A motorcyclist is driving down the highway during their morning commute, heading into work. Ahead of them, another commuter is waiting to pull out of their driveway in a pickup truck. As the motorcycle approaches, the rider sees the truck driver turn their head and look directly at them.
But then something unexpected happens. Rather than yielding the right of way properly and waiting for the motorcycle to pass, the truck driver pulls out of their driveway. Their vehicle blocks the road, and the motorcycle strikes the side of the pickup truck. After the accident, the truck driver says that they never saw the motorcycle in the first place. How is this possible?
They weren’t looking for it
Some studies indicate that people tend to see what they’re looking for, and they may inadvertently miss things that they don’t expect. This is known as inattentional blindness. The brain can filter things out and fill in the gaps with what the driver expects to see, especially if they only quickly glance in that direction.
In this case, it could be that the pickup truck driver is not a motorcyclist and is not very aware of how to share the road with these smaller vehicles. They may just have been glancing to see if there were any cars or trucks approaching, so their brain filtered the smaller motorcycle out entirely. Even though the driver appeared to look at it, they thought they saw an empty road.
This doesn’t mean that the driver isn’t responsible for causing the accident. They still failed to yield the right of way and should have taken longer to check their surroundings. The injured motorcyclist may have a right to seek significant financial compensation.
