I just saw the new AAMI ad with people flexing their safe driving, one of them said I always do head checks before changing lanes.
Are head check actually safe because you’re literally taking your eyes completely off the road to check your blind spot. Wouldn’t it be easier just to adjust your mirror to see the blind spot.
How is head checking any different to checking your phone? Checking the phone is probably safer
Having watched some old dude merge across lanes just yesterday and almost take out another car, I can see why it's really needed for some people (in this case though he didn't need to do a head check, he just needed to look out the passenger window to see the car there).
Likely OP needs to do them, if their spatial awareness is anything like their risk assessment abilities.
Old dudes cant rotate the head anywhere as much as needed , this being one of the number one reasons whether old dudes should be still driving at all ?. . (75 year old here :)
To be fair, there aren't many 20 something Ranger driving tradies doing head checks either.
There's a sweet spot somewhere of not being in such a mad rush while the body is still at a decent performance level. Although I'm 41 and I think I've already past that latter point!
in this case though he didn't need to do a head check, he just needed to look out the passenger window to see the car there). — isnt this literally the definition of headcheck?
I've seen plenty of Australian drivers that swerve slightly across the line even before indicating
I saw a joke yesterday that said something like "if you think your job is pointless, remember there is a man in Germany putting indicators on BMW's"
By the sounds of it, this could be a generic statement capturing many more makes and countries than the joke targets.
QLD drivers let you know… once they've changed lanes.
Yeah, why would you need a head check when you can rely on the person in your blind spot to honk /s
And if they honk, it means they have seen you so its obviously safe to keep merging
Also, don’t forget that putting your indicator on gives you the right to change lanes, even if the car in your blind spot hasn’t opened up a gap for you yet, so just indicate and merge immediately /s
Depends on design of mirror. I recommend blind spot mirror addition.
I agree. If you are a commercial van driver you cannot do a head check as all you see when looking over your left shoulder is the sheet metal of the van. You need to rely on blind spot mirrors.
That's why a decent commercial van would have wing mirrors like this. Maybe OP needs to fit some of these.
some cars' mirrors do not cover enough areas that head checks are still needed…
I got a Tesla Model Y which allows me to use the camera to cover the blind spot but it is still counter-intuitive to look to my left to the centre screen to check for blind spot when i'm merging to the right. Like, why do i look left when im going right, if you know what i mean.
When I had my previous car which was a Subaru Outback, I barely needed to do a head check because the mirrors cover larger areas.
Even some delivery vans like Toyota Hiace are easier to maneuver than a Tesla Model Y as their mirrors can see all the way to the curb without auto-tilting.
Tesla's have horrendously useless mirrors, huge blind spot and the autodim at night is far too dark in my opinion, it is based on time rather than having a light sensor in the mirrors.
i turned off the autodim… it was so hard reversing into tight spaces with dimmed mirrors!
im thinking of buying 3rd party mirrors from aliexpress which don't have the autodim but has wider coverage…
i think tesla side mirrors are so small because of the aerodynamics requirements but also, they made it zoomed so much so its not too different to the centre mirror which is already so zoomed due to the narrow rear windscreen.
it is based on time rather than having a light sensor in the mirrors
Hahaha is there anything in these cars that's actually implemented correctly?
plus I think that rule was first dreamed up before most cars had two side mirrors which meant the blind spot was much more significant than it is with a car that has 2 mirrors (or 2 mirrors plus blind spot mirrors) or what most new cars have which is detectors that pickup cars in your blind spot when your trying to merge.. old rule… probably needs a rethink I tend to agree.
that said.. I still do it.. and yep occasionally get a shock if those seconds of turning my head happen to occur when a car in front slams on their brakes.
On the flip side.. I am also suprised how many drivers seem to think its a great idea to drive right along side directly in the blind spot like morons just wanting to be side swiped. The head check has saved many accidents for me.
I think head checks are important if you are feeling sad or hopeless pls see someone
Username checks out.
It takes a second to do a head check, not 3 seconds.
Are you sad mr driver is there a friend or family you can talk to about your feelings
If you are taking 3 seconds to do a head check you are doing it wrong
Also should get a head check if you don't have the capacity to remember roughly what's in front of you for less than 3 seconds.
@nugstar: Exactly. If you scan the road in front of you and are keeping your distance from the car in front before doing a head check, it shouldn’t be an issue.
Wooosh….
literally taking your eyes completely off the road to check
You do realise that checking your instrument cluster, rear vision mirror and wing mirrors on a very regular basis is part of normal driving and involves taking your eyes off the road ahead? Performing a head check when changing lanes or turning left takes a mere second and is part of the defensive driving package.
Checking the phone is probably safer
FFS that is BS and if you believe that is true then get off the road.
I can believe you've waited 5 years to post this bollocks.
O.P. obviously only drives in a single lane/one way tunnel.
So Sydney CBD?
5 years
Wow just noticed no comments/upvotes either
So many bad takes starting with OP
Cut him some slack, he probably just made it to his destination.
There is a certain type of driver that absolutely does not look anywhere but a fixed stare straight out the windscreen
but a fixed stare straight out the windscreen
And strongly grips the steering wheel, even while stopped at the traffic lights.
And strongly grips the steering wheel, even while stopped at the traffic lights.
Don't know about "strongly", but we were taught to keep two hands on the steering wheel when stopped at traffic lights so you had greater control of the car if somebody hit you from behind and sent your car hurtling forwards.
Checking the phone is probably safer
FFS that is BS and if you believe that is true then get off the road.
How is it bullshit for people that can check their phone while still looking ahead at the road?
Absolutely no nuance to this discussion, just morons flinging broad crappy opinions.
In my early days of driving, there were 3 instances which has embedded head checking as a habit.
Changing lanes on the freeway (QEW in Canada), and there was a motorbike that I nearly side swiped at 110km/h. I was in a rental Toyota Corolla with good visibility. Lesson 1
Changing lanes on the Monash Freeway in Melb, same situation - motorbike sped up and came into my blind spot. Nearly side swiped him at 100 km/h.
Single lane Roundabout in oakleigh - I had a sore shoulder so was too lazy to headcheck my blind spot on my right; the mirrors and right side had no vehicles at the roundabout. A vehicle had entered the roundabout at an acute angle and honked the daylights out of me.
Try driving a mid 2000s Buick and you'll know what head checks are. Now its just my driving routine - check mirrors, indicate, check mirrors, head check, change lanes keeping an eye on the mirrors.
But there's people like the op I see on the roads clueless people driving around and changing lanes with zero situational awareness
firstly, before I do head check, I ensure that the traffic in front of me is clear (in the sense that shit is not going to happen in the next 2 second). when I do head check, it does not take 1 second. it is just a glance. It is also used in combination with signalling to change lane in advance.
55 metres
Ok now do 80km/hr
@theHMASfriendship: Kinda.
As long as it doesn't interfere with my Gooning with AI LLM Girlfriend, time.
when I do head check, it does not take 1 second. it is just a glance
Not two seconds
Checking the phone is probably safer
lol, how do you figure that?
Not only are you taking your eyes off the road but you’re switching to reading/thinking about something else then have to switch back to driving
The big problem with making or taking calls while driving, whether it involves hand-held phones - which is illegal - or phones in a mount - which is legal - is that the conversation takes your MIND off the road. That results in a significant amount of time to realise you need to switch your mind back to operating the vehicle, and do it, if a situation arises that needs a decision. its the same problem as when you are sitting behind the wheel of a vehicle driving itself. Your mind wanders somewhere else, and by the time you realise it needs to be on the road, you've already crashed.
I guess we may as well ban all conversations in cars then.
For learner drivers, I 'd say yes. For others, it's a good reminder that one day you could kill somebody if you allow yourself to be distracted. We can't use laws to mitigate every risk, ultimately drivers need to take responsibility. Learner drivers are prone to not understanding the risks, so I'd totally support no conversations/ radio/ gadgets for learner drivers.
@SlickMick: 100% this. Learners and inexperienced drivers really need to get hammered into them that driving safely is the #1 priority above all else. Better a conversation cut short than a life.
inexperienced drivers really need to get hammered
Judging by the OP's take on this, I reckon they are.
I don’t subscribe to that theory given its legal to talk on a CB radio and also legal to talk (for most) using hands free. Not to mention talking to passengers.
You sound like you rely on laws to keep you safe. Which is fine, because if you get caught being distracted by a conversation, you will get a ticket, despite the device not being illegal for safe use.
@DPW: As a matter of fact, apparently this really does happen.
When I was researching some information relevant to this thread, I did come across reference to that happening.
I didn't pay too much attention to it, nor did I bother to keep or bookmark it as it wasn't what I was looking to find at that time, but it is out there and in significant enough quantities that it is being tracked and reported.
(I was looking for statistics around people caught using their mobiles in a non hands free manner whilst driving &/or those who admitted to doing it, and it came up as a result of one of those searches, if you were interested in having a look (I'm not though).
Better ban speakers and other distracting humans in vehicles
Don't forget banning the Check Engine light, that can also distract drivers when it's blinks up in your face /s
Absolutely this! And hear the shreiks of denial from people who refuse to recognise how our brains work.
Our brains dont do both at once without shorting one or the other. In busy traffic situations learn to STFU and concentrate on the task at hand.
And please dont try to tell us that you are especially smart - we can all check your posting histories here…..😀
While this is all true and I agree, how is this different to having a conversation with your passengers?
how is this different to having a conversation with your passengers?
Because your passengers are (or should be) aware when you're in a challenging situation and act accordingly.
"It all depends on the passenger. Generally, good passengers act as a second set of eyes. They can spots hazards on the road and modify their conversation if the driver needs to respond to a traffic situation. However, distracting passengers can be equally as dangerous."
(From: https://rse.org.au/about-road-safety/distraction/)
Another article: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2008/12/phone-drivin…
@ak47wong: ok, but what instead of a passenger i have a crying baby in the back seat.
can we ban the transport of children.
Low quality bait.
What you're told. It is fair and reasonable for them to crack down really hard on phone use by drivers because distraction is a cause of a substantial number of crashes.
What you aren't told. Phone use is only linked to about 1/10th of distraction-related crashes. And very few that are serious enough to result in fatalities.
But, hey, with AI driven cameras, a phone in your hand is easy to detect, so making the conversation about it makes it easy to justify generating lots of revenue.
(No, that doesn't mean I think hand-held phone use should be legal and allowed, just that the penalty imposed for it is out of proportion to the actual risk.)
use their phones above the dashboard
You mean so it's obstructing your view out the windscreen?
I believe that they did think about this and they have expressly prohibited you from mounting your hands free device where it does that.
If you're taking 2 seconds to do a head check, you're doing it wrong. You don't need the license plate of any vehicle next to you, you just need to know whether there's something there or not. It should be a half-second check.
You can also continuously scan as you drive - periodically eye over all 3 mirrors (left, middle, right) to keep abreast of everything going on around your vehicle. Knowing whether there's a vehicle there already means you don't have to head check, if you're worried about it, and it's just a quick flick of the eyes.
Situational awareness is severely lacking in a lot of drivers. Right lane hoggers at 90kmh (in a 100 zone) is a perfect example.
you're taking 2 seconds to do a head check, you're doing it wrong.
It's a seasonal thing… Summer + convertibles 2 seconds bare minimum.
No, no, no. When Vicpol were justifying a 50K speed limit, they used 2 seconds as the standard reaction time to a traffic event,
Like that was the time between you seeing a pedestrian in front of you, and actually putting your foot on the brake. work out the crap mathematics that justified yet another political venture to grow speeding offences
Australians have been taught to drive with mirrors set far too narrow. On most cars, if you adjust the mirrors out, you can eliminate the blind spot entirely. If your mirrors are set wide enough, by the time a passing vehicle is out of your visual field in the mirror you can just see it next to you with a very minimal head turn. You lose vision of the side of your car in the mirrors, which is disconcerting for people who aren't used to it, but the only time that is really important is when reverse parking, and all you have to do is lean to your side to be able to see it in the mirror.
But as another poster said, it's how people are taught to drive and how driving tests are conducted, so it's unlikely to change.
I find the easiest way is to deliberately get someone in your "blind spot" on the highway, and adjust the mirrors out until it's no longer a blind spot. Not sure why people insist on seeing the side of their cars in the side mirrors.
They are taught that way and just reluctant to try anything new, which is fair enough when it comes to issues that effect safety. But it's not a big deal and a major upgrade once you get used to it.
My method is to lean my head as far over as is comfortable (up against the window for the drivers side, or over the center console for the passenger side), the adjust the mirror on the respective side so that I can see the side of my car in the mirror while I'm in the leaning position. That will give me good blind spot coverage while I'm in my normal driving position and I can just lean to either side to check the mirror for reverse parking.
'On most cars, if you adjust the mirrors out, you can eliminate the blind spot entirely'
yes - as a careful driver, I always adjusted my mirrors carefully, starting with the central rear view mirror, then adjusting each side mirror to cover from where the central mirror stopped, so a quick glance in all mirrors covered most possible cases. And if a car was deliberately moving into a risky position in the lane beside me, I'd typically adjust my speed to let them ahead or keep them behind me, or change lanes to avoid that risk
but I felt alone in that, because I never met another driver who demonstrated that care.
Wouldn’t it be easier just to adjust your mirror to see the blind spot.
Do you even understand how mirrors work? 🤦🏻♂️
Yes you probably one of the ones who angle the mirror so they can see that the back doors are still their na haven’t flew off while driving
Per the comment from @moph, there are Australian references to correct mirror alignment but I've only ever been able to convince younger drivers. For the passenger's side mirror: lean your head towards the centre of the car (over to the passenger seat). From this position, adjust the left side mirror outwards until you can just see the back corner of your car.
Shoutout to my wide mirrors brothers, fighting the good fight
^this
It's not rocket science, right? But it's clear from the OPs post and subsequent comments that even a simple understanding of how to correctly position mirrors along with safely conducting head checks is beyond their comprehension. There are way too many clueless idiots on the road these days.
Thanks. This is news to me, and certainly not what was taught when I learned to drive. (Hence I guess why people struggle to change.)
Someone's dusted off the 👻 account for school hols…
😝
How Is Head Checking Any Different to Checking Your Phone?
If you need to ask, you might want to get your head checked.
Head checking is a part of good road craft by being defensive and aware.
Checking your phone is a distraction.
road craft
That's one I haven't heard before.
You're def doing it wrong. Get a driving lesson and find out what else you've been doing wrong.
I'm confused - do you literally not look anywhere except straight ahead while you're driving? And do you only look directly backwards when you are reversing? Or do you have f***ing bee eyes?
Head Check Safety - How Is Head Checking Any Different to Checking Your Phone?
Head check takes seconds to do….. Checking your phone? Far longer…. replying to message even longer.
If you want to glance at your phone, put it in a holder and look at it like I do for navigation apps.
But if you want to watch a movie while driving down the road, LOL
Its different, head checks are part of driving i.e concentration is on driving.
With mobile you go into another world of notifications, chats, TODO things which creates distractions in mind.
sumyungguy on 05/10/2025 - 14:38 Comment score below threshold.
