Why Are Truck Blind Spots So Dangerous?

Understanding Truck ‘No Zones’

Large commercial trucks have significantly larger blind spots than passenger vehicles, extending along both sides of the trailer, directly behind it, and a substantial area directly in front of the cab, where a vehicle can become entirely invisible to the driver. These no zones are large enough that an entire passenger car can disappear from a truck driver’s view for an extended stretch of highway.

Mirrors alone cannot fully compensate for these blind spots, no matter how well-adjusted, which is exactly why professional truck driver training emphasizes deliberate visual checks and specific techniques for lane changes, rather than relying on mirrors the way a passenger car driver might.

How These Accidents Typically Happen

Lane changes and turns are the most common scenarios, a truck driver initiating a lane change without realizing a vehicle is positioned in their blind spot, or a driver in a passenger car lingering too long alongside a truck in its no-zone. Right turns present a particular danger, since a truck’s wide turning radius often requires swinging left before turning right, a maneuver that can catch a following or adjacent driver off guard.

These accidents often happen at what feels like an ordinary moment, merging onto a highway, changing lanes in traffic, which is part of why they take drivers of both vehicles by surprise and why establishing exactly what happened often requires more than just the drivers’ own accounts.

Whose Responsibility Is It

Truck drivers are trained and expected to account for their vehicle’s larger blind spots and check thoroughly before changing lanes or turning, a failure to do so generally supports a negligence claim. This is a professional standard, commercial drivers are held to a higher standard of care specifically because they operate vehicles with these known, significant blind spots.

A truck driver who fails to use available mirrors, cameras, or spotters appropriately, or who simply does not take the time needed to verify a lane is clear, has generally fallen short of this professional standard.

Shared Responsibility in Some Cases

Depending on the facts, a passenger vehicle driver who lingered in a truck’s blind spot for an extended period without reason could potentially share some fault under Arizona’s comparative negligence framework, though this is fact-specific. Simply being briefly in a blind spot during normal driving, passing, merging, is very different from remaining there unnecessarily for an extended time.

Even where some shared fault is argued, Arizona’s comparative negligence rule under A.R.S. § 12-2505 means this does not automatically bar recovery, it simply becomes a factor in how damages are ultimately divided.

Technology That Can Reduce, But Not Eliminate, the Risk

Many modern commercial trucks are equipped with blind spot detection systems, side cameras, and other technology designed to help drivers see into these no zones. When a truck lacks this technology, or has it but the driver failed to use or heed it, that can be relevant to establishing negligence, particularly if the truck was required by company policy or newer regulations to have functioning safety equipment.

Evidence That Matters in These Cases

• Dash cam footage from either vehicle, or nearby traffic cameras
• The relative positions of both vehicles at the moment of impact
• Witness accounts of the lane change or turn
• Whether the truck was equipped with blind spot detection technology, and whether it was functioning