The 50right Ultimate Safe Driving Guide

The 50right Ultimate Safe Driving Guide

Article from 50right.com

I have driven well over a million miles in my lifetime and have never had a car accident that was my fault. I have never had a speeding ticket. I think those two facts of very successful car driving makes me qualified, perhaps uniquely qualified, to write advice for the ultimate safe driving guide.

In 2015, there were over 38,000 traffic fatalities and over 4 million seriously injured by traffic accidents in the United States. I would like to see that dramatically reduced. I believe that everyone, especially new drivers such as teenagers, can learn and benefit enormously from the following information.

This guide is not intended to be a classroom driving lesson 101 course. You can study that anywhere. It is presumed here that you already know the basics such as traffic signs, car maintenance, etc.

Driving lessons are needed and it is important to understand all that basic information. However, this guide is intended for what may not be fully emphasized in driving class.

Our guide information is important the first time you sit behind the steering wheel and put your foot on the gas pedal. Experienced driver adults can also learn from this guide to break bad habits and begin good habits.

This guide contains all vital points, any one of which can save your life or the life of someone you care about.

Please note: Check back now and then as new points and ideas could be added.

1. Keep your eyes on the road at all times

This is so fundamentally important. But this basic principle of driving gets abused by even experienced drivers who sometimes get lackadaisical while driving because they have been driving for many years. That lack of concentration just for a second or two could get you injured or killed. You must get into a safe driving mind frame each and every time that you get into your car.

The car while driving is not for entertainment, it is not for texting or other bad habits. While driving it should not be for anything else other than to transport you, the passengers, and any items, safely from one destination to the next destination. That should be the sole purpose for you while driving the car. Anything else, any other thought process while driving, and you're placing your body and life at extreme risk.

2. Drive defensively

Yes, that means do not drive offensively.

Never assume what the other driver is going to do. Presume that the other driver will possibly make the wrong choice, and then you drive accordingly.

For example, when wanting to pull out, on to a two lane road and the other driver is coming in the left lane. Don't assume that the driver will stay in the left lane, then you thinking it's okay for you to pull out into the right lane. Presume that driver might suddenly pull into the right lane. Therefore, you must allow traffic to totally clear in both lanes, before pulling out into the right lane.

When at a yield and there is a car in front of you, everyone has a tendency to look left first to see what traffic is coming. If you look left and see that traffic is perfectly clear, not a car in sight or whatever, never assume that the car in front of you has gone ahead. Presume that the car in front of you has not gone yet because sometimes they stay there for whatever inexplicable reason. This will avoid you hitting their rear end. Nasty whiplash injuries can occur to you with this type of accident, because you are moving your neck from left to right when impacting their car, placing your neck muscles in a vulnerable position even with a low impact rear end collision such as this.

3. Intersection safety at 2:00 am

Having enjoyed being out late on weekend nights on a regular basis as a teenager, I began to notice some horrific accidents happening at intersections while coming home very late at night. So I came to a conclusion, that when I come home late at night, where feasible, that even though I had a green light, that I would use my peripheral vision and look left and right before proceeding at a slower speed thru a green light at intersections.

It was I guess around 20 years later, and I just got in the good habit of doing this without giving it much thought. So it must have been around 2:00 am, almost no traffic on the road, I was coming home on a two lane highway, 45 mph speed limit coming up to a green light that I was very familiar with, about 2 miles from my home. So I'm perhaps 50 yards from the light, I do my thing of slowing down to around 40 mph or less while coming up to the light on this 45 mph road, I look left and right, and I see on the right side on the other road perpendicular to me, this car barreling like a rocket for this type of road, had to be going near 100 miles per hour, heading towards the intersection with no intentions of stopping. Which no doubt in my mind would have resulted in a horrific accident with me likely being crunched. I quickly looked in my rear view mirror, there were no cars in back of me or even to the side of me. I literally stopped my car at the green light. While this utterly careless driver drove right thru the red light they had. I sat there and watched this rocket go by, as if they had a green light and I was stopped at a red light.

Nothing like this has happened to me since then. However to this day, I will always abide by this life saving technique, just in case there happens to be another crazy fool on the road, with no intention of stopping at a red light, heading straight towards me.

4. Never speed

Never go over the posted speed limit. There is never any reason to speed.

You might say what about if my wife is pregnant and expecting, and needs to be rushed to the hospital? Well, what if your speeding gets you and your wife in an accident? Then you have a pregnant wife who is stuck at a car accident scene. Hopefully an arriving police officer can deliver the baby or an ambulance can arrive to assist. Hopefully nobody, including the baby, gets injured in the car accident.

Don't buy into the nonsense about making good time on a long journey or even a short journey. Leave early if time is of the essence for getting there. Don't try to make up that time by speeding. You create a greater risk of an accident. Your car uses more gas per mile, costing you money at the gas pump. There is more wear and tear on your car, costing you money in maintenance and repairs. You could get a speeding ticket, costing you money for the fine, and the possibility of losing your driver's license.

5. Don't drink and drive, and don't do drugs and drive

You already know this and if you violate this common sense principle, you may get away with it for awhile, possibly even for years. However you would always be increasing the odds of tragic circumstances. Sooner or later those odds do tend to catch up with you, and can strike in a very bad way.

Also, don't drive when sleepy. If you feel the need to turn the radio volume up high or roll the windows down to blow cold air on yourself, or other means to try to keep yourself awake, then that is a problem. The "problem" is best relieved by pulling over to a safe spot on the side of the road or in a parking lot, turn off the engine and grab a cat nap. Usually after around a half hour, you wake up, maybe a little groggy, sit there for about 5 minutes or get out of the car and walk around in order to refresh yourself. Then you will be in a much better situation to get to your destination safely. So what, if it's a half hour or so later, it's well worth it to avoid a greater possibility of getting in a bad accident.

6. Animals on the road

This may sound harsh, but unless you are 100% sure of your surroundings, if there is any chance whatsoever that you could get hurt, and a squirrel or other small animal runs in front of your car, do not swerve, do not stop, just sadly run over the animal. Saving its life is not worth risking your life. Even a deer, if you are not 100% sure of other cars around you, just hit the thing rather than endangering your life. With a deer you will probably incur some front end damage to your car, but that is infinitely better than other harmful or deadly possibilities to yourself.

Don't worry too much about this as far as the animals. There are plenty of other squirrels, deer, etc, out there. Their species isn't going extinct because you couldn't avoid running over one of them.

7. Never tailgate

To this day, I cannot understand the mentality of those who tailgate. It truly is foolish beyond belief.

Always keep a safe, comfortable distance between you and the car in front of you. Inclement weather conditions makes this all the more important to increase your distance between yourself and the other cars.

Remember, you now know not to hit the brakes for animals, but the driver in front of you may not know that. Presume that driver is capable of hitting the brakes at any time, and keep your safe distance in back so as to avoid a nasty collision. Also if this situation happens, there could be cars behind you so try to time it so that you don't hit your brakes too hard, and then a car hits you from behind. You should already be traveling a safe distance behind the car in front of you, so if they slam on their brakes, you don't need to slam on yours, just pump the brakes accordingly to slow down and not hit that car's rear end, whereby the car in back of you will hopefully see your brake lights and you slowing down so they can slow down accordingly and avoid hitting you.

8. Road rage

Never start it and never respond to it. Road rage is futile and useless except for the possibility that it could lead to more trouble. Nobody needs more trouble in their lives.

If the other driver gives you the finger, ignore it, and remember the task at hand which is getting to your destination safely. If you engage in road rage in any way, shape or form, even ever so briefly, you are taking your eye off the road, and you are not focused on driving, and that could cause an accident.

9. Never feel pressured to hasten a decision

Just because someone is in back of you honking their horn, do not let that affect your decision. You do what you need to do, for example to safely pull out into an intersection. Never mind how much they honk, or the faces you see them making in the rear view mirror. Don't even look in the rear view mirror. Focus on the task at hand, not on those dummies who think honking their horn at you is going to get them someplace quicker. If you hasten your decision and the result is a traffic accident, they are going to drive by you thinking what a dummy you were for pulling out on to that road too soon.

Not feeling pressured to hasten a decision also includes not listening to those in the car with you if they want you to speed things up. You need to drive in a safe manner in which you are comfortable. Your life and their lives depend on it.

10. Don't be a waver

A number of accidents happen close to home. If you hear a horn beep and you think it could be someone in another car waving to say hi to you. Ignore it, and keep your eyes on the road. That split second of waving or taking your eye off the road could mean disaster for you. Perhaps a child runs in front of your car and you don't react appropriately because you were busy instead waving to your neighbor. After you get home safely, and park the car, you can get out of the car and wave all you want.

Same goes for rubber-necking. There is nothing there to look at which is worth taking your eye off the road and increasing the possibility of getting in a bad accident.

11. Never get out of your car on the street with the engine running

If you must stop on the side of the street and get out of the car for a good reason, then turn off the engine. This includes those living in urban areas who must park their car on the street.

Even in your own driveway, if you are in the car with the engine running and you forgot to get something in the house, turn off the engine, get out of the car, go into the house, and then come back out and restart the engine.

12. On a four lane divided highway, always drive in the right lane

Of course when you need to make a left turn, you must proceed at a safe distance to get in the left lane to make the turn. But other than that or circumstances such as plowed snow or massive water puddles in the right lane, under normal conditions you should always drive in the right lane.

They call the left lane on highways the “fast lane.” Fast to what? So a driver can get to their destination a little bit quicker? It's not even close to being worth it.

Let the truck drivers and also those destined to get speeding tickets use the left lane. For the best safety, always drive in the right lane.

Once while driving on a highway which is a four lane highway divided with a median strip, I experienced a tire blowout which had never happened to me before. It was a very busy traffic day around 6:00 pm driving home from work. Fortunately, I was in the right lane. So I kept calm, and over the course of around thirty seconds, I gradually steered the car off to the right side of the road. No additional problem at all. I changed the blown-out tire with the doughnut spare tire, and then went on my way home.

I shudder to think what may have happened if I was in the left lane at the time of that blowout. Then under heavy traffic conditions, attempting to steer the car over to the right lane where there was heavy oncoming traffic, to finally get to the right side of the road. There was basically little room next to the median strip to pull a car over to the left side of the road. So steering the car off to the left side of the road was not an option. And during that time of the day on this highway, it can be difficult enough to change from the left lane to the right lane with four good tires, let alone just having three tires. Thankfully it all ended well.

When driving in the right lane and encountering other types of negative situations, it is so much safer to know that you can simply steer the car off to the right and be safe. Rather than be caught in the left lane and then if you can't fully control the car, especially on a divided highway without a median strip, you don't have to worry about your car possibly veering to the left and getting into a head-on collision with oncoming traffic from the opposite direction.

Don't forget, a car coming from the opposite direction could encounter a problem and then veer into your driving direction. The extra reaction time to this alarming situation accorded to you by being in the right lane versus the left lane, could very well save your life.

13. Never make a traffic maneuver unless you have totally clear vision of your surroundings.

See the below news story about the two college baseball players.

 

Thank you for the nice comments.

I plan on adding some more tips as soon as I can get around to writing them.

Thanks again, and welcome to the forum!

Steve

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/family-f...hristmas-vacation-drunk-driver-122344937.html

Family of five killed in head on crash as they returned from Christmas vacation by 'drunk' driver

A suspected drunk driver killed himself and a family of five returning from their Christmas holiday after ploughing into their car while he was travelling in the wrong direction on a Kentucky highway. Dr Rima Abbas, 38, along with her husband Issam Abbas, 42, and children Ali, 14, Isabella, 13, and seven-year-old Giselle, died when Joey Lee Bailey’s picked truck hit them on the I-75 highway in Kentucky at around 2.30am on Sunday.

The family, from Northville, Michigan, were heading home from their Christmas holiday – according to reports in the Detroit Free Press.

Bailey, of Georgetown, Kentucky, is suspected of driving under the influence though the results of toxicology tests have yet to be released.

Police received a number of calls about a pickup truck travelling south on the northbound carriageway of the I-75 but by the time officers arrived they discovered the wreck of the Abbas family car and Bailey’s white Chevy truck.

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This is such a horribly sad tragedy. The entire family of five killed by a drunk driver.

The above article stresses the need to always keep your eyes on the road at all times, and always be aware of your surroundings.

I can't judge what happened and perhaps we will never know. However based on the article information of police receiving a number of calls about the drunk driver, presumably a number of other drivers were able to avoid this drunk.

Unfortunately the driver of the family vehicle may have taken their eyes off the road for a brief instant. Perhaps for some reason wasn't fully focused on the surroundings ahead. Any of that was possibly enough not to be able to properly react to a car heading their way, and it got them killed.

Hopefully others can learn from this.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/child-shot-during-apparent-road-172038301.html

6-year-old boy fatally shot during apparent road rage attack on 55 Freeway in Orange

.....The mother of the child said they were on the way to school in the carpool lane. When she tried to switch lanes to exit, the white sedan with a man and woman inside cut her off, Valdivia said. She gestured to them and proceeded into the exit lane, and that's when the shooting occurred, he said.

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By "gestured" I presume this to mean the woman gave the other driver the middle finger.

As stated in the article about road rage, "Never start it and never respond to it."

 

https://www.breitbart.com/local/202...ls-6-high-school-girls-our-hearts-are-broken/

Oklahoma Car Crash Kills 6 High School Girls: ‘Our Hearts Are Broken’

Six high school students in Oklahoma died in a crash with a semi-truck Tuesday, leaving their community shocked and in mourning.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol confirmed to KFOR that six girls, all of whom were students at Tishomingo High School, were killed in the collision at the intersection of Oklahoma State Highway 22 and U.S. 377 in the early afternoon.

“Troopers said a semi truck was headed south on US-377 and a car was headed east on OK-22, when the car stopped at a stop sign, attempted to make a U-turn, and was hit by a semi,” KXII-TV reported.

The OHP said in a report Wednesday the girls were inside a 2015 Chevy Spark, which only had four seats, and only the 16-year-old driver and front-seat passenger wore seatbelts, the Associated Press noted. The occupants included three fifteen-year-olds, the sixteen-year-old driver, and two seventeen-year-olds. Their names are being withheld as they were minors, the AP said.

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It appears the driver violated Point #1. Seems like she didn't keep her eyes on the road.

I don't know if the U-turn was illegal or not. But for sure she obviously didn't look in the direction of the semi-truck when making the U-turn, and it caused the tragic death of her and her friends.

Sadly, she was likely focused on chatting with her friends, probably in a hurry to get somewhere, and it resulted in a horrific accident. Hopefully everyone, especially teenagers, can learn from this.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/2-coll...inning-conference-championship-222841030.html

2 LaGrange College baseball players killed in car crash hours after winning conference championship

Two LaGrange College baseball players were killed in a car accident in Georgia on Saturday hours after their team won their conference tournament championship.

.....Per the report, Brown attempted to pass another car in a no-passing zone and collided head-on with the GMC Sierra driven by Dunn in the opposite lane of traffic.

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This tragic accident has inspired me to add another point.

Never make a traffic maneuver unless you have totally clear vision of your surroundings.

I would have to believe that this driver was likely behind a larger vehicle which partially blocked the driver's vision. No problem when this happens just as long as you stay in your lane and don't try to maneuver your vehicle in any which way. We've all been behind large trucks and even small trucks that partially block our vision. But we just stay behind them and all is well.

This driver not only violated a traffic law by trying to pass in a no passing zone, but made a fatal mistake of likely maneuvering his vehicle while a vehicle in front of him was at least partially blocking his sight.

 

https://www.fox6now.com/news/six-children-killed-in-tennessee-highway-crash

Six children killed in Tennessee highway crash

According to WSMV, the children were riding in "a red Toyota Camry with a man and woman when it left the road and flipped on the shoulder."

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The details of this terrible accident haven't been released yet. However based on the pic showing the area, it could have been point number 6 that came into play.

Seems like a spot where deer may cross. Sorry to sound cruel, but in a situation such as this, especially at high speed on a highway, if a deer crosses in front of you, just let your car hit the animal. Yes, the creature will be killed, and your car will sustain front end damage. But suddenly swinging your steering wheel can result in losing control of your car, and the car flipping over which is what happened in this accident.