Defensive driving is essential to ensure our safety on the road. In fact, proper defensive driving techniques could reduce the rate of accident by up to 90 percent. So, it’s important that risk of driving is reduced, so we will be able to protect ourselves. We should know things that we need to do, so we will be safer on the road. It is important for us to pay attention, so we will be able to focus on the driving tasks. This is a common mistake, as an example, many of us often use smartphones while driving. We should know that driving a couple tons of metal at high speed requires constant concentration. Defensive driving increase our response rate and we should be able to react quickly. While driving, we should ensure our ability to maintain active attention. In many countries, it’s considered illegal to talk and drive on the phone. In this case, we shouldn’t daydream and it’s important to keep our attention and eyes on the road. While driving at high speed, averting our eyes for only a couple of seconds could put our lives and others in serious danger. Defensive driving is about good habit and if we ant to reach a new destination, we should be familiar with the directions and map.
Full understanding about the road may improve our ability to drive safely. Google Maps allow us to trace the best route to reach a destination. Google Street View allows us to directly inspect the road conditions. As an example, we may check busy intersections, where many cars meet a single point. This allows us to anticipate and perform defensive driving more effectively. Defensive driving also requires good physical conditions. So, if we are tired, thirsty and hungry; we should rest, drink and eat. Obviously, it is a bad idea to eat and drink while driving. Resting for one hour is good thing to do, if we are tired. It is a bad idea to gamble our lives, even if we are in a hurry. It is important to know that driving for a long time can be quite hypnotic. People who are not well rested, could actually doze off while driving at high speed on the highway. It is important for us to maintain our distance. However, in some areas, people have habit of tailgating others. This is a dangerous practice, because when the car on the front stops abruptly, rear-end collision may happen. In this case, both cars will be damaged, although the fault may fall on the tailgating car.
We should know how to properly maintain distance. We should be able to sense accurately whether the distance allows us stop safely, if the car in front of us stop suddenly. We should be able to react properly. The “two second” rule is a good measure to determine the distance between car. Regardless of the speed, our car should be two seconds behind the car in front of us. However, if we are driving on the freeway, we may need to maintain 5 seconds of time difference. Again, it is important that our brake works properly. If it takes longer for our car to slow down, the distance should be longer. While maintaining this approximate distance, we should brake our car, when the car in front of is braking.