Defensive Driving Tips and Techniques

You can’t drive very far with your eyes closed without running off the road or hitting something! Impaired vision is a real handicap in adopting defensive driving techniques. If you drive, the health of your eyes, or sight, should be considered paramount. Have regular eye tests and adopt appropriate remedies for any condition which might effect your driving, both during the day, and at night.

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“Black Ice ahead”. When Driving on icy roads as you are traveling America-ful on these cold, windy, rainy (freezing), days and nights be as safe as you possibly can. Before I retired, the company I worked for would have us attend Defensive Driving classes each winter. We had to go at least once a year and it always corresponded with the wintery driving conditions.

One of the joys of living in a southern, warm climate like Florida is that you don’t have to worry too much about “black ice” or snow. However, you do have to worry about the 97 year- old who might be doing 45 MPH in a 65 MPH zone. Nothing against 97 year-olds (I hope to be one some day), but it could be just as dangerous if they become disoriented or don’t see you or the next exit they are supposed to take.

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Defensive driving teaches safe driving techniques to drivers. At defensive driving classes students learn to overcome mistakes in driving techniques, learn to improve their driving skills; learn to make informed decisions and to anticipate situations while driving.

Defensive driving classes have been set up in every state by the government and police departments to make the world a safer place to live in. The need for speed can kill, it is important to teach driver discipline and safety rules. Defensive driving aims to reduce the risk of driving. Drivers must instinctively anticipate dangerous situations and avoid risks while driving vehicles in normal as well as adverse conditions. defensive driving courses cover aspects like: emergency care, principles of safety, control of fear and emotions, on the spot decision making, quick reactions, fear, and so on.

More than 50,000 people in the US loose their lives due to road accidents. Accidents can be prevented by following simple rules. There are websites online that teach the rules that can help save lives.

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Six new driving laws being introduced in 2008 will certainly help drivers employ more defensive driving techniques when on the roads. Relating to hands-free driving, the laws will target cell phones, text messaging and teens.

To those drivers possessing even a small modicum of common sense, the concept of text messaging and speaking on a hand held cell phone whilst driving seems to beggar belief. As one of the key defensive driving techniques is to “avoid distractions” whilst driving, trying to text message and drive at the same time is simply impossible.

The following article by Steve Thomas discusses the new laws - read on, it is very interesting!

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“The $20 a week you spend on lattes might keep you awake, and the $16 you spend on a CD might keep you entertained, but the $22 you spend on a magnetic bumper tag that lets people know a teenager is behind the wheel could save your child’s life,” says Tracey Strozier of Get ‘Em Tagged (www.GetEmTagged.com).

The numbers are stark. Teen drivers between 16 and 19 years old have a fatality rate four times the rate of drivers age 25-69. Sixteen-year-old drivers have a crash rate three times that of 17-year-olds, five times that of 18-year-olds, and two times that of 85-year-olds. Over 5,000 teens die in driving accidents each year, and teen drivers are involved in crashes that cause over a half million injuries annually.

Those startling numbers are precisely why Strozier and her husband, Roderic, launched Get ‘Em Tagged (www.GetEmTagged.com), a set of programs designed to change public policy, incentivize teen drivers to use more caution behind the wheel, and alert others who are on the road that a teen driver is in their midst.

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