Mirrors - MSM

MSM stands for Mirror-Signal-Manoeuvre and is the basic knowledge that should be applied by every driver before making any manoeuvre in a vehicle. The driver needs to make a judgement based on what they see in their mirrors therefore to be responsible and safe the driver must make regular checks on all of the car mirrors. Modern cars are fitted with 3 mirrors, an offside, driver’s side and rear view mirror. This should give the driver an excellent all round view of what is behind her and to either side. The car mirrors should be considered the third eye of the driver and they are a great way to keep up a high level of defensive driving.

A proper adjustment of all of the mirrors should be made whilst the vehicle is stationary; the driver requires the best possible view of the rear and both sides of the car. The rear view mirror should provide the best rear view without the driver having to move their head or strain their neck to see, the side mirrors should only just be able to see the sides of the car so that as much of the side and rear is exposed as possible.

The regular use of the mirrors is the sign of a good driver; practice is needed with the mirrors to be competent at judging the speed and distance of vehicles behind. Getting into the habit of using different mirrors for different manoeuvres is essential, for example if you are turning right or left you will need to check both exterior mirrors before manoeuvring whilst being aware of the blind spots on both sides, there may be a cyclist attempting to pass your slower moving vehicle on either side.

We have just mentioned blind spots, but what are they?

A blind spot is an area that cannot be seen by normal vision or by the correctly adjusted mirrors.The normal blind spot areas are the areas that are obscured by the bodywork of the car when you look in the mirrors, each different type of car will have different blind spots. A good tip is to always look over your shoulder after the proper use of you mirrors before you attempt to move off.

Remember to:

• Take a look before changing lanes

• Joining a mororway from a slip road

• Before any manoeuvre where traffic is filtering from the left or right.