Approximately more than 85% of vehicle crashes in South Africa can be attributed to human error, less than 10% to vehicle factors and the remaining 5% to environmental factors. In some instances these divisions seem to align with one another and necessitate an even greater responsibility from the driver of the vehicle.
A regular visitor to the Arrive Alive website sent an email with photos –illustrating the risks presented by a swarm of locusts in the Free State. These risks are brought about by environmental factors and impacts directly on the windscreen of the vehicle. Failure to drive slower and to stop and have the windscreen cleaned would be a driver error threatening the safety of all road users!
The driver of a vehicle needs to remember that the basic rule is simple –If you cannot see, you cannot drive. When a driver appears in court on a charge of culpable homicide, it will not be a valid defense to say “I could not see!”, as the driver should have stopped immediately and not kept on driving.
I would like to refer to a small part on the Arrive Alive website about the dangers of damaged windscreens:
What are the dangers posed by damaged windscreens?
- drivers may take longer to re-adapt their vision following exposure to the stray light effects created through a worn windscreen (”dazzling”).
- detection distances to objects on the road ahead may be reduced when looking through worn windscreens.
- the contrast of objects on the road ahead may be reduced – the consequence of which could be a reduction of visibility distances.
- dirty windscreens seemed to cause drivers to crash twice as often in a driving simulator (as compared to driving with a new windscreen) and when driving with a degraded windscreen, drivers reaction times to a secondary task may be slowed.
- driving with a visually degraded windscreen induces fatigue and performance declines more rapidly than when driving with a non-degraded windscreen.
- older drivers might find worn out windscreens to be even more debilitating compared with younger drivers.
We would like to urge all road users to pay close attention to vehicle maintenance and not to neglect the windscreen as very important part of vehicle and road safety! Rather have the windscreen cleaned or enquire whether you can claim from your car insurance to have a damaged windscreen repaired or replaced. This small effort on your side could help avoid the loss of lives or vehicle damage later!
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Tags: car accident, winscreen