Safety Tip: Adjusting Your Side Mirrors
Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00) Written by Elizabeth Burns Friday, 18 July 2008 04:52
The other day Debbie asked me to read a safety article that she had received about an engineer named George Platter. Apparently George presented his method of adjusting your side-view mirrors to the prestigious Society of Automotive Engineers. Later, The National Safety Council tested his theory and discovered that it actually works. His method has since been fully tested and endorsed by the National Safety Council as described in their September/October issue on Traffic Safety. Here is what he recommends. The first thing that George asks you to do is forget about adjusting our outside mirrors by plopping yourself behind the steer wheel and turning the mirrors so that we can just see the side of our car looking back at us in the mirrors. Instead, adjust the driver’s side mirror by resting your head against the driver’s side window and then adjust the mirror so that you just see the side of your car. Once this is set, move to the centre of the vehicle and adjust the passenger side mirror so that you can just see the side of your car from the centre of the vehicle. That’s it! You will not see your own car in either mirror, yet what you will see is far better. Cars behind you will show up as usual in the inside rear-view mirror above the dash, but the instant the car leaves your field of vision from the rear-view mirror, the outside side-view mirror will pick it up. No more blind spots, no delays, no guessing where that car about to pass you has disappeared to, and no waiting a few seconds for the car that you just saw in your rear-view mirror to show up in one of your outside mirrors. All three of your mirrors are now working in harmony with one another, and the blind spots have been eliminated! Give this driving tip a try as we did and drive more safely. Happy motoring.... Debbie Miller & Bill Olijnyk