NHTSA must pass regulations requiring vehicle manufacturers to drastically improve A-pillar obscuration angle! this is a serious safety defect of many modern vehicles that must have been a factor in many accidents, the extent to which is probably unquantified & largely unknown due to the fact that most people do not even know about the problem. The only remedy is for the driver to move his head from side to side every time the vehicle starts from a stopped position to ascertain that there are no people or vehicles hiding in or transiting the A-pilar blockage. This is a well known problem in the industry, as proven by the paper published by pipkorn bengt of autoliv research (sweden) entitled safety & vision improvements by expandable A-pillars (undated), which is in the NHTSA database/website, where a 25% improvement in A-pillar obscuration angle is demonstrated by the use of experimental expandable A-pillars. The number of people already injured or killed by this common modern car defect will probably never be known, with the unfortunate drivers being disbelieved when they say they never saw anyone/thing due to the obscure nature & knowledge of this serious problem. In my last experience with it, the worst case scenario occurred (except for the fact that injury/death was avoided). I was moving at about 10mph in a parking lot & an older woman was walking at about 1mph toward my car from the left at just the right distance/speed. My wife in the driver's seat, having a better left view, started yelling at me 'stop - are you going to run over that lady'. I said 'what lady"' realizing in a couple seconds that it she must be behind my window pillar, I moved my head about 6 inches to the right, & there she was! she just appeared out of thin air! I never saw even a tiny bit of her before. She was looking at me with disbelief on her face. What if it were a child"

- Clarksburg, NJ, USA

Serious safety defect in many modern cars - huge window pillar blockage!!! I am a retired engineer after almost 34 years of federal service for the us army mostly at fort monmouth NJ. About a year ago I almost hit a pedestrian who was walking very close to the front left of my car at night. Yesterday I looked left but did not see a large black SUV transiting from my right in broad daylight. I looked left and then started to slowly turn left as I looked right again and wow...it passed right in front! to my perspective, it literally came out of nowhere!!! both of these incidents were due to me looking quickly, not dwelling for a couple seconds. A vehicle or person must be in just the right spot and traveling slowly, so it happens only about once a year. I measured the front windshield pillar support width of about 30 cars in a parking lot. Most old cars and some modern ones have small window pillar blockage of 4 to 5 inches. However many modern cars have window pillar blockages of 5 to 6 inches, hiding much view! the Nissan Leaf has the worst about 5.5 inches up high, but a phenomenal 8 inches at side mirror level. Unfortunately this is the height of my eyes in the driver's seat! it blocks the width of a whole car when the car is only a car lane away and at just the right angle! since the SUV was black, my eyes were transiting left to right and back in about a second and the SUV was going very slow to turn left in front of me, I saw nothing. Fortunately I was just starting to slowly pull out when I looked right again as it magically appeared right in front of me, so I stopped abruptly and avoided an accident! NHTSA should issue regulations that require vehicle manufacturers to return to the small window pillar support widths of the past decades. Thank you [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

- Clarksburg, NJ, USA

The contact owns a 2012 Nissan Leaf. The contact stated that the windshield washer sprays the rear edge of the hood and not the glass. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure and current mileage was 2,500. The VIN was not available.

- Davis, CA, USA