Defensive driving involves knowing how to keep you, your passengers, and your car safe when you’re on the road. These are skills that every driver needs to master as driving can, unfortunately, be dangerous. To protect yourself, you need to know how to avoid accidents as much as possible. To keep our Maryland drivers safe, these are some defensive driving tips we’d like to share with you.
Don’t Get Distracted
As a driver, you’re exposed to numerous distractions as you drive, and the components in your car can be distractions too. To drive defensively, you have to be aware of your surroundings, including other vehicles and pedestrians, at all times. An accident can happen very quickly, and you need to be able to react instantly.
Statistics have shown that, in most cases, it’s not a distraction that causes an accident but the driver’s reaction to the distraction. If you’re distracted by reaching for your cellphone or watching something you saw on the side of the road, you can put yourself and others at risk. The most important way to overcome getting distracted is to just drive.
Always Be Prepared
If you regularly drive a particular route, becoming complacent is very easy. You’re familiar with the road, the signs, and maybe even the traffic patterns. This complacency means you’ll relax, check your mirrors less frequently, and perhaps even take one of your hands off the wheel. This relaxed behavior, while perfectly normal, can lead to an accident.
When a driver is relaxed, their reactions tend to be slower and less precise. A calm mind can even start to daydream. In circumstances like these, it can be easy to underestimate another vehicle’s speed or overestimate the distance to a pedestrian ahead of you. Other drivers and pedestrians can decide to do the strangest things, and if you are not prepared for this, you could be involved in an accident.
Keep a Safe Distance
A very important lesson from the driver’s manual is always keeping a safe distance from other vehicles. Many drivers will automatically follow the vehicle’s speed ahead of them, which can lead to many cars bunching up on the road. A problem with this behavior is if one of the vehicles suddenly jams on the brakes, the vehicles behind may not be able to stop in time to avoid a collision.
The three-second rule guides the distance you should keep from the vehicle ahead. It should take three seconds for your car to reach the position the car in front of you is in. You may need to keep more distance between a vehicle ahead, for example, if you’re behind a large truck but don’t get closer than three seconds away from another car.
Defensive driving is a skill every driver should practice. It will help to keep you and your car safe. Come in and see us at DARCARS Used Car & Service Center of Frederick for more driving tips.
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