Interpretation of Cross-Traffic Accidents and Playing Catch Based on Newly Found Visual Perception Characteristics

A driver trying to avoid a cross-traffic accident in an unobstructed intersection faces the same problem as a catcher trying to catch a ball thrown along a trajectory approaching the catcher directly between the eyes - how to avoid a car in the one case and how to catch the ball in the other. Interpreting this problem based on new visual perceptual properties of the approaching object we found and reported in previous work, we found that the ability of the observer to perceive such approaching objects was dramatically poorer than in other cases, and that visual perception improved just as dramatically when the viewed object was occluded from the sight in one eye or impinged upon the physiological “blind” spot - or punctum caecum in medical terminology. This visibility increased in both cases - a mechanism we explain clearly and convincingly based on our work.