MCN victory over 'killer' mirrors

Volvo has redesigned its truck fleet to fix a blind spot exposed by an MCN investigation.

From June all large Volvo trucks will feature modified wing mirrors after we revealed existing ones could obscure an entire road. The change should mean drivers are less likely to pull out on bikes.

A Volvo Trucks spokesman said the new mirrors improved drivers’ view of oncoming traffic at junctions, or ‘offset visibility’, by creating a bigger gap between the mirror cluster and windscreen pillar, also called the A-pillar. He said: “These measures not only give the driver better visibility to the rear, but also offset to the front, mainly because of the wider gap between the A-post and mirror.”

Volvo Trucks’ product strategy manager Ulf Andreasson said: “We’ve repositioned the mirrors a bit further back and further out from the cab sides. The angle has been modified and the size of the mirror housing is smaller than before.”