What is the proper procedure when backing up a vehicle?

The proper procedure when backing up a vehicle involves looking over your shoulder and using mirrors. This approach allows the driver to have a comprehensive view of their surroundings and minimizes blind spots. Turning your head over your shoulder helps to ensure that you are aware of any obstacles, pedestrians, or other vehicles that may be behind you, which can be crucial for safe maneuvering.

Using mirrors complements this by providing additional perspectives of the area around the vehicle, as side mirrors can help notice vehicles that might be in the path but are not directly behind. This two-part method of looking both physically and through mirrors increases situational awareness significantly while backing up, leading to safer actions.

Depending only on rearview mirrors, turning your head side to side quickly, or relying solely on rearview cameras are less effective strategies. They may miss crucial visual cues about the environment that one can easily see by combining head turning with mirror usage.