Defensive Driving means not driving in other drivers’ blind spots! Virtually all vehicles have blind areas—even motorcycles. (Older motorcyclists are sometimes limited in how far they can twist their head to look behind them.) Yet, every day you see some drivers habitually changing lanes without checking their blind areas for other vehicles. It’s a good idea to adjust your position relative to other traffic to stay out of other drivers’ blind spots whenever you can.
Where are your blind spots? We can teach you this in Defensive Drivingclass. It depends on the vehicle. A car typically has blind areas at the sides near the rear of the vehicle, meaning you cannot see anything in these areas by looking in your correctly-adjusted mirrors. Other vehicles may be blind to anything that is directly behind. Vehicles in which the driver sits very high may have forward-quarter blind spots—they may not be able to see anything low to the ground in front or to the sides near the front.
It is important to check your mirrors every 5 to 8 seconds while driving. We can teach you this in the Defensive Driving class. At the same time, it’s not enough just to check the mirrors. If you’ve been driving long, you already know the blind areas on most vehicles are large enough to hide other vehicles. Mirrors also will not reveal a vehicle that is changing lanes from two lanes away. Example: You are driving in the right-hand lane of a multi-lane roadway, and signal to change lanes to the left. Another vehicle in the third lane changes lanes to the right. Both of you may be trying to occupy the same place in the second lane. And it is always possible that a lane that was clear of other traffic just a second ago may quickly be occupied—traffic is often fast-moving and fluid—and empty spaces tend to fill up. It is very important to turn your head and look before making a lane change.