Safe but blind?
- Published: 28/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: Brunch
According to a polular car magazine in the UK, as cars are becoming safer and stronger, drivers' views are becoming more restricted. They say that all-round visibility is generally worse than it was about 15 years ago. Car roof and door pillars have been strengthened and have grown from barely noticeable strips to thick chunks of metal.
Vehicle blind spots account for about 1% of all accidents. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents calculates that eliminating them would prevent about 25 fatal accidents each year.
In the magazine's research, the Smart For Two Coupe [sold in Thailand, but not officially] comes out top for driver's vision with a visibility score of 64.8%, aided by its lack of a B pillar (usually found between a car's front and rear doors). The Fiat 500 [yes, officially sold in Thailand] (58.7%) is second and the Citroen C3 Picasso (58.2%) [do they still sell one here?] is third. The raised driving position in the Ford Galaxy MPV (57.4%) [don't ask for it here] brings benefits for the driver's line of sight, as it does to a lesser extent in the VW Golf Plus (56.2%) [Thailand gets only the hotter conventional hatchback version].
Of the "normal" cars - not including pick-ups - sold in Thailand, I feel the Suzuki Swift and the Mini rank as two with good visibility.
At the bottom of the list, convertibles such as the Porsche Boxster (31.4%), BMW Z4 (38.7%) and Lexus IS 250C (39.4%) [all three officially sold here] rate poorly, though obviously their view improves considerably once the roof is down.
The magazine forgets to mention that's why carmakers these days - especially the luxury ones - install rear-view video cameras as standard or as an option to compensate for their poor rear visibility.
Next Sunday in Drive: Tainted tint film regulations - skin cancer shield or invisible killer?
Watch my latest car video clip on www.youtube.com/wiwatchang, suggestions and non-technical questions welcome at
Critiquesbrunchdrive@gmail.com
About the author
- Writer: Wiwat Chang
- Position: Motoring Reporter
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น