smidsy - maybe they really didnt see you

[lazarus]

Like many other bikers I have had a SMIDSY - shorthand for an accident where the car driver says " Sorry Mate I Didn't See You". And like many bikers I have thought *****!!!!! idiot wasnt bothering to look. So it was very interesting to read a magazine article that explained why car drivers might well not have seen us despite looking. And for those who dont ride bikes, this applies to cars as well.

The article was in the IAM magazine ( cue - sneers) written by an RAF pilot named John Sullivan. Thanks John - I hope you dont mind me repeating what I think is an important piece of writing.

I summarise because the article was long:

1/ Your peripheral vision isn't good - just 20 degrees away from your sight line our visual acuity is 90% reduced

2/ When we move our head and eyes to scan a scene, approaching a roundabout for example, our eyes are incapable of moving smoothly across that scene and seeing everything. Instead they move in a series of jumps called saccades with very short pauses in between and its only in these pauses that the brain processes an image. During the jumps your brain blocks the images which is why you never see the same blurred picture when moving your head that you might see looking steadily out of a train window.

3/ Unless you have locked on to a moving object your eyes are incapable of moving smoothly across a scene. They jump and pause. Experiments have shown that its even impossible to see a flash of light if it occurs during one of these jumps / saccades. Your brain blanks it.

4/ What this means when driving is that if you move your head left and right to look for oncoming traffic you cannot guarantee that you have seen all the traffic that is there. Its entirely possible for you to have missed a vehicle during one of the saccades, and more likely for this to happen if that vehicle has a small cross section like a bike or cycle. The faster you move your head the more likely a miss.

5/ what makes this worse is that research has shown that we tend not to look near the edges of a framed scene ie the edges of the windscreen, leading to an even bigger saccade past the windscreen pillar and a greater chance of missing something altogether.

If you have read this far then you might be interested in what you might do to minimise this issue.

1/ Slow down as you approach a roundabout, not for any pious reason but because changing speed generates relative movement against a vehicle you might be on a collision course with and makes you more likely to see it. I guess the same would apply to speeding up but the IAM would never dare recommend this!

2/ Look right and left methodically focussing each time on 3 different spots - close middle distance and far. This helps over ride the natural limitations of your brain.

3/ Look left and right twice - doubles your chances and avoids the edge of windscreen effect.

4/ Passing a junction look at the head of the driver at the junction. If it stops and centres on you he has seen you - if it sweeps past, he hasnt.

45% of all motorcycling accident occur at T or staggered junctions. Many might be SMIDSY accidents and the driver really might not have seen you.

[D-Rider]

I think it likely that when I was smidsyd the driver didn't see me. It transpired he was blind in the eye in the direction from which I approached.

His conduct from my view was entirely consistent with him having seen me up until the point where his subsequent action was within the zone in which I couldn't stop. Although I took action to avoid him, he just kept on coming until the inevitable happened.

Basically he hadn't moved his head far enough to look ...... so don't think that because their head appears to be looking your way they have seen you - the eye that side might not function.

So, besides all of the info Lazarus has provided, be aware that they DO let blind people drive on the public highway and those with only one working eye might not see you if they also don't bother to look properly - and of course, without binocular vision, will not be capable of properly perceiving distance and rate of approach.

.... oh, and when they do hit you, the police might decide not to prosecute them for dangerous or careless driving on the grounds that they had assumed you weren't badly hurt (reference another recent discussion suggesting the actual consequences have no bearing ...... clearly not in this case)
.... oh, the police might also fail to take any contact details of any of the numerous witnesses despite the fact you can't do that yourself whilst in pain in the back of an ambulance being carted off to hospital.

Yes - Lazarus' basic message is spot on - you have to look out for yourself.

[Falcopops]

Yup, seen this info before and it was from a pilot too.

They are taught (apparently) to scan and rescan to avoid missing anything due to the eye/brain trickery.

[BikerGran]

4/ Passing a junction look at the head of the driver at the junction. If it stops and centres on you he has seen you - if it sweeps past, he hasnt.

That may be true for pilots but it certainly wasn't true of the idiot who knocked me off my little bike years ago! Or if it was, then he was aiming for me!

[Firestarter]

Don't disagree with any of the statements, but there's one thing that all of it points to. Driving without due care and attention. If you haven't taken the time to really confirm there's nothing there, then you're negligent at best, dangerous at worst.

[HisNibbs]

Assume nothing. They are out to get you but have to catch you first. I think on the same basis as Lasarus's points I have been advised not only to alter speed but to change direction as that generates relative movement which is more readily picked up by the eye.

I'm looking for eye contact, wheel and even hand and shoulder movements etc. Seriously if they can get you that's your problem, so best consider it your fault too.

[D-Rider]

etc. Seriously if they can get you that's your problem, so best consider it your fault too.

..... but maybe not something you'd choose to suggest to your insurance company .....

[HisNibbs]

etc. Seriously if they can get you that's your problem, so best consider it your fault too.

..... but maybe not something you'd choose to suggest to your insurance company .....

No but alive, that choice will be yours.

[D-Rider]

etc. Seriously if they can get you that's your problem, so best consider it your fault too.

..... but maybe not something you'd choose to suggest to your insurance company .....

No but alive, that choice will be yours.

Absolutely - I've always had that attitude too

[fatboy]

Only just read this, interesting and makes sense, thanks Lazarus !
Has to disagree with Nibbs though (assume nothing), i assume they all want to kill me.
Note to self, look at training to sharpen up skills