January 21, 2013 9:00 am In much of Europe and the UK, everyone
must be tested for blind spots in their vision. But in the
United States, that’s not the case. And, it turns out, drivers
with blind spots are bad news for pedestrians. A recent study
found that drivers with blind spots were more likely to hit
pedestrians and less able to respond to hazardous situations.
Reuters Health reports: As the drivers travelled at 30 miles per
hour (mph) on a city course and 60 mph on a country course,
pedestrians appeared about once per minute on each side of the
road. Drivers honked the horn to indicate they had seen the
pedestrian. People with blind spots were slower to honk the horn
compared to people with normal vision, and were slowest when the
pedestrian appeared in their blind spot than elsewhere,
according to results published in JAMA Ophthalmology. This isn’t
that surprising, since someone with a blind spot, by definition,
can’t see the pedestrian that falls in that blind spot. But in
the United States these peo