Expert Analysis of Visibility from the Drivers Seat of М1 Vehicles

Abstract

The total number of automobiles in Russia currently equals 55 mln., 45 mln. of which are passenger cars. Although the number of traffic accident is going down year by year, the problem remains very urgent, the number of people killed in such accidents is over 16 th., and the number of injured — 190 th. One of the most common types of traffic accidents is accidents with pedestrians, which happen through the fault of drivers or the pedestrians themselves. The conducted analysis made it possible to establish the influence of visibility from the driver’s seat in modern vehicles of М1 category on this type of traffic accidents. The analysis of visibility from the driver’s seat, specifically determining the angles of blind spots formed by the pillars of front windows, was done for one of the flagship Japanese models Toyota Land Cruiser 200. Research showed that the angle of blind spots formed by the front pillars of the bodies of a number of modern cars can exceed the value set by the Russian state standard (GOST) by 30 %. It is recommended to conduct an investigative experiment to assess the visibility from the driver’s seat when examining the circumstances of road accidents with pedestrians.