Category Archives: Safe Driving Tips

Research, Safe Driving Tips, Teens

CDC Study Shows Changing Risks For Teens

Times, they are a’changing.

A new CDC survey of more than 15,000 high school students shows some interesting trends: the risky behaviors teens engage in behind the wheel are changing.

In 1991, 26% of teens admitted to “never or rarely” buckling up for a drive.  Twenty years later, only 8% admit to the same risky behavior.  That’s a terrific reduction, and it shows that the positive messages of driver education can make a difference.  Likewise, the number of teens who admitted to either drinking while driving or riding with someone who had dropped by half.  These two particular risks have plagued teens (and driving instructors) for the past 50 years, and finally seem to be on the decline – only to be replaced.

The new survey finds that a third of teens admit to texting while driving, and more teens now smoke pot than cigarettes, believing marijuana to be “safer” than tobacco.

Texting while driving is now illegal in Pennsylvania, but teens face only minor fines if they’re actually caught.  Not all states treat the issue so lightly – Massachusetts recently convicted a teen of vehicular homicide for texting while driving.  As for the rise in pot usage, blame an overly-aggressive anti-smoking campaign combined with a media spotlight on medical marijuana for confusing our kids.  Whatever side of the cancer argument you might be on, no one questions that the active ingredients in marijuana impair safe driving ability.  It’s hard to make that argument about tobacco.

There are more than 8 million licensed drivers in our state alone.  The roads become more congested and more dangerous every year, and our teens are becoming more and more impaired, by technology and by materials they consume without understanding the dangers.

PARENTS, WHAT YOU CAN DO

Make sure that you have a Driving Contract with your newly licensed teen, and make sure that it explicitly forbids texting and marijuana use, in addition to forbidding drinking and other drugs.  Have a talk with them about what marijuana can do to their mind, or have them talk with someone who knows.  Install software on their phone which disables the ability to text while driving.

And keep up the seat belt messages – at least we’re getting through to them on that one.

Safe Driving Tips

Survive A Deadly Pileup Crash

On Friday, October 5, 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 the past week, an additional six pileup crashes have been 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).

Your total stopping distance is a combination of your reaction and the braking distance of your car.
Your total stopping distance is a combination of your reaction and the braking distance of your car. Image source: UK Highway Code.

Driving 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).

Keep a safe follow distance to give yourself room to react.
Keep a safe follow distance to give yourself room to react. Image Source: NJ DOT Driver’s Manual.

 

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.  Here’s how this works:

Keep a safe space cushion around your car in traffic. Image source: Michael Mercadante.
Keep a safe space cushion around your car in traffic. Image source: Michael Mercadante.

See the little blue car with the red arrows all around it in the image above?  This driver has the right idea.  There are no cars directly in front of or behind him, and nothing off to either side.  If bad things happen, this car has room to react and room to escape.

See the yellow car two behind our blue car?  He’s in big trouble if things go awry.  He’s boxed in between the large trucks with traffic close in front of him.  Stay aware of the traffic around you, and don’t let yourself get boxed up like this – 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.

Safe Driving Tips

This Person Could Be Driving Next To You

I just took a call at our office from a woman who wanted to take the PA driving test, and she wanted us just to teach her how to parallel park.  She didn’t want any other education, and claimed she already knew how to drive and drives around all the time.

As the conversation went on, I found out she doesn’t have a PA learner’s permit – she has a learner’s permit from Tennessee, which means she’s been driving illegally 700 miles north of where she’s permitted to drive.  But she expected to take the PA test with her TN permit.

A learner’s permit is permission to learn how to drive – it’s not a driver’s license.  Among the restrictions on a permit is that you must be accompanied by a licensed driver at all times, and you may not drive outside the boundaries of the state that issued the learner’s permit.

I have to ask myself – if this person didn’t know she couldn’t take a PA driver’s test with a Tennessee learner’s permit, what else doesn’t she know?  I told her we couldn’t do anything for her until she’d applied for and received a PA learner’s permit, and at that point we would do a standard 6-hour training package to make sure she knows how to drive defensively in all road environments.

She hung up at this point, because I wasn’t giving her the easy answers she wanted.  But we’re not in this business to license everyone – it’s our job, our passion, to make sure that everyone who drives in Pennsylvania is as safe as they can possibly be behind the wheel, so they’re not pointing a two-ton weapon of mass destruction at our families.

It pains me to know she’ll call around and eventually find a low-rent driving school that will give her exactly what she wants, not what she needs.

Safe Driving Tips, Teens

Bucks County Teen Killed In Crash

One teen was killed and another critically injured in a crash on Old Jacksonville Road in Northhampton Township on Saturday, December 8.  The crash happened at about 2:00PM on a Saturday afternoon.

18-year-old LJ Tanner, a senior at Council Rock South High School, was driving a late-model Chevrolet Monte Carlo along Jacksonville Road near Sacketts Ford Road.  According to news coverage by ABC, “the silver Monte Carlo hit a bump and flipped several times before crashing into a utility pole”.

There were five teenagers in the car when it crashed.  The front seat passenger, 19-year-old Cameron Smithwick, was pronounced dead on the scene.  According to the report, “Cameron, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, was thrown into the backseat”.  Tanner is in critical condition with spine and head injuries, while the three passengers in the back seat, all Council Rock seniors, were listed in stable condition.

This is a terrible tragedy that should never happen, the result of a few mistakes that can never be taken back.  The Monte Carlo is best known for its success on the racing circuit and carries either a V6 or V8 engine, depending on the trim package.  Old Jacksonville Road along this section is relatively straight.  Tanner didn’t lose control going around a turn, he lost control on a straightaway.

It wasn’t raining on Saturday afternoon, but the roads were wet.  I was out working with a student on Bucks County roads the same time that this crash happened.  The maximum speed along this road for the prevailing conditions would have been between 35 and 40MPH.  While police are still investigating the causes of the crash, a 3,500 pound car carrying 5 passengers (another 750-1000 pounds) doesn’t flip over several times after hitting a bump in the road at 35-40MPH.  This is more likely to happen at speeds over 60MPH, which is way too fast for that road and the weather conditions.  My suspicion is that Tanner was driving way too fast for both conditions and his experience level and was unable to maintain or recover control when his car hit the bump in the road.

It’s a mistake that happens all too frequently.  Traffic crashes are the number one cause of death for teens.  They often lack the experience, education, judgment and skills to minimize risk effectively.

Cameron is the only one mentioned by the news reports as not wearing his seat belt at the time of the crash.  He was also the only one killed.  There really is a correlation here – seat belts can save lives.  If Cameron had been belted, he might be in the hospital with his friends.

I hate to see crashes like this.  I hate to see kids die because of a senseless mistake.  I hate to think that there are kids who don’t realize how dangerous such mistakes can really be.  We can’t go back in time and prevent this crash from happening, but by talking about it with our students and our children, maybe we can help prevent the next one.  Parents, talk with your teen drivers about this crash.  If you haven’t been in the car with them for a while, do a “ride-along” and see how they’re doing today.  Driver education doesn’t end when a student gets their license – in a sense, that’s when it really begins.

Community Outreach, Highway Safety, Safe Driving Tips

What’s Killing Our Drivers?

NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) has released two interesting preliminary reports this month.

The first reveals that “an estimated 16,290 people died in motor vehicle crashes” during the first six months of 2012.  The number represents a 9% increase in traffic deaths over the prior year, while miles driven during that time only increased 1.1%.  That 9% increase is the largest in recorded history over the first six-month period of any year.

The second report shows that seat belt use among vehicle occupants is up to 86%, a record high.  So, more people are taking advantage of safety technology in their cars, and more people are being killed in their car.  Now, the hippies and anarchists in the audience will no doubt tie the two together to reinforce their belief, however delusional, that seat belts don’t protect people and they have a better chance of survival remaining unbelted.  The truth is, seat belts save lives every day, and the risk of death quadruples if you’re ejected from the car in a crash.  There’s a common quote attributed to policemen who handle traffic crashes: “I’ve never unbuckled a dead man”.

So, if more people are buckling up and more people are getting killed in crashes, what’s going wrong?  Shouldn’t fewer people die if more of us are wearing seat belts?

According to NHTSA, the majority of vehicles involved in fatal crashes were going straight when they crashed.  Did you read that right?  Going.  Straight.  That means that most people are killed trying to drive in a straight line – what we pretty much assume to be one of the easiest tasks.  Why?

It all comes down to the choices we make behind the wheel.  You know that old idiom, “To Err is Human”?  It’s true.  We are all human beings, and therefore we all make mistakes.  The thing is, if we make a mistake at the grocery store, we come home without milk.  If we make a mistake at school, we get a lower grade on the test.  But if we make a mistake behind the wheel of a car in traffic, we can DIE.  Big letters, D-I-E.  Not too many other activities in life can kill you in a heartbeat if you goof.  Drivers, especially adults, tend to forget this.  As we gain experience driving, we tend to take the entire task for granted.  Here are the most common fatal mistakes drivers tend to make:

  • SPEEDING: Far and away, one of the biggest contributors to fatal crashes is driving too fast for conditions.  This means either breaking the speed limit or not slowing down when conditions require it, like during fog, rain and in congested traffic.  According to one NHTSA report, speeding was a factor in 90% of traffic fatalities.
  • DRUGS:  Not just alcohol, but even prescription medicine, over-the-counter cold and allergy treatments, even caffeine – all of them can impact your ability to drive safely.  NHTSA estimates drugs or alcohol contributing to 85% of fatal crashes.
  • ATTENTION:  These days, our lives are busier than ever, and our driving suffers because of it.  Sleepiness was a factor in 91% of fatal crashes, and driving distractions were a factor in 78% of deaths.
  • POOR SKILLS: In 85% of fatal run-off-the-road crashes, the driver over-corrected an error.  This mistake KILLED that person.

How prepared are you to drive?  Do you ever speed?  Do you ever drive while eating, drinking, smoking, talking, looking at your GPS or using your phone?  Do you ever drive tired?  If you do any of these things, you’re courting death behind the wheel.  If it hasn’t happened yet, you’ve been lucky.  And luck is not something to bet your life on, because sooner or later it runs out.

How are your driving skills?  Did you ever take professional driving instruction?  Was it just a classroom course or did you also take behind the wheel lessons?  How long ago was it?  If you’ve been driving for more than 5 years, ask yourself honestly:  could you pass both the knowledge test and the practical driving test for your state if you took them today without studying?

The “without studying” part is important, because you won’t be studying before you drive home this afternoon.  Pennsylvania passes new laws governing how you drive on their roads every single year, and lots of them.  If you’ve had your license more than 10 years, there are dozens of laws now that didn’t exist the last time you took the knowledge test.

How many drivers are experts at driving?  The magic number of practice hours to be considered an expert seems to be 10,000.  Think about that – if you drove for an average of 30 minutes every day, 365 days a year, it would take you 50 years to gain the proficiency level of a world-class expert driver.  Most Americans drive an hour a day on average, meaning that the average driver who got their license at 16 is just reaching their 10,000 hour mark around the age of 41.  And that’s if, every single time they drive, they’re actually trying to be a better driver, to improve their performance.  If that same person spends the whole hour drinking coffee and tweeting about traffic, that hour doesn’t count.  Given this, and the frequency of things like distracted driving, fatigued driving and reckless driving, most of us are not even trying to get to the magic 10,000 hours.

So, again, be honest with yourself:  what kind of driver are you?  Are you the kind of driver who doesn’t care about performance and is headed down a path toward a fatal crash?  Or are you using every hour, every mile, behind the wheel to hone your skill as a driver and stay alive as long as you can?

It’s a simple truth – if we’re talking about the violin, your life doesn’t hang in the balance if you don’t make it to the expert level.  The same just isn’t true for driving.

Community Outreach, Highway Safety, PennDOT News, Safe Driving Tips

New Law Enforces Traffic Control Signs

A new state law imposing stiff penalties on motorists who ignore “Road Closed” or other safety warning signs and devices is now in effect.

Act 114, signed on July 5 by Governor Tom Corbett, reinforces the critical need for all drivers to obey traffic control signs. The law aims to increase safety for motorists and emergency responders in areas where flooding or other hazardous conditions exist.

“Too often, motorists decide their immediate needs outweigh the safety warning signs and they ignore them, which increases hazards for them and emergency responders,” said  PennDOT Secretary Barry J. Schoch. “This law underscores that we take safety seriously. When motorists are confronted with emergency road closures, we urge them to use common sense and obey the signs that are placed to keep them safe.”

Under the law, motorists who drive around or through signs or traffic control devices closing a road or highway due to hazardous conditions will have two points added to their driving records and be fined up to $250.

If the violation results in a need for emergency responders to be called, the fine is increased to between $250 and $500. In addition, violators will be held liable for repaying the costs of staging the emergency response.

What do you think about this new law?

Bicycle And Pedestrian Safety, Child Passenger Safety, Community Outreach, Highway Safety, Safe Driving Tips

Bus Stop Safety

For twenty three million students nationwide, the school day begins and ends with a trip on a school bus. The greatest risk is not riding the bus, but approaching or leaving the bus. Before children go back to school or start school for the first time, it is essential that adults and children know traffic safety rules.

Drivers

  • When backing out of a driveway or leaving a garage, watch out for children walking or bicycling to school.
  • When driving in neighborhoods with school zones, watch out for young people who may be thinking about getting to school, but may not be thinking of getting there safely.
  • Slow down. Watch for children walking in the street, especially if there are no sidewalks in neighborhood.
  • Slow down. Watch for children playing and congregating near bus stops.
  • Be alert. Children arriving late for the bus may dart into the street with out looking for traffic.
  • Learn and obey the school bus laws in your state. Learn the “flashing signal light system” that school bus drivers use to alert motorists of pending actions:
  • Yellow flashing lights indicate that the bus is preparing to stop to load or unload children. Motorists should slow down and prepare to stop their vehicles.
  • Red flashing lights and extended stop arms indicate that the bus has stopped, and that children are getting on or off. Motorists must stop their cars and wait until the red lights stop flashing, the extended stop sign is withdrawn, and the bus begins moving before they can start driving again.

Children

  • Get to the bus stop at least five minutes before the bus is scheduled to arrive.
  • When the bus approaches, stand at least three giant steps (6 feet) away from the curb, and line up away from the street.
  • Wait until the bus stops, the door opens, and the driver says that it’s okay before stepping onto the bus.
  • If you have to cross the street in front of the bus, walk on the sidewalk or along the side of the road to a point at least five giant steps (10 feet) ahead of the bus before you cross. Be sure that the bus driver can see you, and you can see the bus driver.
  • Use the handrails to avoids falls. When exiting the bus, be careful that clothing with drawstrings, and book bags with straps don’t get caught in the handrails or doors.
  • Never walk behind the bus.
  • Walk at least three giant steps away from the side of the bus.
  • If you drop something near the bus, tell the bus driver. Never try to pick it up because the driver may not be able to see you.

Parents

  • Teach children to follow these common sense practices to make school bus transportation safer.

 

Highway Safety, Safe Driving Tips, Teens

Teen Gets Prison For Texting While Driving

18-year-old Aaron Deveau will be spending the next 2-4 years in prison, rather than college.  He recently became the first American convicted of vehicular homicide by texting under a new Massachusetts law.

On February 20, 2011, Deveau’s car swerved across the center line and crashed head on into a truck, killing 55-year-old father of three Donald Bowley.  The crash happened at 2:36PM.  Prosecutors in the case reported that Deveau sent a text message while driving at 2:35PM, and received a reply seconds before losing control of his car.

Texting while driving is now illegal in Pennsylvania, as well as 37 other states and Washington, DC.  It’s one of the most dangerous distractions facing drivers today, and also one of the most prevalent.

Having trouble putting the phone down while driving?  There’s an app for that.

Safe Driving Tips

Feds Want End To Texting While Driving

Today, federal Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood proposed voluntary steps to establish new safety criteria for hands-free calling, navigation and entertainment systems in cars.

“Distracted driving is a dangerous and deadly habit on America’s roadways — that’s why I’ve made it a priority to encourage people to stay focused behind the wheel,” LaHood said.

Distracted driving deaths totaled 3,092 in 2010, the latest available figures show. But LaHood’s agency believes the total could be higher due to the unwillingness of drivers to always admit behavior, lack of witnesses to a crash in some cases, or the death of the driver.

Most U.S. motorists surveyed last year acknowledged few situations in which they would not use a cellphone or text while behind the wheel. However, they supported measures to curb both practices, the Transportation Department said.

La Hood’s proposal recommends disabling in-vehicle electronic devices that the driver could use when a car is moving. This would cover text messaging, Internet browsing, and access to social media.  The National Transportation Safety Board also recommended in December that certain hands-free and communication devices be banned in cars.

Safe Driving Tips

Drive For L.O.V.E.

This month, we celebrate Valentine’s Day, the time of year when we all think about love.  That’s a good thing – knowing people love you helps put value on your life and the things you do.  This year, we want to encourage all drivers to consider the ones they love by driving safer.  To help, we’ve unlocked the secret of L.O.V.E. as it relates to safe driving.

  • L IS FOR LISTEN: We can learn a lot about our driving environment by just listening to what’s around us.  Often, the first warning of impending danger comes as a sound – maybe it’s the screech of tires, a car horn or an emergency siren.  Don’t play your music so loud you can’t hear the world around you, and don’t let yourself get so engrossed in music or conversation that you tune out the world outside your car.  Recognizing the danger posed by a particular sound could allow you to react slightly faster than if you waited until you saw it, and that could mean all the difference.
  • O IS FOR OBSERVE: Avoid tunnel vision.  Keep scanning the entire environment around your car, not just the road ahead of you.  Check your mirrors (side and rearview) often, and always check over your shoulder when merging or changing lanes to clear your blind spot.  And remember not to linger in someone else’s blind spot – make sure other drivers can observe you too.
  • V IS FOR VALUE: Value your own life, and value the lives of others in traffic around you.  We’re all important to someone, and we all have things to contribute to this world.  Try not to get upset with the mistakes of others, and instead correct your driving behavior to accommodate them.  Try to be the best driver you can be, so your chances of arriving alive are as high as possible.
  • E IS FOR EXPERIENCE:  Get as much of it as you can.  While you’re learning to drive under supervision, experience as many road types as possible, and as many challenging situations as possible.  Learn from your experiences, your accomplishments and your mistakes.  Vow to never make the same mistake twice.  Once you have your license, periodically assess yourself for bad habits, and try to use your experiences to correct them.