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What are blind spots? There are two different types of blindspots. Vehicle blindspots where the pillars of your vehicle block areas outside your vehicle from your field of vision and the second type of blindspot is Mirror Blindspot which are the areas outside your vehicle that you cannot see in your mirrors
Always be aware of these blindspots and compensate for them. Moving your head slightly will compensate for the front two pillars. A simple exercise to show how much a pillar of a car can block from your view, is to go outside, hold your thumb up in front of you at arms length and then close one eye and open it again.
To compensate for the side and rear pillar blindspots look over your left and right shoulders ( Chin over shoulder or as I say C OutSide ).This does not mean you must be looking around all the time, remember, your eyes need to be ahead on the road so, check appropriate blindspots for the situation you are in at the time. For example, you've got back into your car at the car park and intend on moving off, check all around just before moving out of the space.
When moving off, merging with traffic and changing lane remember, to check back to the appropriate blindspot. For example when moving over to the right check your right blindspot and left when moving over to the left.( Chin over Shoulder, C OutSide ) There's a very simple exercise that I do with all of my students which helps show where the right and left mirror blindspots are; park your car on the left side of the road in a safe and legal place. I generally do this on the hard shoulder. Look in your right exterior/wing mirror and watch the next vehicle coming up on the road in your mirror. When the vehicle is almost starting to pass your car, it will not be visible in your mirror.
You must check your blindspot JUST BEFORE you move. If you check it too early anything could have happened between the time you checked it and the time you move. If you check it as you move or after you have moved it is too late. Remember you are checking the blindspot to ensure it is safe to move.
