KOLKATA: City traffic cops, who have been trying to sensitize bikers on road safety, made them aware of the dangers of blind spots by asking them to sit on the driver’s seat in tractor trailers so that they could understand how difficult it was for drivers to spot bikers, despite the presence of rear-view and side-view mirrors.
On Thursday, the officers of southwest traffic guard stopped over three dozen errant bikers on the accident prone Port roads like CGR Road, Outram Road and Goragacha and made them sit behind the truck’s wheel to understand the blind spots and make them realise how they should steer clear of big trucks.
Blind spots are locations around a moving vehicle, which are outside the driver’s line of sight even through the use of mirrors. All vehicles have blind spots and depending on the kind of a vehicle, the location of a blind spot can vary. Mostly, there is a blind spot over the right or left shoulder of the driver. It is commonly an area that is blocked by a side-mirror, a pillar connecting the side windshield or items in the car. Blind spots may also be caused by the height of the driver, both taller and shorter drivers may have trouble seeing certain areas around the vehicle while at the wheel.
“If a driver cannot see a vehicle next to him, he is more likely to crash into the other vehicle when switching lanes. For the drivers of large vehicles like buses and trucks, it is impossible to spot a biker attempting to overtake from either side of the vehicle from close quarters. The same holds true for cyclists and pedestrians attempting to run across the road in front of a bus,” said an officer.
“During Covid, the usage of bikes has multiplied at an exponential rate. So, have cyclists. They need to understand how vulnerable they are on the road when it comes to large vehicles owing to the blind spots of drivers,” the officer added.
“I never knew the difficulties that drivers of buses or trucks face and I had no idea that the areas over the left and right shoulders go unnoticed. Cops made me sit at the driver’s seat and informed me about the precautions a biker needs to take while overtaking large vehicles,” said Mohammad Ayub, a food delivery boy, who was stopped by the cops on Thursday for the training.
