Many drivers have never heard of inattentional blindness. Even so, it may be something that happens to them, or it could happen to another driver and lead to a serious accident. It’s important for there to be more awareness around this issue.
Essentially, inattentional blindness is used to describe the way that people will see what they expect to see. When they look at something, they believe that they are actively viewing it and taking in all of the important details at that moment. But the truth is that they are taking in major details and their brain is attempting to quickly fill in the gaps with the things they expect. So it is more likely that they will overlook things that are unexpected, even if they can see them.
Motorcycle accidents
One of the most common examples of how this happens relates to motorcycle accidents. Say that a driver pulls up to an intersection and looks both ways, expecting to see cars and trucks. The driver sees one pickup truck, which goes by, and then they execute their turn. As they do, they hit a motorcycle that was coming from the other direction.
The driver will probably be surprised and say that the motorcycle came out of nowhere. It didn’t. What actually happened is that the driver looked right at it but wasn’t expecting to see a motorcycle at all, so they just saw an empty road.
Drivers can counter this by slowing down and really taking the time to take in their surroundings. But many drivers will just glance both ways, never even considering that they may not have seen a vehicle in plain view. Those who get injured in the accidents these drivers cause need to know how to seek financial compensation.