Truths my Father told me

Among the many pieces of advice my Father gave me, one that I (almost) never heeded was: "Always live east of your work."

Why?

Because, assuming you have a Day Job and you drive to it, the sun will always be at your back, and not in your eyes.

So, how do you explain yesterday?

There were at least four crashes on the 401 that I was aware of, and all four were eastbound, in the afternoon.

Can't blame it on the sun being in your eyes.

Unless maybe that it was just about the first sunny day we've had all summer and people were wondering what that bright yellow thing in the sky was...

I was also driving eastbound on the 401 yesterday in the afternoon - well, it would have been faster walking. Darryl Dahmer of 680 News said it was backed up from Kennedy Road to south of the airport. He added, "If you're heading east on the 401, I feel for you."

Thanks, Double D.

And maybe I stumbled upon an answer.

Depending on the exact position of the sun, your rear-view mirror can become worse than useless as the sun shines into it, eradicating the view to the rear. You can't see anyone coming from behind, and therefore you assume there isn't.

You change lanes, and:

WHAM!

Could be.

Anyone else got any suggestions?

Comments

[Sean McConnell]

Well, duh! Clearly there must have been 4 people stunting that day.

[Greg H]

Funny, my Dad gave me the same advice about living east of where you work, which in the Vancouver area is easy.

Regarding the mirrors, that might be part of the problem, especially if the sun is reflecting on the side mirrors into the driver's eyes. Perhaps to compensate, some drivers adjust their side mirrors (easy in today's power mirror cars) so that they effectively can't see anything beside/behind them.

But my own theory is that the sun shining on the rear of the car ahead obscures the brake lights, so that the following car is unaware that the person in front is braking. It tends to appear that the brake lights are on all the time, so the tailing person probably gets complacent and isn't really paying attention.

Or maybe those four people were just talking on their cell phones...

[jim kenzie]

Hi Greg:

I'd make some smart-ass comment about sun and Vancouver, except I have a sister-in-law in B.C. and they're right across Lake Okanagan from where the weather has been so sunny and hot that big chunks of the province are burning up...

The brake lights theory is a good one.

As, sadly, is the one about the cell phones. If that were the case, I guess we'd just have to chalk up the four-back-to-the-sun as coincidence.

Jim Kenzie