Near Miss of the Day 96: Driver fails to see cyclist on roundabout

Of course all of those who have never made a mistake will jump on me with abuse but I suggest you look at this report. The frequency of these problems suggest that there is some fundamental problem with how the Human brain is processing information. Not much  comfort to those who have suffered. Motorcyclists, who are a larger profile than cyclists, suffer also from SMIDSY, Sorry Mate I Didn't See You.

From personal experience I always try to look twice and it worked really well on one particular occasion . Perhaps we need the dept for transport to resurrect the adverts, look once look twice think bike?

Project: Looked But Failed To See Accident Causation Factor
Objectives
The project objectives are: to review the accident literature in order to estimate the magnitude of the problem and to investigate the types of road user and the road and traffic situations with which it is likely to be associated; to evaluate the probability that the reported problem represents a genuine psycological phenomenon of attention, perception and cognition, relative to a number of alternative predictable possibilities; and to consider whether the phenomenon, if genuine, is researchable and, if so, to recommend methods by which its psychological basis may be most satisfactorily understood and appropriate countermeasures developed.

Description
In-depth surveys of road traffic accidents have shown that a number of them are attributed to one or more of the involved road users having looked in the appropriate direction(s) but failing to see the person or vehicle with whom/which they collided.

Evidence has shown that Looked but failed to see (LBFTS) accidents contributed to upwards of 10% of accidents in surveys conducted in a number of countries. The problem is seen to be important and researchable. Recommendations are made for ways of improving the quality of LBFTS data from the contributory factors system and for on-raod and laboratory studies aimed at identifying training and engineering countermeasures against the phenomenon.

they may have looked, but they have failed to move their heads to clear that massive blindspot caused by the door pillar...

I have a roundabout I use occasionally which is simmilar to this, exactly the same problem, you're constantly on the lookout for cars entering at sped that are not going to stop. a few times I've been forced to brake and giveway to cars entering, otherwise they'd drive straight into me.

@OldMixte

"Of course all of those who have never made a mistake will jump on me with abuse but I suggest you look at this report. The frequency of these problems suggest that there is some fundamental problem with how the Human brain is processing information."

Not going to "jump on with abuse", but the logical conclusion from this is that humans are unsuited to operating motor vehicles and so we should ban them from roads. Is that what you meant?

'Looked but failed to see (LBFTS)'

Like that 

 There is no doubt that in some of these near misses, the driver just didn't register the cyclist at all, as opposed to seeing and registering the cyclist, but still carrying out a dangerous maneuvre. 

Old Mixte - I have to believe that some of this is due to the rapidly accelerating evolution of laziness. You (and the report) are correct in terms of many of these incidents not being drivers deliberately ignoring the cyclist, though we have all also experienced these.

I do believe though that with the modern car, comfy seats, entertainment system, lane sensors et al. people feel so damn safe and are essentially travelling on their very high speed sofa. They would see it if it was a lorry because it is a huge threat. People are literally glanicing right and accellerating to ensure they get their piece of tarmac as quickly as possible.

If it can be proven that people are incapable of looking properly and this new attitude doesn't change, then the infrastructure needs changing. Nope, not cycle lanes. Halve all speed limits, make roundabouts a solid stop line, same with junctions. Anyone not coming to a complete halt on a junction or roundabout before executing a monouvere gets 6 points.

Easy.

To Alan, it wouldn't have helped in this situation but a tip I picked up from here, and an expensive bottle cage light, is genius. I now have a clear bottle in one of my cages with a pound shop light in the bottom, can even stick one to the underside of the lid. The impact is significant and very noticeable from a variety of angles, particularly good for the side on blind spot!

Well it's humans who cause traffic accidents. A common cause at roundabouts is for drivers to check to their right, see nothing is coming and move off but unfortunately the guy in front of them didn't move and you get a collision.

Every time a human does something there is a risk, the trick is to minimise the risk or effects. As to moving your head around a screen pillar, in my bog standard family car the only way to do that is to get out of the seat, so I don't understand that comment.

As I suggested, the best way seems to be look twice. If a cyclist is obscured by a screen pillar or another vehicle the time separation would probably reveal it. Perhaps people should fail the driving test if they don't look twice.

I have spent most of my working life doing root cause analysis and as soon as you see a cluster there is usually a common problem.

Unfortunately people do make mistakes, sometime the results are devastating.

There is some validity in what you say OP, it was mentioned in this item http://road.cc/content/news/235330-new-research-finds-many-drivers-reall...

However, I do find it a little alarming the number of drivers who drive up to junctions and roundabouts at speed. I am always wondering if they are going to pull out on me and also why the hell are they driving so fast and reducing their ability to determine if anyone is coming.

That particular roundabout has only been two lanes on approach for a couple of years, and most traffic is straight through (the road the cyclist emerged from is a dead-end service road, and the exit immediately before he joins the cycle path goes to a security controlled dock gate and hotel car park). As a result the default driver behaviour (if you're familiar with the roundabout) is to proceed rather than check. Made worse because its one of those with a low profile cobbled outer ring to the central island which allows the boy racers to imagine they're kissing the kerbs through the swimming pool chicane at Monaco.

I used to drive it every day and its pretty rare for traffic to be approaching from the right there - you're either heading to the dock gate or are going all the way round to head back the way you came. As a driver I've had a similar near miss there, people just don't look.

Quote:

OldMixte wrote:

As I suggested, the best way seems to be look twice. If a cyclist is obscured by a screen pillar or another vehicle the time separation would probably reveal it. Perhaps people should fail the driving test if they don't look twice.

conditions for a collision are constant bearing, reducing range...

as that vehicle swung in on the super 'swoopy' curved entrance to the roundabout, the vehicle was turning to the left, meanwhile, the cyclist was also moving and no doubt, due to the design of our roundabouts to maximise vehicular traffic, remain obscured by the car's door pillar...

It's up to the driver, to move his head when looking, to see around the pillar...

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=313894

https://www.drivingtesttips.biz/driving-test-tutorials/a-pillar-blind-sp...

And slow, and look earlier, and not assume because the car on the inside went a few moments before that it is safe!

I could be wrong but I don't think it was a SMIDSY or due to an A pillar as the cyclist light was quite eye catching and spread over an area greater than a pillar (the camera probably doesn't show how good the light was).  It was a case of 'Its only a cyclist IDGAF'

I was always taught to expect to have to stop at a roundabout. The practise these days seems to be to approach the roundabout anticipating NOT to have to stop. That’s what makes stopping seem difficult to these idiot drivers.

Some people truly suck at roundabouts. I've had that exact same near miss several times this year already, on bike, motorbike and even car. Some people just don't seem to look properly and it ends up with these interactions.

I keep swearing that one of these days I'm gonna equip my - still valuable on paper but with odd mechanical problems - car with a dashcam and get it written off by one of these idiots, safe in the knowledge that I won't have to accept a 50:50 split.

 " as the cyclist light was quite eye catching and spread over an area greater than a pillar (the camera probably doesn't show how good the light was). "

My general observation is that a flashing light is much better than a steady one

From

https://www.drivingtesttips.biz/driving-test-tutorials/a-pillar-blind-sp...

"As seen, a motorcycle and cyclist are easily be hidden within the A-pillar blind spots. A small car can even be concealed within the blind spots. Pulling out of a junction without properly looking can easily result in a collision."

"Take effective observation – allow for enough time to look at least twice in each direction. "

http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/expect

"However, I do find it a little alarming the number of drivers who drive up to junctions and roundabouts at speed"

Having taught my kids in the last few years to drive. I taught them to stop at junctions,. look and move off when clear. The first child only just passed due to hesitation. The second child had some lessons and it became obvious that the instructions from the instructor, were all about keeping momentum at junctions, don't stop unless absolutely necessary. I then spoke with several parents of kids taking their test. They all commented the same surprise. I was never taught this keep rolling method, just too dangerous and easy to miss small objects like cyclists pedestrians etc.

Quote:

Of course all of those who have never made a mistake will jump on me with abuse but I suggest you look at this report. The frequency of these problems suggest that there is some fundamental problem with how the Human brain is processing information. Not much  comfort to those who have suffered. Motorcyclists, who are a larger profile than cyclists, suffer also from SMIDSY, Sorry Mate I Didn't See You.

Yes, it's called being a selfish twat.

That is the onkly way I can describe the truck driver on this afternoon's drive home. Wide road, cars parked either side and comfortable for cars to pass on each carriageway. Anything larger should, IMHO, wait in order to proceed safely. This twat obviously had a fundamental problem in that he couldn't see 1500-2000kg vehicle heading towards him, he probably had a fundamental failure when he didn't see my headlights and had a fundamental failure when he broke the speed limit.

No, he was a selfish twat who drives like a twat because he's in a truck and probably will get away with it until he has a collision (it won't be an accident), at that point he'll be safe in the knowlege that he can pull the SMIDSY card, fully supported by people saying it's a fundamental problem with how the human brain processes information.

For the love of god! Driving is a full time occupation, and if you think that you mind has a fundamental flaw, I suggest that you give up your fucking licence.