Having things hanging in your car can be a danger when driving

The AA has recently done a survey about 'ornamental clutter' that compromises road safety. We all learnt about the blind spot when we took driving lessons but now drivers are inadvertently causing dangerous blind spots by hanging things up in their car. Hanging air fresheners are nothing new and have been around for a long time and are getting out of hand. Nowadays drivers are putting up all sorts of things by hanging them under their rear-view mirror thinking it looks nice but they are causing dangerous driving conditions not only for them but other drivers on the road too.

Some of the most ridiculous items found hanging in a car are 'first' baby shoes or booties, teddy bears, cartoon characters, boxing gloves and other silly things such as furry dice. The worst has to be a silver CD; if the sun was shining on the CD and there was another car coming from the other direction in the other lane they could be dazzled by the reflection and have an accident. Unfortunately people who have been found doing this believe the myth that it will interfere with speed detection cameras but that's not true.

Baby On Board signs were used a lot in the past to alert emergency services in the case of an accident but nowadays people leave it permanently fixed to their window causing obstruction to the driver if they need to look at their rear windscreen particularly for parking or overtaking on the motorway. Other things that cause obstruction are tissue boxes, teddies and food wrapper and boxes.

The top 5 dangerous items found dangling by the AA

• Air fresheners
• Teddy bears
• Miniature footballs
• Beads
• Coats of arms (football clubs)

The tackiest and silliest ones I come across all the time are: * Baby On Board
* Dice
* Baby booties/trainers/shoes
* Silly cartoon characters
* Boxing gloves

The police have said that they will fine people whose vision is impaired whilst driving because of these danglers and if you bring your car in for and MoT it could fail. The best thing to do is not have any stickers or danglers in the car. The only ones that should be present are your tax disc and your private hire sticker if you have one.