This is not meant to be a pessimistic post. It is only meant to open your eyes to the reality that everyone faces out there while driving on the road.
When you drive, do you trust other drivers to drive well? Do you trust them to do the right things like follow the law and drive carefully? As noble as this kind of attitude may sound, it might not be the best route to take when driving. You see, having this kind of attitude is akin to trusting your life to a stranger.
If you think that everyone around you – all the other drivers – are going to drive wisely and safely and that they are going to obey the law, then it could be that you would become lax and less of a defensive driver. Things could be well and fine until the day that you meet that one driver who is not worthy of that trust. And all it takes is one – then you might end up at the hospital, or worse.
So how do you deal with this? It is simple – when it comes to driving, do not trust anybody. In other words, do not place the responsibility of driving safely in the hands of other people. What you should do instead is to make sure that you drive safely and properly AND always be on the lookout for drivers on the road who may not be practicing the right driving techniques. In this manner, you not only drive the right way but you also protect yourself – and your passengers – from potential danger due to other people’s irresponsibility.
This is rule #1 in defensive driving. You should always pay attention to the road, and driving should have your undivided attention. Try to refrain from using your cellphone, fiddling with the stereo controls, or even chatting with your passengers.
One statistic often quoted is that most collisions happen within a short distance from home. Why is this true? Since we mostly drive in our own neighborhoods, the odds are we’ll have most of our mishaps there. Close to home we get more comfortable and perhaps let our guard down (and the other guy does the same thing); you’ve heard that “familiarity breeds contempt?” Better yet, familiarity breeds inattention. We don’t often consider that serious or fatal injuries can occur in low speed collisions.
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Paying attention can become a habit, but you have to work at it. Make conscious, persistent choices NOT to eat while driving, or whatever you do that takes your attention off where your moving vehicle is pointed. Connect your mind to your eyes and work at consciously analyzing what you see while you drive. We call this “situational awareness.” Driving is the most dangerous thing most of us ever do. It deserves your full attention. Mastery of this one habit can almost make you bullet-proof. Not quite, but almost. – Road Trip America
Much of the accidents happening in the road today come from defying defensive driving. Just how do you drive defensively anyway? Well for one, distance yourself from the big trucks and trailers to avoid being swerved upon. This aside from the fact that truckers care less of being a responsible driver can lead to your demise, a figure that we see based on news and reports regarding road accidents involving small vehicles and large trucks.
Especially in highways, these large vehicles drive at top speed. While they are given warnings to put emphasis on road safety, sadly it is not the case for majority of them. They are on delivery schedules and once they encounter some delays along the way, expect some fast driving even though they feel that they are driving a large vehicle that is going slow.
Add to the fact that some of them have to drive even if they lack sleep. This is a common case we see in other countries since no truck driver wants to risk losing his job due to untimely deliveries. Some of them try hard to stay awake behind the wheel but at times, dozing off cannot be avoided.
But this is not to generalize. There are drivers who are indeed law abiding but at times, you cannot help but avoid running into the unruly ones. Arguing with them will not help once accidents happen. So if you want to know how to drive defensively against them, avoiding them is the best recourse you can do.
