garyhaupt wrote:
Johno02 wrote:
One bit of advice that I heard early and often from my father, who was a driver all his life. The rule was that if I saw brake lights anywhere in front of me, my foot comes off the gas immediately, and doesn't go back until I see what caused the brake light to come on. That has kept me out of trouble many times.
That...right there is a major cause of avoiding accidents. Good for you.
Pro drivers call it 'seeing the big picture'. Your eyes are always scanning..ahead in three spots..right in front, mid way and all the way out. Plus you are scanning the mirrors...all the time.
As a professional driver, my employer initiated a program to reduce accidents and put the responsibility on the hired gun. It was 'Preventable or Non Preventable'. Not right or wrong. And almost every accident is preventable if you see if it from that perspective.
Someone racing up to the stop sign on your right corner..and you have the right of way...you can prevent that collision. This applies to most or all driving situations. Don't look to be in the right..although you sure want to be if there is contact, but if you are driving to prevent? You are in control and you will get there no later than if you just drove as per usual.
Gary Haupt
I learned the "preventable or non-preventable" concept when I took driver's ed in high school. You always do everything you can to prevent an accident. There are a few tricks that I have learned that help reduce people doing bad things to me on the road:
1. always watch several cars ahead, on my sides and at my rear. Yep, foot off the gas when a tail light lights up until I know why;
2. always keep to that 3 second rule. I always leave enough room between me and the car in front of me so that someone can move in without cutting me off, forcing me to hit my brakes, etc. In rush hour traffic, I find it to be exceptionally effective - it does not slow my progress down because I don't have to come to a complete stop every time someone wants off the freeway, I can cruise at a steady pace while folks move on and off as needed. And they don't have to cut me off to make their exit;
3. I always tap my brakes when I am coming on a slow down or at a stop on the highway/freeway. By tapping my brake lights, I let the person coming up from behind know that there is something going on. Just sitting with my brake lights on often looks like I'm just driving with my lights on, and sitting with no lights is even more deceptive. I have found that by tapping my brakes in those situations, I rarely have someone come up behind me so fast that they have to swerve not to hit me.
#2 is the most difficult for folks to understand. In rush hour traffic, they see the highway like a line at the grocery store - if you let someone in your lane, it will slow down your progress. That's not true. The highway isn't like a grocery store line, it's like a grocery store aisle. If folks stop and sit on top of each other in the aisle, you can't get to the end. But, if they stagger so there is room to get your cart around them, they can stop to grab the canned peas and you can keep moving. Or think of it like Frogger - as long as there is enough room for the frog to fit between the cars, he can get across the road without any car having to slow down; if all the cars are too close together, then he can't get across or there's an accident and everyone stops.
