It goes without saying, roads are a dangerous place and nowhere more so than the roads in and around Lincolnshire. Failure to pay due attention when driving can be fatal. We expect all of our colleagues, both working directly with Triton Knoll and our contractors to always drive safely, attentively and always obey the rules of the road.
... involved in the crash with enough time to avoid the collision, even though they looked in that direction. These “looked but failed to see” errors are very common and it has been estimated that not seeing another vehicle is implicated in up to 50% of collisions. Why are we so bad at detecting other vehicles, even when we actively look for them? When we look at something, we actually only have clear vision in a small, central part of our visual field. If you hold you thumb up in front of you at arms length, our clear patch of vision is about the size of your thumbnail. Outside of this patch our vision becomes increasingly blurry. In addition to this, the way in which we move our eyes is not at all like the smooth camera we perceive. We tend to fixate our eyes on something for around a quarter to a third of a second and then move our eyes to a new location with this movement, or saccade, taking around 30-50 milliseconds. When we are moving our eyes we are, effectively, blind.
... of our visual world and these snapshots are mainly quite blurry. In reality our vision is more like a cartoon flip book where a slightly different image is shown on each page, but flipping quickly through them gives the impression that the characters are moving. In addition to being blind when our eyes move, we also have no visual input when we blink. These two factors combined mean that we are, essentially, blind nearly 20% of the time! Additionally, research has shown that drivers at a junction may only look at the road that they are merging with for less than half a second.
... official figures show. We, as a project are calling on all drivers to show more vigilance on country routes; which pose the unique risks of sharp bends and hidden hazards. A quarter of drivers have seen a near-miss collision on rural roads. One in three (35%) admit to taking a blind bend too quickly and 40% have been surprised by unexpected road users such as horse riders or agricultural vehicle. With many country roads carrying speed limits of 50 mph or 60 mph there is a real temptation for motorists to drive at the limit because they are technically allowed to do so, even if it is inappropriate because of the driving conditions or local hazards. However, you can never know what danger is looming around the next bend.
... help reinforce the message with motorists and lead to them slowing down and taking greater care in the future.
RAC research shows that 43% of motorists admit to breaking the speed 50mph and 60mph limits on country roads with 8% saying they do so frequently.
Losing control of a vehicle is the most common cause of rural road accidents, with excessive speed usually playing a role.
Drivers are nearly 11 times more likely to die in a crash on a rural road than on a motorway, with an average of three deaths every day.
It is crucial to always anticipate hidden hazards and brake before bends, as you cannot see what is around the corner.