After a lot of pedestrian accidents, drivers will simply claim that they never saw the person. They may even say that the individual seemed to appear out of nowhere right before the crash.
If you spend a lot of time walking or jogging yourself, you know well the dangers that you face. Maybe you’ve been involved in close calls or had drivers nearly hit you when you clearly had the right of way. It’s important to understand why they might not see you or why they may feel that you appeared out of nowhere.
The entire problem may be the A-pillar
There are many reasons why a driver may not see a pedestrian, such as looking down at their phone or turning to talk to a passenger. But drivers who were looking forward as they turned may still make this claim, and the reason may be the A-pillar
Essentially, a vehicle has to have an A-pillar that runs up on the side of the front windshield. The strength of this pillar is very important. If the vehicle is involved in a rollover accident, it is this pillar that keeps the body of the vehicle from compressing the passenger compartment. It is an essential piece of safety equipment designed to reduce injuries.
Unfortunately, making this pillar stronger often means making it wider. Additionally, people don’t actually want to see the A-pillar frame in their vehicle, so automakers will make it even wider as they cover it with other materials. This makes the vehicle look nice, but it means that a lot of drivers have an area that is 6-8 inches wide that they cannot see through.
This becomes the biggest problem when the driver is making a turn. While driving forward, they have a good enough range of vision between the A-pillars, but a turn means that the pillar itself is directly in their line of vision. For this reason, some drivers do not see pedestrians who are in the crosswalk, as they are hidden by the pillar.
Have you been injured?
It’s important to understand how this happens so that you can watch out for negligent drivers and try to avoid injury. Unfortunately, accidents are still going to occur and you can never guarantee you won’t be hurt. If you are, then you need to know about the legal steps you can take to seek compensation.