Imagine driving down this road. What if a vehicle appears from left, and turns right across your path? How soon will you see it? And when will the driver see you…

…if he or she sees you at all?

Junction collisions – the so-called SMIDSY ‘Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You’ crash are the most common accidents involving motorcycles AND cars. Yes, drivers get it wrong in front of other cars too!

And even more alarmingly, many riders and drivers fail to spot the developing collision until too late.

Why? Isn’t it easy to scan a junction? Unfortunately, the process doesn’t work in the ways most of us think. And so we ALL make errors which lead to the so-called ‘Looked But Failed To See’ (LBFTS) error.

Here’s the bad news. We’ve been investigating this driving error for over half a century, and whilst the research papers have a very good grasp of just how we all scan junctions, little of that work has filtered down into road safety and rider education. Many of us still firmly believe that if a driver didn’t see the bike (or even another car) then that driver “didn’t look properly”.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

This in-depth presentation from Kevin Williams, creator of the ‘Science Of Being Seen’ project aims to show just how drivers and riders alike acquire visual information which informs us about the world outside the windscreen or visor.

Howard A – “…you were the only person who was giving strategic advice
on avoiding becoming a casualty and made a Despatch Rider from 1978 to 1985
think outside of the box. It’s all about avoiding those nasty accidents.”

Wednesday’s evenings LIVE ONLINE TALK will focus on how the brain makes use of the intersection of:

:: peripheral vision
:: involuntary eye movements
:: eye movement planning

to gain a better understanding of how road users visual attention , and identify just how visual data acquisition can break down thanks to phenomena such as motion camouflage and saccadic eye movements, leading to the LBFTS error.

I’ll conclude with some pro-active strategies for identifying situations where this driver error is likely, and what the rider can do to minimise the risks.

WEDNESDAY 8 JUNE 2022 AT 20:00 Tickets cost £5

BOOK AT: https://survivalskills.tidyhq.com/public/schedule/events

DESPITE ITS IMPORTANCE TO ALL BIKERS, SOBS RECEIVES NO FUNDING and all research, writing and webhosting is paid for out of my own pocket. All income from presentation tickets and book sales is ploughed back into the project. Buy a ticket and you’re helping not just yourself but every other biker who wants to know more about the SMIDSY collision. Thanks in advance.

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