Being a personal injury lawyer entails handling a large number of auto crashes. When new clients that are involved in car accidents come to my office, inevitably they talk about how the accident happened. Naturally, all of them blame other drivers. Some time ago I started asking my clients if in their opinion they could have done anything to prevent the accident. You might be interested to learn that a good number of them say yes, explaining that if they were more attentive to the surroundings, they could have avoided the accident or reduced the force of the impact.
The other day I went to my dental hygienist and chatted with her briefly about my practice, including handling car accidents. She asked me if I could give her some tips on how to be a safer driver. I thought about it and told her that she should be a defensive driver. However, driving defensively means different things to different people. So I wanted to explain what I meant by that in this article.
The standard Safe Practices for Motor Vehicle Operations, ANSI/ASSE Z15.1, defines defensive driving skills as “driving to save lives, time, and money, in spite of the conditions around you and the actions of others.” This definition is taken from the National Safety Council’s Defensive Driving Course. Wikipedia supports the same definition.
As a defensive driver, you can avoid crashes and help lower your risk behind the wheel. If you’ve been out on the roads, you know that not everyone drives well — even though most people think they do. Some drivers act aggressively, speeding, cutting people off, breaking fast, and initiating road rage. They are a known road hazard, causing one third of all traffic accidents.
Others simply don’t pay enough attention to the road. They are inattentive or distracted, which is becoming more of a problem as people “multitask” by talking on the phone, texting, checking messages, eating, or even watching TV as they drive. This can result in wandering into another lane, following too closely, making sudden turns without signaling, or weaving in and out of traffic. Haven’t you seen drivers that act erratic on the road? There is a good chance they are distracted with something else they are doing at the same time.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 90% of all crashes are attributed to driver error. We can’t control the actions of other drivers. But focusing of defensive driving skills can help us avoid the dangers caused by other people’s bad driving.
