Backing up — Colorado Permit Test

Check behind your vehicle before you get in, because children and small objects cannot be seen from the driver’s seat.

The space right behind a car is invisible from inside it, and small children are exactly the height that disappears. Walking round takes ten seconds.

Children and small objects cannot be seen from the driver’s seat

To back up, grasp the steering wheel at the 12 o’clock position with your left hand, place your right arm on the back of the passenger seat, and look directly over your shoulder through the rear window.

Turning your body round is the only way to see the whole space behind you. One hand at the top of the wheel is enough to steer at that speed.

Place your right arm on the back of the passenger seat and look directly over your shoulder through the rear window

Mirrors may be used for backing up, but they do not show the area immediately behind the vehicle, and a rear view camera is used in addition to checking over your shoulder.

Both the mirror and the camera leave a gap right behind the bumper. That gap is where a child on a tricycle is.

If you have a rear view camera, use it in addition to checking over your shoulder and using your mirrors

When backing up, accelerate gently, smoothly and slowly, steer slightly in the direction the rear of the vehicle should move, and keep looking to the rear until you come to a complete stop.

Reversing fast gives you no time to react to something you could not see. Watching until the car has stopped catches whatever arrived late.

Continue looking to the rear until coming to a complete stop

Why should you walk behind the car before getting in?

Children and small objects cannot be seen from the seat. The space right behind a car is invisible from inside it, and small children are exactly the height that disappears. Walking round takes ten seconds. Colorado Driver Handbook, p.7: “Children and small objects cannot be seen from the driver’s seat”