· Car
The blind spot — on roads like ours
The blind spot is the strip you see neither in the mirror nor out of the corner of your eye. On a straight motorway you barely notice it. On a TF-1 slip road, in a roundabout or on a mountain road with a narrow lane, you notice it a lot.
Almost everyone has their mirrors set wrong
The habit is to set them so you can see the side of your own car. That feels like a reference point, but it wastes half the mirror showing something you already know the position of. Turn them out until your own side almost disappears and the mirror starts covering exactly the area you couldn't see before.
How to check it without any fuss
Follow a vehicle overtaking you: it should move from the interior mirror into the wing mirror, and from the wing mirror into your side vision, without disappearing at any point. If it vanishes for a few seconds, that's your blind spot — and the mirrors need to go further out.
The move that's still needed
Even with the mirrors set right, a quick look over your shoulder before changing lane belongs to it. Motorcycles are narrow and fast and turn up in a multi-lane roundabout where you didn't expect them. Many cars warn about the blind spot with a light in the mirror — that's help, not a guarantee.
If there's a scrape anyway
After a sideswipe during a lane change, the argument about who was at fault is nearly always the same. Photograph both cars and their position on the road before you move them, as far as that's safe. And fill in the parte amistoso even if the other driver says you'll sort it out: without it, one account is worth as much as the other.
What this means for you
- Turn the wing mirrors out until you can barely see your own car.
- Check the setting: a car overtaking you should never disappear completely.
- Look over your shoulder before changing lane — blind-spot warning or not.
- In multi-lane roundabouts, expect motorcycles you can't see yet.
- After a scrape: photos before the cars are moved, and always the parte amistoso.
- Tell us the same day; many policies include legal defence and claims recovery.
Source: Allianz España · Blog Motor (öffnet in einem neuen Fenster) · 23 September 2026
Information without obligation. The policy and the Allianz information sheets are binding.