Second serious thread *SORRY MATE I DIDN'T SEE YOU*

[1200Pete]

Sorry mate I didn't see you.........

Sound familiar, it's got to be the bikers nightmare. But I have found a very good reason why people pull out on bikes, cars, busses etc.

Glasses, yup glasses, spectacles the very things that are supposed to help you see things better, can actually make you lethal on the road.

My father pointed this out to me. He is in his late 60's and has ridden bikes and driven cars fast for his whole life, he was a despatch rider in the army when he was younger and went on to become a test driver for Ford Motor Company, his driving and riding has always been second to none.

He has obviously slowed down somewhat now, but about 3 years ago he started pulling out on people, not on a regular basis but every now and again, and he could not work out how he failed to see the other car.

Well I never realised this but if you wear glasses and look out of the corner of your eye the lens and the frame create an enormous blind spot.
Any way he is telling me this in a carpark and hands me his glasses so I try it out and feck me an entire transit parked sideways just disappeared.

I find this utterly and totally un believable that nothing to my knowledge has ever been said about this, no drivers have ever been warned or even made aware of this frightening phenomenon.

I must stress that this seems to be a bit more of a problem in older drivers as they can't move there neck so far and therefore tend to look out the corner of there eye.

The other scary bit is the brain seems to make up for the big bit of the picture that is missing, it is not something you notice unless you consciously look for what ever is missing.




8l1nd 8l1nd 8l1nd

 

[Jaws]

Another thing that causes serious blind spots ( in fact a sort of tunnel vision ) is glaucoma.
Now you may think thats a pretty stupid thing to say as surely folk would know they were suffering from the condition..
Not true..
My father only found out when he was reversing a fork truck ( at Fords Dagenham.. ) Almighty crash cos be backed into a big steel post !
As it is something that is in the genes I get free eye tests every two years and also do have to do a self test every month or so.. If the condition is caught in the early stages it can be treated by drops, otherwise surgery.. But yes, it too has the same affect of a huge ( and un-noticed ) blind spot..
Be careful out there kids.. Ride as if every fooker is blind or homicidal and you MAY survive !

 

[ianrobbo1]

Very relevant Pete and John, my ol woman has glycoma, and I also have free eye tests, I also do self testing, and wear glasses,

The point about the glasses is relevant in that a lot of older people tend to like the ''thicker framed'' types, like the mike myers type, as they seem happier with stuff from ''that time period''
I try and wear spec's with a thin frame, to reduce the risk of the ''blind spot'' that definatly does exist, hopefully I wont be one of the ''sorry mates'' brigade,:bow:

 

[Gatso shy]

Blind Spot

good point Pete

Though try driving a Citroen Picasso

entire towns disappear in my door pillars,

real dodgy at the mid sized roundabouts

this country is covered in.....


I wonder if insurance co's have data on which

model vehicles are involved in, oop's didn't see you accidents

 

[PeteXX]

I wear glasses and have always found them a problem on the bike - I can't do lifesavers properly because I either see the frame of the side of my helmet. So I always wear contacts when I am on the bike - problem solved!

 

[1200Pete]

PeteXX, when I was a riding instructor a lot of students had problems with the contact lense drying out. Do you suffer from this ?

 

[PeteXX]

No not at all - in fact they dry out less on the bike than they do in a normal enviroment, possibly due to air flow? I wear the disposable type and maybe thats why - I have never worn the other type.

 

[Bob Pinder]

Pete

I've worn them for years especially for riding with no probs at all.
The trick is to close the visor occassionally

 

[dpbxx]

I wonder?

Does this blindspot occur with sunglasses as well?
If it does then we're all in deep shit all of the time:dunno:

 

[1200Pete]

I wondered that too, obviously there is a blind spot, but maybe the brain notices it because it's black :dunno:

As I said before, it does seem to be a worse scenario if your neck movement is restricted, I think even if you look out the corner of your eye and turn your head what ever is in the blind spot is going to appear as your head moves.
If you cant move your head then it will stay in the blind spot long enough for you to look away again and miss it.
That's my two penneth anyway

 

[Judge Dredd]

Sunglasses are

just as bad. I have a pair of aviators with thin rims and they just about cope with a blind spot. Anything thicker and you have the same problem as ordinary glasses. I have a problem with looking right so it makes me very aware of what i might miss so i always look twice........... even then I have missed something.

 

[reefer]

pete..
have you though about taking this up with the right people..or at least trying with them..seems like a damm good point and one that should be tackled by the correct bodys etc
MAG might be a good place to start at:dunno:

 

[mikew]

glasses ..........

I wear them all the time, have done since snapper years, and because of this blind spot thing, I don?t wear them at all when I?m riding or driving. (or buying bikes apparently , kylie and my present piece of clapped out shite, fooking big end and mains failure ! )

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only joking !

But I can honestly say that I?ve never had a problem with this blind spot thing, but then when I buy new glasses, I make sure that they are suitable for wearing under a lid AND not creating this blind spot problem in the first place.




(and if there is any typos in this, it?s because german keyboards are laid out differentlz!!!)

 

[1200Pete]

But you are probably able to move your head too ?

 

[T.C]

An area of sight problems that is increasing but very little is done about it, is depth perception. Nothing wrong with the eyesight as such, simply that the sufferer cannot percieve distances so that something very close actually appears further away than it is.

The test is easy to do and easily treated, but many riders and drivers are unaware of the problem. It is something that is worth having checked next time you are at the optician.

I am getting an increasing number of crashes coming in where this seems to be a significant cause of the collision!

 

[Gatso shy]

Vision...

Re vision

One area I have really noticed deterioration is night driving,


I'm sure,..... when I was younger I could see into the dark

unlit areas away from headlight beam,.....now it's just DARK

or am I just more..... careful / nervous

 

[1200Pete]

Nah just Blinkered :f :}

 

[Gatso shy]

Is that you

I can't SEE is that YOU PETE...........Pardon