Fig. 5
From: The illusion of absence: how a common feature of magic shows can explain a class of road accidents
Illustration of how car B may remain trapped in the A-pillar blind zone (red region) of car A until after they have passed a conservative estimate (reaction time 1.5 s., dry road) of the stopping distance for cars riding at 50 km/h (red dotted lines). The cars are shown at two different points of time. In this example, equal speeds are assumed. The A-pillar bearing is 45° and the A-pillar obstruction angle is 7.3°, which are realistic average values (see text). Note that the A-pillars of some vehicles have considerably larger obscuration angles, and that the obscuration angle may increase even further if the driver is sitting closer than the most rearward position of the seat. The cars are 4 m long and 1.75 m wide, which corresponds to the measures of a typical four-person car (e.g. VW Polo)