Few Practical Rules of Defensive Driving: Exercising Patience, Caution, and Consistency. At Famewheels, we emphasize safe driving practices to ensure road safety for everyone. caution, and consistency.
1. Prepare Before You Leave
Build in enough time to avoid rushing and to allow for breaks and needed stops. Check your vehicle to make sure it’s operational, especially if it’s a vehicle you’re unfamiliar with, including walking around and conducting a visual inspection. Before starting the vehicle, adjust the seat, mirror, climate control, GPS/directions, and music so that you aren’t distracted by these while driving. Switch your cell phone to “do not disturb” setting to limit distractions.
2. Look Ahead
A driver with defensive driving skills scans the road ahead of them and behind them. They ensure road safety by scanning ahead at least ten seconds, a quarter of a mile, or to the next intersection to ensure they have enough time to avoid potential dangers.
3. Prepare for the Unexpected
Because drivers don’t know what other drivers will do, they must keep an eye on the actions of others at all times. Erratic drivers, such as drunk drivers or people on mobile devices, might swerve into their lane or change speeds unexpectedly. Drivers need to be ready to react quickly.
4. Don’t Speed
Driving above the posted speed limit increases risk in two ways: it cuts reaction time and results in more damage if the driver gets in a wreck. A defensive driver chooses a speed matching traffic as closely as possible without exceeding speed limit. If traffic is moving at high speeds and aggressive drivers are present, drivers need to keep to the right and out of the way.
5. Don’t Drive When Impaired
Driving while impaired includes more than drunk driving. Driver fatigue, illness, and the use of medications, alcohol, and drugs all are possible hazards and need to be considered before a driver gets behind the wheel.
6. Always Wear a Seatbelt
Wearing a seatbelt cuts the likelihood of dying in a traffic accident. Safety belts provide impact protection, absorb the force of a crash, and keep drivers and their passengers from being thrown out of the vehicle.
7. Don’t Run Red Lights
There are three types of red-light runners:
- Daydreamers
- Distracted drivers
- Aggressive drivers
All three types cause car accidents. A safer driver pays attention to traffic lights, slows down, and comes to a complete stop. The same goes for stop signs.
8. Follow Traffic Laws
Basic traffic laws codify the concept of defensive driving. Although the average person understands traffic rules, many careless drivers ignore them. Drivers need to follow the laws because they keep traffic moving in a predictable manner. When drivers know what others are going to do, they avoid conflicts and collisions.
9. Create Space
Defensive drivers create space around their vehicles. A safe following distance is two to four seconds depending on variables like heavy traffic or adverse weather conditions.
10. Signal Correctly
Signaling at the wrong time often leads to traffic crashes. For example, if a driver is approaching an intersection and plans to turn right immediately after the intersection into a gas station, they increase the risk of an accident if they signal too soon. Another driver might turn left in front of them because they don’t know where they are turning. Keep this in mind when moving across lanes as well. Signaling and checking traffic around you, as well as your blind spots, are important when changing lanes.
11. Know the Vehicle’s Blind Spots
Road users need to familiarize themselves with the largest blind spots of fleet vehicles before they drive them. The blind areas on most vehicles are large enough to hide other vehicles, so before changing lanes, good defensive drivers turn their heads to check for oncoming traffic.
12. Beware of Intersections
Intersections are one of the most dangerous areas for any driver. More than 80% of all collisions in cities that result in injury or death occur within signal-light intersections. To reduce their risk, drivers must slow down as they approach a green light and make sure to look left, then right, then left again. The first danger to drivers is the traffic approaching from their left. If the intersection is a blind one—where a driver can’t see the traffic on the cross street until they are very close—they need to slow down even more.
Learning about becoming a defensive driver requires repetition, practice, and engagement. Remember: “Defensive Drivers Choose Caution Over Speed.”
