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Skids the FACTS
- Skidding is one of the major causes of collisions/accidents, most of them arising from a lack of anticipation and knowledge of skid prevention resulting in dangerously excessive speeds in relation to prevailing conditions.
- A very small percentage of skids are due to circumstances that no reasonable driver could have anticipated.
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Skids are difficult to correct but fortunately are easy to avoid, which is the key.
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Preventing a skid is really the answer, not correction once you are in one.
- Corrective action can sometimes enable a return to control but since time and space to act are so often restricted or absent, escape from severe skids without accident is usually due only to luck.
- Skids are caused by either mechanical defect, road/weather conditions or human error.
- More often than not, in fact most times, a skid is caused or aggravated by human error.
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Remember that Driving is a privilege - not a right
If everyone who drove a car could lie a month in bed
with broken bones and stitched up wounds & fractures of the head
and there endure the agonies that many people do
they would never need preach safety anymore to me or you!
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Concentration
Concentration or paying attention to the driving task is extremely important because it allows the creation of the space and time needed to avoid collisions.
A belief held by many, it appears, is that experienced drivers don't HAVE to think about driving. Driving is something we do automatically and our minds are free to wander.
For example; TV presenters are often seen driving at the same time as “doing their piece to camera”.
Driving around towns and on motorways telephone conversations are routinely carried out, hands free and hand held, even though it has been illegal for some time to use a hand held mobile phone while driving. As from
February 27th 2007
it will attract a £60 fine and three penalty points on driving licence.
It is even suggested by some that we do things such as learn a new language while we drive, which entails listening to a CD and repeating the phrases.
Lack of concentration or attention on the driving task IS the major cause of death and injury on the road.
Lack of concentration or attention on the driving task can involve many things, some of which are talking, daydreaming, distractions inside & outside the vehicle, fatigue, "highway hypnosis." Multi-tasking whilst driving; smoking, eating, drinking, using the phone etc.
Have you like me ever driven somewhere and cannot remember anything about the trip itself or at least large segments of it? We were driving on ‘Auto pilot’ and because nothing out of the ordinary happened, by luck rather than by judgment, we got away with it!
You may wish to try a little experiment yourself. The next time you drive, try to concentrate solely on the driving task. Think of nothing else. Then see how far you get before your mind wanders. Many drivers won't even get off their driveway! Most won’t make it to the end of the road. (Unless it’s a very short one)
THINK! - mobile phones: Switch off before you drive off
Is this lack of attention really a problem? It can certainly be argued that the actual mechanics of driving, the operation of the vehicles controls… how to start, stop, speed up, slow down, change gear, turn the steering wheel etc. does not require conscious thought by the experienced driver as it did when learning to drive. When to do these things however, still needs conscious thought… that is, if we wish to drive well and safely. The real problem is our minds WANT to wander. It is an unfortunate fact that in my experience a vast number of drivers driving along the road are thinking about anything other than driving.
On or off road The driver of any vehicle has the responsibility not to use that vehicle in any way that may injure or kill others, or damage property. The law requires drivers to be in proper control of their vehicle at all times, and drivers who, for example, smoke or eat while driving could be prosecuted under this law.
Paying attention makes it possible to LOOK, ASSESS and DECIDE in other words see, recognise hazards and avoid collisions; these are the three basic elements of DECISION driving.
"I didn’t see you!" and “He came from nowhere!”… These are the most common statements uttered at the scene of a collision. Why is that…? Was the other vehicle invisible... very, very doubtful... Or was it that, in truth, the driver did not observe properly.
“I was driving along when all of a sudden” & “There was nothing I could do”… Are amongst the most common excuses expressed when explanations regarding the involvement in collisions are given. The fact is that nearly all collisions involve inattention on the part of one or both vehicle drivers/road user. Therefore … “I was driving along not really paying attention” is actually a much more accurate statement.
Statistically most collisions happen within a relatively short distance from home or place of work. Why is this so… Since we tend to drive mostly in fairly well known areas, odds are we'll have most of our mishaps in those localities.
When we get closer to home or place of work there is a tendency to get more comfortable with our environment. Perhaps we just let our concentration slip a little. Ask yourself… when you are a couple of miles or so away from your home or office has part of your mind already arrived there… perhaps thinking… Has the expected letter arrived...? Hope they’ve got the kettle on etc.
Remember that the other road user is probably having the same or similar thoughts; you've heard the saying "familiarity breeds contempt?" or is it that familiarity tends to breed inattention. We really do need to keep our mind in the vehicle with us.
We do not often consider that serious or fatal injuries can occur in low speed collisions on roads that we think we know well. It is vitally important for us to be alert and aware for the whole of our journey however, it is not all that easy.
Think More
To the total exclusion of everything else, the concentration span of the average human is about twenty minutes this is the time we can concentrate on a specific task before our thoughts wander. If we are prepared to work at it we can extend our concentration span usually peaking at around forty five minutes. It can in some cases be extended a little further but cannot be expanded to infinity!
The main barriers to concentration are boredom, anxiety, day-dreaming and distractions. So in order to improve our concentration we need to counteract these barriers. Paying attention can become habitual, but it has to be worked at. We all have the ability to concentrate fully some of the time other times our thoughts are scattered, and our minds flit from one thing to another.
Whether we like to admit it or not, humans are essentially lazy beings.
So a persistent connection of the eyes to brain and the need to work at consciously analyzing what is seen while driving is required.
Driving is the most potentially dangerous thing most of us do on a daily/regular basis.
So it really does deserve our full attention. If we could just master this one thing we could almost ensure our safety. Almost, not fully, but almost.
The ability to concentrate depends on enthusiasm for the task, skill at doing the task, emotional and physical state at the time of the task and the environment in which we are performing the task.
Accountability behind the wheel…
In almost every case, a driver involved in a collision had an opportunity to avoid the collision…even when the other driver was ‘responsible’ for what led up to the collision. As previously stated a very common "excuse" heard after a collision is, "I never saw him" Why not? Quite often, it's because they were not paying attention to their surroundings and the developing situation and many times, that inattention was because the driver was distracted.
To be a safe and responsible driver, it's important to recognise this and make constant efforts to avoid getting distracted. Common driving distractions are: Smoking, eating, drinking, applying make-up, talking on mobile phones, tuning the radio or changing CD's, dealing with misbehaving children, talking to passengers or looking for an address. There are many more. So let us …
Think about how much distance a vehicle is covering during the time the driver is being distracted by this type of multi-tasking… about 1.47 feet per second for each mile-per-hour, you can see how important it is for a driver to keep their mind and eyes on the road and hands on the wheel. At 60 miles per hour, for example, every second that elapses almost 90 feet (60 X 1.47 = 88.2) is covered all while the driver might be fumbling for that dropped CD!
We can help make the roads much safer for our self, our passengers, and other road users if we make a habit of keeping the driving task as number one priority and get someone else to do the map reading or change the radio station if at all possible. If it is not then it's really important to recognise the distractions, our distractions…and make a conscious effort to minimise them or ideally avoid them completely. While there is always an inevitable degree of risk associated with driving… we should remember that we are responsible for our actions and the results of those actions when we are behind the wheel. Think More – Do Less
We have a strict policy regarding factual content. If any fact anywhere on this web site can be shown to be incorrect contact us and we will remove it or correct it as soon as possible.
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