A growing problem | The Press

January 4, 2020, corner of Saint-Hubert and Bélanger, 3:38 p.m. A van driver turns left at a green light and fatally strikes pedestrian Agnes T Nguyen Thi, 74 years old. It is possible that the victim “unfortunately found himself exactly at the height of the driver’s front left blind spot”, noted the coroner, referring to the obstruction of the windshield pillar.

About an hour later, on the same January day, another collision occurred 2 km to the north, corner of Lajeunesse and Liège. A sport utility vehicle (SUV) makes a left turn and mows down Rosa Presta, 79, who was crossing on a green light. “The most probable theory of the accident […] is that the driver did not see M^me Presta in his blind spot […]having his view obstructed by the A pillar of the vehicle,” wrote a second coroner.

The increasingly robust and imposing A-pillars, or windshield pillars – some accommodate airbags – save lives. Those of drivers and passengers, for example during a rollover. On the other hand, the blind spot created by these pillars on the driver’s side is blamed for a growing number of deaths. From the summer of 2019 to the summer of 2022 in Montreal, no less than 10 coroner’s reports mentioned the obstruction of windshield pillars among the probable or proven causes of an accident causing the death of a pedestrian. , reveals a review of The Press.

During this period, 20% of investigations into vehicle-pedestrian collisions in the metropolis highlighted this visibility problem.

In nine cases, the vehicles involved were oversized: three SUVs, three vans, two trucks and a bus.

“Vehicles have never been so safe… for those inside,” notes Marie-Soleil Cloutier, road safety expert and full professor at the National Institute of Scientific Research.

The dangers associated with frontal blind spots mainly arise when a motorist turns left after a mandatory stop or at a green light shared with another road user. If both are traveling for a moment at a similar speed and in the same direction, the pedestrian, cyclist or motorcyclist may disappear from the driver’s view for significant seconds.

Fatal collisions in these circumstances are likely to accumulate; The width of the A pillars is often linked to the size of the vehicle. However, the number of Montrealers who own a so-called “light truck” exploded between 2011 and 2021, going from 184,000 to 329,000, according to the Institute of Statistics of Quebec.

In North Carolina, researchers analyzed all traffic crashes where pedestrians were killed from 2010 to 2018. Results released last year show that pickup trucks are 42% more likely than cars to hit pedestrians during a left turn. For SUVs, the risks increase by 23%.

In the dock… the A pillar on the driver’s side. The American study shows that there is no significant difference in accident rates between different types of vehicles when turning right.

A recent issue

In Quebec, interest in the blind spot created by windshield pillars is relatively recent. A coroner sounded the alarm in 2018 following the death of a 63-year-old pedestrian in Lac-Brome. “Over the years, car manufacturers have built increasingly solid vehicles,” writes Richard Drapeau in his report. To do this, they have [renforcé] certain parts of vehicles, including windshield pillars. And in doing so, they have created an ever-increasing blind spot. »

Left turns caused three times more fatal collisions than right turns in Montreal, shows our review of pedestrian-vehicle accidents since 2000.

Furthermore, 13 of the 15 most recent accidents in our compilation in the metropolis – others may have been added since – involved an oversized vehicle: 6 vans, 4 SUVs, 3 trucks and 2 vans.

“In Quebec, SUVs are 2.5 times more often involved in collisions with pedestrians than other types of vehicles,” notes Équiterre in a report published in 2021.

However, vehicles of all sizes have more or less significant gaps in visibility to the driver’s front left. It is also a compact car whose production has now ceased, a Dodge Dart, which took the life of little Liam, 8 years old, as he joined his father at the end of the day camp, the July 22, 2020.

“There is reason to question the interior of certain vehicles: although vehicles are built more robustly to protect the occupants, the pillars of the windshields create an increasingly significant blind spot and harm driver visibility,” the coroner wrote in her report.

Courses reviewed and corrected

For the moment, no perfect solution exists to compensate, retrospectively, for the blind zone created by the windshield pillars. It is up to drivers to move their heads slightly to look from side to side of the pillars when approaching an intersection.

In 2018, Coroner Drapeau recommended that the SAAQ “modify the content of driving courses in order to make new road vehicle drivers aware of the danger created by windshield pillars.” A section on this issue has indeed been added to the guide Driving a passenger vehicle and at Road access book, both published by the SAAQ. The Association of Driving Schools of Quebec has also included it in its manual Learn to behave.

The Road Guide and certain driving school manuals – that of Tecnic, for example, which we were able to consult – however ignore the A pillars. “This subject is covered in the practical courses and not in the theoretical courses,” notes Stéphane Guertin, vice-president operations at Tecnic.

Is the message getting through? We surveyed ten new drivers; seven told us that they did not remember hearing about blind spots at the front of passenger vehicles during their theoretical and practical courses.

In a report published in 2019, a committee of experts on pedestrian safety recommended that all drivers of road vehicles be made aware of “the problem of pedestrian safety linked to blind spots created by barrier pillars. -broken “.

The SAAQ notably produced and distributed a video capsule on social networks in 2020.

Il n’en demeure pas moins que les piétons nord-américains sont moins bien protégés que leurs homologues européens. La Commission économique pour l’Europe des Nations unies (CEE-ONU) réglemente les piliers A ; l’angle d’obstruction ne doit pas être supérieur à 6 degrés. Cette directive d’harmonisation est contraignante dans l’Union européenne. Bien qu’ils soient eux aussi membres de la CEE-ONU, les États-Unis et le Canada n’ont pas intégré d’angles d’obstruction maximaux dans leur législation.

En Amérique du Sud, par exemple, un échantillon de 75 voitures analysé par des chercheurs brésiliens présentait des angles morts variant de 8 à 15,3 degrés pour le pilier côté conducteur et de 7 à 11,5 degrés pour le pilier côté passager. Les méthodes de calcul peuvent toutefois différer.

Transports Canada, responsable des exigences de fabrication des voitures vendues au pays, en est toujours au stade de recherche sur les funestes piliers. « Les projets […] focus on the shape and location of the A-pillars,” says a spokesperson. “The development of new measurement techniques and methods will be used to establish testing protocols to assess risks and their mitigation methods. If this research determines that there is a net benefit from implementing a regulation, Transport Canada will not hesitate to take the necessary steps. »

Why have the A-pillars grown?

Starting in 2009, North American federal authorities and safety organizations imposed roof crush resistance criteria. Significant shortcomings had been observed on SUVs, which were more likely to roll over, in previous years. From 2009 to 2022, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) required that a vehicle be able to withstand at least four times its weight to give it a “good” rating. “We discontinued the roof strength test because virtually all vehicles received good scores,” the IIHS says on its website today. According to American standards imposed in 2009, then modeled by Transport Canada, a vehicle must be able to support three times its mass. The A-pillars, which support not only the windshield and rear window, but also the roof, have among other things been reinforced and widened to meet these safety requirements for the occupants.