Blocking The View

Q: Is there a rule or law about the distance of visibility delivery trucks must leave for motorists entering a road from adjacent roads when they are parked delivering goods? I’ve encountered delivery trucks that block the view of oncoming traffic making it difficult to pull onto the highway without cutting someone off.

A: I’ll start with what I already know: Obstructed views contribute to traffic crashes. Obvious? Yes, but also supported by data. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) studied various contributing factors to collisions in intersections and confirmed what is clearly evident. But they were able to express it in a percentage. In an analysis of a nationally representative sample of 787,236 intersection collisions, turning with an obstructed view contributed to 7.8 percent of the crashes.

Continue reading “Blocking The View”