Where are the vehicle blind spots? How to avoid them?

Recently, a traffic accident occurred at the 1847 km section of G76 Xiarong Expressway in Luzhou City, Sichuan Province. A medium-sized ordinary passenger car and a heavy semi-trailer tractor rear-ended each other, resulting in a total of 5 deaths.

Good travel habits can avoid most traffic accidents. How to avoid large vehicles such as semi-trailers, trucks, buses, etc. when encountering them on the road?

How to avoid collision with the "big guy"?

▲Be careful when overtaking

If you need to overtake the vehicle in front, you should first drive about 100 meters away, then choose a road with a wide field of vision, honk the horn to give warnings, and observe whether the vehicle is swaying left or right. After confirming it is safe, you can step on the accelerator to overtake quickly.

▲Change lanes in time

If you find yourself being followed by a large vehicle, you should change lanes immediately to keep a safe distance. If the vehicle behind you honks or flashes its headlights frequently, there is probably something wrong, so it is best to avoid it as soon as possible.

Large vehicles are taller and heavier, which results in larger blind spots and longer braking distances, which is also an important cause of traffic accidents. Which areas belong to the blind spots of vehicles? How to avoid blind spots?

Where exactly is the “fatal blind spot” of large vehicles?

The blind spot of a vehicle refers to the area that the driver cannot directly observe when the driver is in the normal driving position and his vision is blocked by the vehicle body. Any vehicle has a blind spot. The wider and taller the vehicle body, the larger the range of the blind spot.

Image source: Fujian Fire Department

There is such a large blind spot when the vehicle is stationary, and it is even more dangerous when it is moving↓

There are "blind spots" in front, behind, left and right

Pay special attention to this "crescent area"
1. Inner wheel difference blind spot: When a vehicle turns, the difference in turning radius between the front inner wheel and the rear inner wheel is the inner wheel difference. This area presents a crescent-shaped blind spot because the movement trajectories of the front and rear wheels of the vehicle do not overlap.

Compared with ordinary cars, large trucks and lorries have a larger inner wheel difference when turning, making it more difficult for pedestrians to avoid them.

2. A-pillar blind spot: When the vehicle turns, the left and right A-pillars will block the line of sight, which may affect the observation of pedestrians and non-motor vehicles in front of the left and right sides.

Image source: Kunshan Traffic Police

3. Overtaking blind spot: When overtaking, the rear vehicle’s vision will be blocked by the front vehicle, and it may not be able to see the oncoming vehicle. Especially when overtaking a large vehicle, the overtaking blind spot is larger.

How to avoid accidents caused by vehicle blind spots?

Before getting on the vehicle, check the surrounding area to see if there are any obstacles and the distance between the vehicle and the obstacles.

Before driving, look around more often instead of just looking forward. Adjust your sitting posture appropriately to expand your field of vision and minimize your blind spots.

When turning, reversing, or parking, you must drive slowly, keep your foot on the brake, pay close attention to the surrounding situation, and get out of the car to check clearly before proceeding to the next step if necessary.

If the A-pillar blocks your view when you turn, try to move your body forward and backward to clearly observe the conditions in the blind spot of the A-pillar.