Category Archives: Safe Driving Tips

Survive a Deadly Pileup Crash

Note: I originally wrote this article in December, 2012.  It is no longer available at its original source, so I am reposting it here.

On Friday, October 5, 2012, 53 cars were involved in a pileup crash on a Florida highway that injured more than 50 people.  And that, apparently, was just the beginning.  On Thanksgiving day, a 150-car pileup near Beaumont, Texas killed two people and injured nearly 80 others.  Within a single week, an additional six pileup crashes were reported:

  • Dec. 17: 27 car pileup in Quebec City
  • Dec. 19: 60 car pileup in California
  • Dec. 19: 7 car pileup in Vancouver
  • Dec. 19: 35 car pileup in New York
  • Dec. 20: 23 car pileup in Texas
  • Dec. 20: 25 car pileup in Iowa

That’s nearly 400 cars wrecked in just 8 crashes in a 12-week period – five of those pileups have happened in the past 24 hours.  There are some common factors to these incidents.

All of them happened on highways.  In most of them, weather conditions were considered a “contributing factor”.  In all of them, driver error was a primary factor.

While highways offer convenience and efficiency, allowing us to quickly move between distant cities, simple errors can quickly turn them deadly.  Here are four tips to keep yourself out of a deadly pileup.

1. ADJUST YOUR SPEED.

In most states, the maximum speed limit posted on a road applies only during “optimal conditions” – that is, dry roads in daylight with good visibility.  If weather conditions deteriorate and the roads become compromised with rain, ice or snow, or visibility is compromised with fog or darkness, the law requires drivers to reduce their speed accordingly.

The distance it takes your car to come to a complete stop depends on a few things, including your reactions, your speed, the mass of your vehicle and your traction (here’s a tip: good tires on dry roads stop waaaaay shorter than bald tires on wet roads).

 

stopping-distancesDriving too fast shortens your stopping distance while slippery roads increases it.  This leaves you open to hydroplaning or skidding – either way, you’re out of control.

2. MAINTAIN A SAFE FOLLOW DISTANCE.

But speeding isn’t the only mistake here.  On the highway you should maintain a 4-6 second follow distance from the car in front of you, and add an extra second for every inclement weather condition (add a second for rain, another for fog, et cetera).

 

following-distance-at-varying-speeds

This gives you time to react safely if something awful goes down ahead of you.

3. KEEP YOUR SPACE CUSHION CLEAR.

In addition to your follow distance, make sure you keep a space cushion around your vehicle for safety.  Stay aware of the traffic around you, and don’t let yourself get boxed up – boxed-in cars become squished cars in a traffic pileup.

4. CHANGE YOUR PLANS.

Here’s the simplest advice to stay alive:  if the weather is forecast to turn bad, clear your schedule and stay home.  If you absolutely have to drive, stay off the highway.  Take local roads where traffic is more likely to be moving slowly anyway.  Arriving late is better than never arriving at all.

If you learned something from this article, great!  You’re now a little bit smarter than the average driver.  Share this with as many people as you can and maybe we can put an end to these horrible pileup crashes.

Dodging Debris

When driving, especially on the highway, you really never know when circumstances will suddenly change.  At highway speed, you’re moving at about 80 feet per second or faster.  If something suddenly pops into your path, you may only have a second or two to react.

Watch this video, taken from the Modern Driver DashCam.  In this clip, a living room recliner blows out of the bed of a pickup truck in the right lane before bouncing to a stop in the left lane of a highway.

Notice that the only escape path was to quickly move into the adjacent lane – a move which in only possible if the lane is vacant.  One of the most important things to remember about driving on multilane roads is to always leave yourself an escape path.  Try to position yourself in the traffic flow so that the lane next to you is empty, and other cars are at least two seconds away.  If you’re constantly maintaining this emergency buffer space around your car, dodging an attacking recliner is a relatively easy maneuver.

The Deadliest Season

It’s begun: the “100 Deadliest Days” of the year for teen drivers is upon us.  Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, an average of 399 teens will die each month, according to statistics reported by AAA.  The rest of the year averages more than 50 fewer deaths monthly.  That’s an average of 16 teens killed in car crashes every single day all summer long.

Summer starts with proms and graduations, then opens up for beach trips, mountain escapes and spontaneous road trips.  According to AAA, the seven most dangerous days on the road for teens during summer are May 20, May 23, June 10, July 4, July 9, Aug. 8 and Aug. 14.

What can parents do to keep their teens safe?

To keep teens safe during these dangerous months and year round, AAA Insurance suggests the following tips for parents:

  • Eliminate trips without purpose.
  • Limit passengers. Fatal crash rates for 16- to 19-year-olds increase fivefold when two or more teen passengers are present versus when teens drive alone.
  • Restrict night driving. A teen driver’s chances of being involved in a deadly crash doubles at night.
  • Establish a parent-teen driving agreement. Written agreements help set and enforce clear rules about night driving, passengers, access to the car, and more.
  • Enroll teens in summer driving school.   If your teen earned their license within the past year, a refresher in defensive driving could help save their life.
  • Be there. Make sure your teen knows that if they need help, advice or a ride, they can call you at any time. Extend this offer often and let your teen know that you are always available, and that they will not be judged or punished should they need your help.

MADD also suggests:

  • Talk about alcohol.  Talk with your teens about not drinking alcohol until they are 21 and never get in the car with someone who has been drinking.
  • Buckle up. Insist on seat belts at all times and in all seating positions. Low seat belt use is one of the primary reasons that teen driver and passenger fatality and injury rates remain high.

Legacy of the Titanic

This week, the world is remembering the fateful maiden voyage of the Titanic, which sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912. Considered “unsinkable”, the mighty ship went down in less than two hours. More than fifteen hundred lives were lost, and transportation safety changed forever.

 

Titanic was actually built to handle 64 wooden lifeboats, but carried only 16 – the minimum required by law for a vessel of that size. The ship’s crew were poorly trained in evacuation procedures, and both passengers and crew regarded the ship as “unsinkable” – which led to many lifeboats departing Titanic nearly empty. Titanic was speeding in poor visibility conditions and ignoring warnings about icebergs in its path. Many people died that night simply because they were unwilling to consider the possibility of an emergency.

This idea that “accidents can’t happen” or “accidents won’t happen to me” leads people every day to take all kinds of needless risks while driving. Many people still don’t bother taking three seconds to buckle up, despite the proven ability of this one simple act to save a life, because they aren’t considering the possibility of catastrophe every time they get in the car. Many people still speed, some even in poor visibility. Many people still send and receive text messages while driving – I saw two people doing it yesterday – despite the incredible danger it poses. Texting while driving is like speeding an ocean liner through icy waters while ignoring all warnings about the danger: it’s killed others in crashes, so don’t think of yourself as “unsinkable”.

Traffic crashes in Pennsylvania alone kill almost as many people as the Titanic tragedy every single year.

This week, think about the tragedy of the “unsinkable” Titanic. Think about your habits and behaviors behind the wheel – are you prepared for a crash every time you get in the car, or do you drive thinking you’re “unsinkable”?

Just In Case: Don’t Forget ICE

No one plans to be in a car crash, but they happen.  On average, more than 8,000 people are injured in car accidents every day.

If you’re hurt in a car crash, you may not be conscious, or you may not be coherent.  Emergency personnel and first responders need to know how to contact your family if something has happened to you.  The easiest way for them to do this is with your own cell phone.

You can make it easy for police and EMTs to contact your family by adding ICE contacts to your cell phone.  ICE stands for “In Case of Emergency” – they’re trained to look for these alphabetically in your address book.

Create a new contact that looks like this:

ICE Mom 215-555-1212

Begin the entry with “ICE” and follow it with some descriptive context for who the person is to you – mom, dad, uncle, husband, wife, etc.  Add more than one ICE contact if needed.

Teach Your Toddler To Drive

No, we at Modern Driver Institute don’t actually teach toddlers how to drive.  We won’t train anyone under the age of 16 behind the wheel.  But as parents, you’ve been teaching your child to drive all of her life.

Think about how children learn other things.  They learn to walk, talk, eat with utensils and every other skill by watching us, their families.  They learn by mimicking our behaviors.  And they’re in their car seats in the back of the family sedan, watching you drive.  And they’re learning.

When your child turns 16 and begins serious training to get their license, they’re starting off with a set of learned behaviors conjured from a lifetime of watching mom and dad drive them around.  Everything you do behind the wheel can become a part of their driving.  Do you roll through stop signs?  Drive aggressively?  Give in to distractions (say, talk on the phone)?  If you routinely yell at other drivers, roll through stop signs or speed, your kids will do it too.

Set the best example you can, be as consistent as possible, and start as young as possible.  It’ll all pay off when your teen is driving.

Parents Teaching Distracted Driving Habits

“The learner should realize that every careless and inattentive act on his part, not only endangers his life, but the lives of his passengers, pedestrians, and occupants of other vehicles.”

That quote comes from Amos Neyhart, from his foundational 1934 work Instruction Book on the Safe Operation of a Motor Vehicle for Teachers and Learners.  Neyhart, a professor at Penn State, originated the entire field of driver’s education.  He taught students in the classroom and behind the wheel in his own car, a 1929 Graham-Paige.  That particular car didn’t have a radio.  Neyhart himself died in 1990, a decade before cell phones and GPS devices began to transform the inside of a car and really define what modern distractions are.

The words Neyhart published 78 years ago seem more prescient than anything from Nostradamus as modern cars and modern technology tempt us to distraction more every day.  Distracted driving is one of the leading causes of today’s crashes and vehicle fatalities, and something we modern driving instructors must continually address.

Parents, you don’t seem to be helping as much as you could.  According to a new survey by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and Toyota, teens who think their parents drive distracted are 3 times as likely to drive distracted themselves.  Remember, your kids start watching your driving behavior the moment you place them in a forward-facing car seat and get behind the wheel.  Everything you do, they see, and children are wonderful mimics of parental behavior.  Click here to read more about the new study.

Parents, take the time to go on a little inquest and take a strong, objective look at your driving behavior.  If you can’t, have someone help you – solicit opinions from family and friends who often ride with you.  If you’re not sure what behaviors to model for your children, why not give us a call?  An hour with a professional instructor can reveal worlds about your driving, including dangerous habits you’re likely not even aware of yourself.

Driver education hasn’t changed much since the Neyhart days of the Great Depression.  He recognized then that distracted drivers are dangerous drivers.  What has changed is how very easily we can become distracted behind the wheel, and how much more dangerous we’ve become as drivers.

At Modern Driver Institute, we’re here to help ALL drivers, even the 87% of licensed Americans over the age of 30 who earned their driving privileges before cell phones existed and who are likely now training tomorrow’s drivers, just by modeling behaviors.

The Deadly Truth About Rural Roads

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released a detailed study of vehicle crashes from the year 2010 which found that 55% of fatal crashes happened in rural areas.  That’s 2.5 times the rate of fatal crashes for urban areas, despite the fact that only 19% of the population lives in rural areas – or maybe because of that.

Rural roads tend to be narrow, two lanes and can be full of sharp curves and hills that limit sight distance.  Drivers who are comfortable in urban and suburban settings just may not have the experience to survive the particular challenges these roads present.  They require an understanding of how the laws of physics impact your car as well as a keen attention to detail, both in seeing/understanding the advance warning signs and interpreting the road ahead for danger.

Pennsylvania fared slightly better than the national average, but more than half the fatal crashes during that year happened in rural environments.  Pennsylvania ranked sixth nationwide in the number of deaths on rural roads.

To see the complete NHTSA report, click here.

Modern Driver Institute trains students on some of the most challenging rural roads in the area as part of our standard program.