not see another vehicle because it is behind the pillar.

The Transport Research Laboratory, which is carrying out the research for the department, said: “Indications are that a motorcyclist could disappear behind the driver’s A-pillar for approximately 0.35 seconds, the time it takes for a quick glance before pulling out.”

The problem is exacerbated when the pillar “tracks” the hidden motorcycle as driver and rider converge. The motorcycle may disappear from view for a few seconds, with the driver seeing nothing before impact.

A study by the University of Minnesota has identified a serious problem among drivers who fail to move their heads forward at junctions to take a longer look. In tests using simulators, drivers were divided into four groups based on their observation techniques. In the poorest group, almost 70 per cent of drivers crashed because the pillar obscured their view. In the best group, 11 per cent crashed.

The study concluded: “This experiment clearly indicates the potential for collisions based upon driver scanning behaviours, complacency and automotive design.”

A fifth of fatal crashes are officially attributed to drivers who “looked but did not see” and road safety analysts believe that pillar blind spots may be a factor in up to half of these, or 10 per cent of the total.

Spen King, a former chief engineer at Rover, has been trying for years to get the car industry and the Government to take the problem seriously. “It has proved very difficult to get anyone to take any notice,” he said Mr King said that some of the worst blind spots were on the new generation of people carriers, such as the Vauxhall Meriva, which have a small extra pillar and a quarter-light.

The Vehicle Certification Agency, part of the Department for Transport, admitted to safety consultants two years ago that an EU directive on pillar design contained loopholes that manufacturers were exploiting.

In a letter obtained by The Times, Derek Harvey, the agency’s chief executive, wrote: “VCA has long been aware of the difficulty of applying the directive [on] A-pillars and the potential for obscuration that might appear excessive.”

Paul Smith, the founder of the SafeSpeed campaign, said: “It is appalling that the department has sat on its hands for so long. The Minnesota research suggests that even good drivers can easily become helpless victims, unable to avoid a crash that they literally didn’t see coming.”

A department spokesman said it was aware of “ad-hoc evidence” that pillars were causing crashes but wanted to carry out its own tests before acting. It was researching the hypothesis “that modern car design can obscure other road users to such an extent that it is an important contributory factor in accidents”.

The RAC Foundation said that many car manufacturers had placed too much emphasis on the safety of car occupants. Edmund King, its director, praised Volvo for developing a “safety concept car” with transparent pillars made of toughened glass in a steel web.

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

About time they noticed!

If I approach a junction and the A pillar is in line so I can't see the driver's face I know they'll pull right out in front of me at a 90% probability. I haven't yet worked out the correct road position to put my car in their line of sight consistently. Moving out towards the white line so they see me earlier rather than more to the inside seems to make it worse. Not moving or moving towards the kerb does seem to reduce it slightly.

If on the major road, my own technique for survival is to adjust my speed or position subtlely to ensure a changing angle relative to the vehicle appraoching the major road. I exaggerate this if something is also coming towards me to avoid any possibility of a pinch point. Speed is adjusted then (usually downwards but occasionally upwards) to ensure that we pass oneanother comfortably clear of the junction.

If they thought the yaris was bad they didn't try the citroen picasso

_________________
Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Sadly, of course, these primary safety compromises are as a direct result of arguably misguided secondary safety legislation. I guess much of life is a compromise, but I would trade the odd life in high speed rollovers/ banging into a wall for the comparatively large number of SMIDSY accidents, many of which are serious or fatal in themselves, any day.

350 dead per year because of them.

Paul well done in getting your point across.

Where are the "anti death on the road groups"?

Safe Speed issued the following PR at 01:46 this morning:

PR285: Windscreen pillar dangers in the news again

news: for immediate release

The Times today reports on the ongoing scandal of the risks to road
safety 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.


Motorbike riders:
=================

* Always be aware of the risk of not being seen and never forget that it will
hurt if someone does manage to pull into your path.

* Look at emerging drivers - if part of his face appears behind the screen
pillar it's possible that you can't be seen.

* Assume that emerging vehicles may pull into your path and position for
maximum margin. Usually this means taking a position towards the crown of the
road if someone might emerge from the left.

* Don't assume that you have had eye contact with a driver from 20 feet away
or more. It might look like eye contact, but you STILL can't be sure that he's
seen you.

* Don't assume that because you have high visibility clothing and your
headlight on that you are visible - if there's a screen pillar in the way,
visibility aids don't work.

* Watch the wheels of potentially conflicting stationary vehicles. You can
recognise wheels starting to turn sooner than you can recognise other
movements.

* Tell your friends.

<ends>



Notes for editors
=================

Our web pages on the issue:
http://www.smidsy.org.uk or
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/smidsy.html
(includes full copies of Bike Magazine article from 2004)

New article in The Times today:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/ ... 14,00.html

Bike Magazine and Safe Speed joint PRs from 2004:
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/pr134.html
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/pr136.html

Exclusive copy of University of Minnesota report:
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/minnesota001.pdf
(Totally unreported in the UK until today)

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