An Unlucky Cloverleaf 

Rahul Gujar is a Software Engineer for Corporate Quality and Environment, North America, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. This is his #SafelyThere story. 

I was driving home from work on a hot August day, and I began to merge from one highway to another during peak traffic. The M-59 and I-75 interchange in Michigan is notoriously busy during rush hour – the cloverleaf design is intended to alleviate congestion, but it can also be difficult to navigate. 

As I turned my blinker on and began to merge right, my blind spot detection system began to beep. I was confident that I hadn’t seen a car in the lane next to me, but due to the alert I looked again. A car was coming quickly from behind and was extremely close to my vehicle. The alert gave me just enough time to slow my car nearly to a stop, letting the other car continue to merge onto I-75.  

If installed on all vehicles, blind spot warning technology could potentially prevent 318,000 crashes a year, according to the AAA Foundation. I experienced a close call, but the warning gave me the moment I needed to react before a crash occurred.