12 Kolkata: Lalbazar has asked all traffic guards to conduct special awareness sessions on blind spots for two-wheeler riders and pedestrians. Almost 28% of all road fatalities, especially those involving pedestrians and two-wheelers, are victims of blind spots, said police, adding that next, they planned to sensitize bikers on the importance of lane-driving.
Blind spots are locations around a moving vehicle that cannot be viewed in the side or rear-view mirrors and are outside the driver's field of vision. They are usually to the left of large vehicles or immediately in front.
South Guard has already conducted such a blind spot awareness drive at the J&N Island at the Kidderpore Road-Outram Road-Red Road junction. "I have heard about blind spots vaguely, but this was the first time I was asked to climb into a bus driver's cabin. In there, I realised I could not see what lay immediately ahead of me. You don't realise the risk until you sit in the bus driver's seat," said Hassan Khurshid, a resident of Shibpur. "This is a lesson I will not forget in a hurry," said another rider, Md Imran, from Phoolbagan.
"Once they took the driver's seat, they realised the risk of overtaking from the left, near a vehicle's wheels," said a South Traffic Guard officer.
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