Screen Dump

Good visibility is essential for safe truck driving – so why, asks Mick Rennison, do so many drivers still clutter their windscreens with flags, toys and suchlike?

Recently I read a complaint by a truck driver that he’d been stopped by the DVSA over the state of his windscreen, calling the officer a jobs worth and a whole lot worse. Apart from wondering why he felt the need to tell all and sundry his name, I saw the guy as a complete bonehead. He, along with all the others who decorate their screens with ‘been everywhere’ flags, cuddly toys, footie scarves and the like, obviously isn’t a professional driver.

As the law stands, anything obstructing the screen within the sweep of your wiper blades is illegal, which is why these idiots remove all that crap before the wagon goes for an MoT. They know it would fail.

The law also applies to satnavs, phones and delivery notes.

Common sense, maybe

Have these guys ever wondered why it’s against the law? Maybe the DVSA thought it up just to piss them off, or to raise a bit of cash? Or maybe, like most professional drivers, the powers that-be thought it common sense that every available inch of screen should be clear to enable us to go about our jobs safely and competently.

It can – and does – save lives. For instance, many years ago, while driving a Ford Transcontinental, a young girl on a bike rode out across the front of me as I pulled away from a zebra crossing.