Rear Window Screens

Rear window screens. They're those bastard things in the back window of a car which supposedly block out the sun from shining on the passengers in the back seat. What they are to me is a bloody nuisance. I can see the sense in it, my mom would probably like having such a thing if she were a passenger in the back. I don't like them because when they're in the car in front of me, I can't see through the car. Don't read me wrong. I don't care who's in the car in front nor do I care what they're doing. Why I don't like these screens is because I can't see what's happening in front of the car. I like to read ahead. It's no different from driving behind a big 4 wheel drive car or a truck. And I hate following 4WDs and trucks. You have not a clue what's going on in front of them.

Defensive driving involves anticipating what's going to happen and more importantly what the traffic around you might do. For this you need to know what's going on around you 360 degrees. I've seen enough rear enders to know this could be more avoidable. One thing about rear enders, is that the guy at the back always gets it worse. My buddy tapped his BMW into a back of a Chairman. His car looked like it hit a wall. I had a Kancil hit my Waja from behind. I compared the damage and let the offending driver off. Of course, I didn't expect to get a mild case of whiplash but that was later.


Back to the screens. I hate them. Nothing I can do about it. Here's a piece of advice. Don't tailgate. Sounds simple but quite hard for the average Malaysian driver to do for some strange reason.