Underride Collisions: Light, Shadow and Other Highway Traps

If you have driven on a highway, you have no doubt seen a semi. These giant trucks are beyond conspicuous; they are among the most prominent features on the highway. This begs the question, how is it possible that so many truck accidents are underride collisions? It would seem impossible that a car could drive into and under such large vehicle? 

The Blinding Effect of Light and Shadow

Every driver's education program across the country will emphasize the relative dangers of driving at night; becoming the 19th wheel of a semi, however, remains absent from those warnings. There are many forces working to blind the average motorist to the presence of a semi trailer. The forces include: 

• The truck's headlights;
• Inadequately marked trailers;
• Backlighting; and, of course
• Darkness. 

You may expect the truck's headlights to aid you in seeing the semi, instead you should imagine this scenario; if a truck is jackknifing and you are coming towards it in the opposite lane, the headlights, apparently in the appropriate lane, will create a light wall, blocking the presence of the truck's trailer in your lane until it is too late.

Similarly, backlighting should aid you in seeing an oncoming trailer. But backlighting, by definition, creates a silhouette or a dark outline against the light; and how strange is it to see a dark spot before you at night?

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