Devices for Indirect Vision
Every year, hundreds of people, mostly vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, are killed or seriously injured in collisions involving heavy goods vehicles. These incidents are largely due to drivers not being able to see other road users in blind spots which exist in the area immediately around their vehicles.
To help eliminate this, European Directives were introduced, requiring devices to be fitted to large goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes to observe the traffic in areas adjacent to the vehicle which cannot be observed by direct vision. These can
be conventional mirrors, camera-monitor systems or other devices able to present information about the indirect field of vision to the driver.
Heavy Goods Vehicles have four compulsory indirect field of view mirror class areas: Class II (main side-view), Class IV ( wide-angle side-view), Class V (close-proximity – blind spot area directly beside and below the passenger door) and Class VI (front – blind spot immediately in front of the vehicle – optional under 7.5 tonnes), as well as optional mirrors for Class I (interior) and Class V (close-proximity on the driver’s side).
R46
UN ECE Regulation No 46 (R46) covers devices for indirect vision and their installation by applying a test procedure to devices to establish whether all mandatory and optional HGV mirror classes allow the driver to view a specific minimum field of vision requirement. Only camera monitor systems with UN ECE Regulation 46 approval can be installed in place of a compulsory mirror.
