Archive for the ‘Defensive Driving Blog’ Category

WirelessDefensiveDriving.com, a Texas defensive driving online school, is helping to spread the word about April, Distracted Driving Month. It is now clear from all the research done at the state and federal level that distracted driving is at epidemic levels (source:http://www.distraction.gov). “Defensive driving companies like WirelessDefensiveDriving.com are pushing a simple message out to the drivers…PAY ATTENTION!”, says Mr. Kyle Collins, founder and instructor atWirelessDefensiveDriving.com.

The distractions present in a car have increased dramatically during the last few years. The easy objects to blame are cell phones, but the list is longer and include things like in-dash pop-up DVD players, navigation systems, tablets, mp3 players, portable video players and a multitude of other famous and not so famous mobile devices. Given that most of the new distractions are electronic in nature, a younger segment of the driving population is more affected by these distractions than other age groups.

FACT: “11% of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crash. This age group has the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted” (source: distraction.gov)

WirelessDefensiveDriving.com has a short but effective list of items to check-off before drivers get behind the wheel:

1 – Turn the phone off. Yes, off! If there is an emergency, pull over, turn it on, and use it. Having the phone off removes the temptation of having to respond to the last social media post alert. Chances of missing the meteor-is-hitting-earth call are much smaller than getting a text from a friend.

2 – Turn the volume down, especially in town and in dense traffic. There is a lot to negotiate around the driver. Being able to hear what is happening is extremely important.

3 – Tell friends riding in the car to zip it, as much as possible.

4 – Keep both hands on the wheel. If nothing else, it prevents the driver from fidgeting with the electronics, buttons, plugs, or sliders.

“Defensive driving skills can not be practiced and put to use if the driver is not paying attention” says Mr. Collins. If a driver would like to get more involved and being active in fighting this crises, get the message out, as often as possible. Sites like WirelessDefensiveDriving.com, distraction.gov, fastlane.dot.gov have resources and useful information.

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WirelessDefensiveDriving.com
5470 West Lovers Lane
Dallas, TX 75209

Defensive Driving And Distracted Driving.

Press Release

WirelessDefensiveDriving.com, a Texas defensive driving online school, is helping to spread the word about April, Distracted Driving Month. It is now clear from all the research done at the state and federal level that distracted driving is at epidemic levels (source:http://www.distraction.gov). “Defensive driving companies like WirelessDefensiveDriving.com are pushing a simple message out to the drivers…PAY ATTENTION!”, says Mr. Kyle Collins, founder and instructor at WirelessDefensiveDriving.com.

The distractions present in a car have increased dramatically during the last few years. The easy objects to blame are cell phones, but the list is longer and include things like in-dash pop-up DVD players, navigation systems, tablets, mp3 players, portable video players and a multitude of other famous and not so famous mobile devices. Given that most of the new distractions are electronic in nature, a younger segment of the driving population is more affected by these distractions than other age groups.

FACT: “11% of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crash. This age group has the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted” (source: distraction.gov)

WirelessDefensiveDriving.com has a short but effective list of items to check-off before drivers get behind the wheel:

1 – Turn the phone off. Yes, off! If there is an emergency, pull over, turn it on, and use it. Having the phone off removes the temptation of having to respond to the last social media post alert. Chances of missing the meteor-is-hitting-earth call are much smaller than getting a text from a friend.

2 – Turn the volume down, especially in town and in dense traffic. There is a lot to negotiate around the driver. Being able to hear what is happening is extremely important.

3 – Tell friends riding in the car to zip it, as much as possible.

4 – Keep both hands on the wheel. If nothing else, it prevents the driver from fidgeting with the electronics, buttons, plugs, or sliders.

The National Safety Council has a great infographic regarding driving and multi-tasking. Defensive Driving skills are ignored when using your cell phone while driving. Check out this great visual:

Do you underestimate how fast you are driving?

Have you ever been driving along, lost in your own thoughts, and you look down and gasp at how fast you are going? I think that happens to most of us on occasion. There are studies to support this that show that drivers going over the speed limit will purposely report a lower speed. It may just be human nature to deny it, but taking responsibility for our own speed could save lives!

How fast can you legally go? Click to enlarge.

Did you know that in high speed crashes it is almost impossible for the automobile structure to handle the force of a crash and still have enough room inside for people to survive? And all those things that keep us safe in a car – airbags, seat belts, etc., cannot function properly when extreme speed is involved. According the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2010 a third of all motor vehicle fatalities were the result of speed related crashes (see link below). The NHTSA claims that about $40 billion a year is what these crashes cost all of us.

So who speeds the most? By far it is males under the age of 30. Some studies have shown that rate of speed can be as much as 3 times as high for drivers 16-19 as it is for 30 and above. And although all age groups speed at times, this is the group (below 30) that will have more violations and crashes on their driving records.

Find out all you can about how speeding affects driving safety by clicking on this link:

http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/speed_limits.aspx

During the “Pet Peeves of Driving” series we did last month, one that crept up several times was people who stop short of the white line at a red light. I’m sure you have seen this more than once. Sometimes they can be more than a car length away from the intersection which creates a backup further than normal at the light which, in some cases, can block driveways and businesses.

I understand why this made it to the pet peeve list and congratulations to everyone for NOT pulling in front of those people to “prove a point”. That would just make you the bad guy that everyone else talked about instead of the person that stopped short. The reason why people do this can be as diverse as the drivers themselves.

As we all know, the white line denotes the beginning of the intersection. Go beyond that line and you are considered “in the intersection” and could be ticketed, although that doesn’t happen often.  Some people stop short so they do not cross that line; “but a whole car length?” you say. Some may feel, or were taught in driving school, that they need to be able to see the white line when stopped. For shorter people in lower cars this may require them to be farther back in order to see the white line.

Some drivers still believe that they need to be further back to “trip” the red light plate embedded in the road. Some error on the side of caution in case their brakes don’t stop them in time or just stop working all together.

For truck drivers the dynamics of intersections are different then they are for the cars they were designed for and the white line does not define the correct distance for the next action they need to take when the light turns green. Right turns require much different actions by truck  drivers than left hand turns but both require a lot of effort and planning to complete.  I’m sure you have seen 18 wheelers have to use several lanes to safely make a turn and as non-truck drivers, we need to respect those differences and give the trucks all the room they need.

One reason I believe that some people stop short of the white line at red lights has to do with the style and model of the car. Some of the “retro” designed newer muscle cars (Camaros, Mustangs, Chargers, etc.) for example have windshields with more of an angle or just not as high and these drivers have to stop further back from the white line so that they can see the light.

Whatever the reasons, people have done it for years and there is no reason to believe that it will stop happening. What we need to do as defensive drivers is be ready for it to happen. Don’t tailgate and slow down as you get closer to the light so that if the person in front of you does “short stop”, you won’t have to “panic stop”.

Wirelessdefensivedriving.com

Does Your Car Give Away Your Personality?

Don’t we all draw conclusions about drivers based on the cars they drive? There are multiple sites online that speak to what popular cars say about their owners. There are psychologists who have done in depth analyses of why people buy certain cars. The conclusion to draw from all this? Your car is a reflection of your tastes, just like the house you buy or clothes you wear. Not much of a leap but people love to spell out what each car says about you if you are the purchaser.

iVillage suggests, for example, that driving a Honda Civic indicates that you are environmentally conscientious. You are also creative and cautious when making large purchases. A Ford Focus says you like things that are cute, but not overly cute. You like to be able to park anywhere and want to save money. Not difficult conclusions to come to. Have you ever thought about what your car says about you? You might be surprised at the answer!

For more theories on what a car says about your personality go to:
http://www.ivillage.com/what-your-car-says-about-your-personality/7-b-480833?par=xfinity

PARENTS  – Commit to better teen driving by teaching and using defensive driving skills.

Whether we as parents believe it or not, we influence our children’s decisions. When our teen begins to drive it is important to remember that driver inexperience is the main cause of teen driver accidents. Here are some facts:

16 years old teen drivers – Crash Facts

• Older drivers a 4 times LESS likely to crash than teen drivers.
• When a new 16-year-old driver has one or more teen passengers, crash risk goes up. In fact, almost two thirds of teen crash deaths happen when one or more teen passenger are present.
• Night-time fatal crash rates for 16-year-old teens are almost 2 times higher as daytime rates.

The first step to change these facts is to just talk to your teen about driving behavior and how to stay safe. And, believe it or not, it is true that repetition helps lessons to be learned.  So repeat vital information at every opportunity.

Also take the necessary time to drive with them – and make it OFTEN! The more time they spend behind the wheel, with an experienced driver in the car, the better. During these drives make it clear what your expectations are and what defensive driving rules you expect them to obey. You can even draw up a Parent – Teen Driving Agreement such as the one found at the CDC – “Parents Are The Key” program.

If you spend the time to help your teen learn how to drive responsibly and safely it will pay off big – less risk to your child and all the rest of us on the road with them!

This is worth sharing! Brazilian ad agency Terremoto Propaganda has created a series of impactful prints for a safety campaign.

Practice Defensive Driving by Always Yielding

Many times we find ourselves in a situation where the other driver is driving erratically and not following the rules of the road. You could be theoretically correct in insisting and continuing forward, but you also could get hurt or dead while making your point. At the end of the day, we just want to get home in one piece more than be right but in two pieces.

Adopting a let-it-go attitude could be seen as submissive but when on the road, drivers need to assume a Zen like mentality and go for safety first….surely it’s better than to initiate a road rage incident!

Other times, we need to have the same attitude not toward another driver, but the surroundings we are faced with. How many times, either due to unfamiliar locations, confusing signage or unclear work-in-progress modifications, we are not sure which way to go?  Yield anyway! In this circumstances, It’s better to take the extra time to make the right decision, rather than make the wrong decision and blame the confusing signs for the accident.

One place where indecision and being an over-achiever-yielder is not a good practice, is while entering a freeway. Here, if both the entering driver and the driver already on the freeway continue to yield to one another, an accident is almost guaranteed. Remember how to enter a freeway correctly and that the freeway driver cannot easily change lanes or reduce their speed because of ‘river’ of traffic around them.

We have also a pretty cool podcast for you to listen to at your leisure at our defensive driving YouTube channel

How to Remain Calm During Road Rage

You may find yourself in the path of a road rager and before you realize it, the situation may be getting out of control. We will have a new, full, article coming out in a few days about road rage and defensive driving. In the meantime, below are few tips.

If something happens to make you believe that you could become the victim of another driver’s rage, here are a few things you can do to protect yourself:

. Remain in your car, and if approached on foot, roll up the windows
and lock the doors.

. Even if you’re just talking with a passenger, avoid making gestures
that another driver could interpret as hostile, rude, or otherwise negative.

. If you accidentally do something that annoys or upsets another
driver, make overly-exaggerated expressions of regret, hold hand in a prayer
gesture, mouth the word “sorry,” make a silly grimace, anything that
will send the message that you acknowledge an error. This works very well to
diffuse a situation.

Vent Here, Not on the Road!

The driver that leaves their turn signal on for miles? People who just can’t figure out who has the right-of-way at a 4 way stop? Maybe a person that doesn’t care who has the right-a-way at a four way stop and goes when it is not their turn. Does the most expensive car automatically have the right-a-way?

One of my pet peeves is people that do not yield to cars exiting the freeway. All lanes (no matter how many) on the service road are required to yield to the cars exiting the freeway but you’re lucky if you can get just one lane to yield, let alone two or three lanes.

Have you ever been caught in the move that I call “pass the jerk sign”?  You pull up to a light with a bunch of cars already stopped at it so you think it is safe to be in the right lane because only one of the stopped cars ahead of you has a turn signal on so you are safe and not going to be the “jerk” that blocks everyone else from making a right on red. Then the first car makes a right on red-that’s okay four more cars before you and not all of them could be making a right.  Only the third one has their turn signal on, so that makes the next car at the light the “jerk” because he is blocking the right turn on red drivers. Then that guys turns! The next person turns! Then the guy with his signal on turns and before you know it, you have been passed the “jerk” sign because now you ARE the guy blocking three cars behind you with their signals on. They only signal when you want to go straight. I hate it when that happens.

Tell us what your pet peeve is here at wirelessdefensivedriving.com and remember to always keep your cool on the road and use your defensive driving skills. Road rage is a real and serious thing as we all know. That is why we discuss road rage and how to avoid the situation and how to deal with it if you get caught up in a “road rage” confrontation in our course.