PLEASE be aware of this when hacking...

Trish C

Trish C

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As I was driving home from the yard this afternoon, I was driving directly into the sunlight. It made it incredibly difficult to see, but I couldn't pull over and wait for half an hour for the sun to go down! Luckily I was on a nice wide road which was quiet so I could crawl along, so I DID spot the horses/riders coming towards me. However, it struck me how easy it would be for an accident to occur in those circumstances.

It's easy to think how fog, or darkening conditions may effect how easy you are to spot, but bright sunlight can be just as bad - perhaps worse.

Please just bear this in mind when hacking (or driving, I suppose!) at this time of the year - it doesn't matter how much hi-viz you (or the rider you're approaching) have on, when the sun is very low it can make for very dangerous driving conditions and make spotting horses/riders/pedestrians etc incredibly difficult.

I know there's very little you can do as a rider or a driver when conditions are like that, but if people are aware of it, they're more likely to take extra care to stay safe. It doesn't hurt to just have a think about what roads are like at certain times of the day... I now know that road heads directly into the line of the sunset, so will try to avoid riding on it when the sun might be low enough to cause difficulty :)
 
Yes this happened to me a few years back i was hacking along the road late
one afternoon a car came up behind me right up my horses backside and
suddenly swerved around us.The man stopped and got out to explain that
sun low in the sky had blinded him and he did not see me until the last second.He was realy appologetic,i think it scared him more than me.It also didn,t help with my horse being a palomino.
 
tell me about it! a few years ago i was hacking along a road into the sun(trotting fast), a woman with a toddler loose in the passenger seat cameflying up behind me and tried overaking on a blind bend, i could see over the hedge there was a car coming other way so screamed at her to get back quick otherwise it'd have been head on collision with me somewhere in the middle.
Once the car passed she then came up alongside me again, on the otherside of the road again on a blind bend, wound down the window to tell me she couldnt see it was a blind bend before because of the low sun.
???????
WTF?!!!!
why overtake if you cant see?!!
and why sit on yet another blind bend to explain?!!!
 
Years ago whilst exercising hunt horses on a quiet lane, 5 horses 3 x grroms, we were hit by a driver who didn't see us due to the low sun (and the fact the stupid cow was going too fast). Luckily whist her Volvo was striped of many parts, bumper, side stripe, mirror and roof rack! None of the horses or riders had anything more than bruises. Nothing we could do to avoid an impact as were riding/leading and had a hedge our side.
 
Good advice, I had a car accident last year when I hit a parked car in these circumstances it was winter so I didnt think to have sunglasses with me
 
A timely reminder ;) ........ its something I am aware of morning and evening whether riding or driving and I am a slow driver on country lane anyway (much to the frustration of some drivers that don't realise why I am driving slower than them :mad:). It does sound mad but I would rather ride in the dark than in very low in the sky bright sunlight..... at least the hi viz wouls show up in the headlights ;). NOt to say that I do but that is how serious I consider being aware is ;).

We really do need to be aware and if at all possible get right in to the side when we hear a car coming just in case it does not see us, we cant rely on drivers pulling out like we do in good visibility.
 
I drove home this afternoon, when I picked up my new car, for around 40mins the sun was low enough to cause a issue. I came across two hackers on a fairly busy country road, luckily I was going extra slow (don't drive fast anyway) but beening in an unfamiliar car, on unfamiliar roads with bright sun I was doing 30-40 in a 60, and even slower around corners.

The two riders both had hi vis on, one pink and one yellow. I saw the lead horse in pink way before the yellow who was behind.

Am defo going to mix my colours now, I always go for yellow, but now I see the pink does have it's place.
 
Great warning to motorists and other road users.

A lady I work with crashed her car the other week due to a winter sunrise, the sun was so low and bringt on the brow of a hill she crashed into the back of a parked council lorry with mesh sides so it wasn't blocking the sunlight for her to make out it was there.
 
Thanks for this thread! I told my riding companion I didn't want to go out on the roads this afternoon due to the low sun and I don't really think they understood where I was comimg from. It good to hear that others think it is dangerous to ride in these conditions. I'm not such an old fusspot after all!
 
It looked a mother daughter combo, daughter obs wearing the pink. I just thought it was for fashion, never thought of it being useful.

Oh and trish, I can't remember seeing any horsey orange stuff either
 
I do bear this in mind and ride routes where I do not have the sun obscuring me to drivers. The other thing that I do is wear black breeches and jacket and hi vis over the top. Horse wears yellow high vis sheet and I have a pink hi vis waistcoat. I do thing that hi vis against black clothes helps to make you stand out even more.
 
A local rider and horse were both killed after being hit from behind by a car at fairly low speed. Her yellow hi-viz was no help, the driver was blinded by low December sun.

We are very aware of the position of the sun and try to plan circular rides so we are riding home with the setting sun behind us, rather than riding towards it. If the setting sun is behind us, it is also behind the drivers approaching our tails and they at least don't have the sun in their eyes as an excuse for not being able to see us. Drivers coming towards us on the other side of the road may be blinded but they're a lot less likely to hit us than a blinded driver coming up from behind.

I never feel really safe on any road, but as we have no alternative to roadwork, we'll do whatever we can to minimise the danger.
 
Thank you for highlighting this issue. I agree with palomino 698 about planning route of your ride. I never let my girls go out in a certain direction when the sun is setting (or rising if very early) so they have to reverse their normal route or go on a different ride - as a driver I know it's virtually impossible to see when the sun is in a particular position, even for only a split second. I'd advise drivers to keep their windscreens clean inside and out aswell as it helps a bit when driving into the sun.
 
Muckyshavings - I've also found pink to be very effective in certain lighting. Last week hacking out late afternoon I wore pink which showed up very well and couldn't see a horse and rider in yellow until last minute.
 
horserugsnot4u said:
I'd advise drivers to keep their windscreens clean inside and out aswell as it helps a bit when driving into the sun.
Click to expand...

Absolutely - I have sponges and no-smear windscreen wipes for regularly cleaning the inside of the windscreen... it's amazing how an apparently clear windscreen suddenly becomes impossible to see through when the sun hits it. All those smears you can't seen under normal conditions!

Would love to see this topic made into a sticky, or a see a warning appear in some way in the magazine as I think an awful lot of people wouldn't have considered it at all, and it's a bad time of year for this.

Some great advice as well re planning routes and hi-viz.
 
Can I chip in and suggest that anyone driving when the sun is low puts their big headlights on if they are driving away from the sun. Makes life a lot easier for people driving into the sun, or trying to pull out of junctions etc

(side lights don't show up too good)
 
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