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IIHS calls for elimination of rear blind spots in future cars
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Some luxury cars, like this 2010 Lexus RX350, have a rearview
camera with an in-dash screen that eliminates its rear blind spot.
Well-designed mirrors and windows should combine with cameras and sensors to eliminate rearview blind spots, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said Tuesday.
Dozens of young children are killed and thousands more injured every year when they wander into the blind spot of a reversing car, the IIHS said.
The nonprofit IIHS -- which is funded by the insurance industry -- is lobbying the federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to prevent any new cars from being sold that have any spot behind them that cannot be seen by a driver or detected by a sensor.
IIHS’s experience with rearview video systems and the data presented by NHTSA suggest that, when these systems are used in combination with better vehicle designs, there is no theoretical reason to accept a blind spot of any size. We strongly urge the agency to seriously consider a requirement that would eliminate entirely a backing driver’s rear blind spots.
While an increasing number of expensive luxury cars have cameras that offer an uninterrupted view behind the vehicle, the systems are expensive and are rarely offered on cars that don't already have an in-dash screen for a navigation system. (A few more mainstream cars offer sensors that beep if drivers back too close to an object, but the IIHS and NHTSA have said they are not very effective unless they are used along with rather than instead of a rearview camera.)
But with windows and mirrors shrinking in the name of style, many new cars suffer from poor rear visibility unaided by these expensive electronics. Large SUVs and pickup trucks are especially vulnerable, according to a report from Consumer Reports magazine last year, but even many passenger cars have large blind spots.
A 5'1'' driver of a Jeep Commander SUV cannot see a 28-inch traffic cone set up closer than 69 feet from the back of the car, Consumer Reports said, and even the best cars leave a distance of five feet or more behind the car invisible from the driver's seat. Rearview cameras with a lens on the bumper, back hatch, or trunk lid show the entire ground area.
NHTSA is already considering some regulation for rear blind spots but does not seem to be planning anything as drastic as the IIHS proposal.
NHTSA visibility specialist David Hines in the agency's Office of Crash Avoidance Standards did not return a phone call seeking comment.
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