Beware of Blind Spots

Driving safely requires you to pay attention to a lot of things at the same time. Keeping your eyes on the road is about more than just not looking at your phone while your car’s transmission is in drive, and it does not simply mean looking straight ahead of you for the whole trip. Yes, the road ahead of you is important, but in order to make correct judgments about when it is safe to accelerate, slow down, turn, or change lanes, you must also periodically check your rearview mirror and your sideview mirrors. Positioning your mirrors correctly and looking at them at the right intervals and from the correct angles takes practice, but when you do it successfully, you can see when a car is in your blind spot; therefore, you can avoid the risk of a collision that would have happened if you had not seen the car. A Houma car accident lawyer can help you if you have been injured because the at-fault driver did not see you in the car’s blind spot.

How to See Your Own Car’s Blind Spots and Avoid Driving in Someone Else’s

Perhaps the term “blind spot” is a misnomer. They are more like “not visible from here” spots. A blind spot is any area near the car that you cannot see from your current position because your car’s frame or the windshield mount of the rearview mirror is in the way. All you have to do to see the blind spot is move your body slightly in the driver’s seat so that you are looking in your rearview mirror or side view mirrors from a different angle. Blind spots are less of a problem when you are reversing, but most cars in recent model years have rear-facing cameras; in the old days, they caused many rookie drivers to flunk their driver’s license tests.

Commercial trucks have much bigger blind spots, which is one of many reasons that the licensing process to drive a truck is much more complex. Driving in a truck’s blind spot is so dangerous that most trucks have signs that say, “If you can’t see my mirrors, I can’t see you.”

How Do Blind Spots Affect Fault in Louisiana Car Accidents?

The police and insurance companies will investigate each accident to determine which driver is at fault or how to apportion the fault between both drivers. In most accidents involving blind spots, the driver who did not notice the other car in his or her blind spot is at fault. Passing through another car’s blind spot is not considered unsafe driving; it is often inevitable. If you intentionally lingered in another vehicle’s blind spot, however, this could count against you.

Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey About Car Accidents

A car accident lawyer can help you recover your accident-related financial losses after a car accident caused by one car driving in another car’s blind spot. Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey in Houma, Louisiana, to set up a consultation about your case.

 

Sources

https://www.aarp.org/auto/driver-safety/vehicles-mirrors-blind-spots/