Pickup Trucks

A substantial amount of accidents that happen on UK roads and motorways occur due to drivers being unaware of how close other vehicles are to their own. Often these accidents happen as a result of a sudden change of direction. Typically this will be at road crossings, junctions, and roundabouts. These accidents can be fatal if they involve larger vehicles such as Lorries or HGV’s. It is in this instance that Traffic Mirrors really come into their own as a life saver. Traffic Mirrors are most useful where you have little visibility of oncoming traffic, blind bends or traffic that is pulling out of side roads.

Here are some of the most dangerous situations where a traffic mirrors could be a vital instrument in preventing a potentially serious of fatal road accident…

Driveways – Pulling out of a driveway means that not only can you (the driver) not see the oncoming traffic, the oncoming traffic itself cannot see you pulling out

Concealed Entrance – One of the most common causes of an accident is it a concealed entrance, therefore it is imperative to install a traffic mirror here.

Crossroads – If you have a set of crossroads in a built up area, you might no be able to see what is around the corner.

Traffic mirrors can be found on orthodox road vehicles as well. They can be attached to the main side mirrors and provide a sharper reflection of what is behind you, being especially useful for seeing cars in the so called “blind spot”. A “blind spot” is when another vehicle is so close to you, possibly about to overtake you, that they go out of the view of the main side mirror.

The information above demonstrates that traffic mirrors can be an extremely useful device in helping prevent accidents, however nothing can beat good awareness and vigilance.

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Did you know that each yeah over 1.2 million people across the globe die as a result of an accident on the roads.  That equates to around 3,000 deaths per day of which 17% are minors.  In addition to these fatality figures a further fifty million sustain injuries as a result of a road accident, a third of which are seriously injured.

And it’s not just the emotional cost that is brought to bare, it has been estimated that the financial cost globally of road traffic accidents is $518 billion.  Low and medium income countries make up a disproportionate amount of the total injuries and fatalities – 85%
One way to help prevent deaths and injuries occurring is through the effect use of mirrors.  There are a number of different mirrors that can aid in road accident prevention. 

Firstly there are traffic mirrors which are usually placed either on tight bends or in areas where you cannot easily see if a vehicle is emerging, for example a fast moving stretch of road. Country roads are notorious for accidents as they tend to be built much narrower than conventional roads, as well as having a greater number of twists and turns.  At night, the headlights become the safety mechanism, but during the day traffic mirrors can literally be a life safer.

Secondly there are driveway mirrors which, as the name suggests, should be installed on a driveway or any area where manoeuvring a vehicle might be difficult. They are sometimes just referred to as convex mirrors.

With a wider global usage of road safety mirrors it is likely that the number of injuries and deaths could be substantially reduced.  Perhaps this would not be affordable for lower income countries but for the developed world the cost of installing a road safety mirror would be relatively small.

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Technorati Tags: mirrors, road, safety