Driving school

Driving school

First session-The basics

Welcome to the first session of your driving course. In this session, you would learn what goes into driving after you gain your driver’s license. This includes all your responsibilities as a driver for the safety of yourself, fellow drivers, passengers and all other road users. The ultimate aim of this first session is to prevent you from getting into a car accident.

This session is actually the most important session out of all the other sessions you would soon complete. How is this theoretical session the most important session? Well, this session makes you know the do’s and dont’s of driving. In this session you are made aware of how to care for yourself and others as you drive. Caring for yourself and others in this context means avoiding car accidents. Of course not all accidents can be avoided but many accidents could have been prevented in the first place.

Different attempts are being made concerning these accidents, this session being one way. As a driver who wants to get to your destination safely and devoid of any accident, these are the seven(7) things that I advise you to do:

1. Always check the vitals of your car before moving it. The vitals include the oil, brake fluid and tyre pressure. This shouldn’t keep too long to check and this makes one aware of the condition of the car and avoid any unexpected events.

2. Never drive when intoxicated. Don’t ever think of driving when intoxicated with any form of drug or even alcohol. Intoxicated driving is one of the major causes of road accidents, since one neither has control of himself/herself nor the car he/she is driving. With this it is just too easy to be involved in an accident. So just drive sober. It doesn’t hurt.

3. Avoid distractions. Do away with all distractions such as phones, food-yes food-, and anything that can keep your eyes off the road. A simple rule to use is:” Keep your eyes on the road”. Accidents happen in a blink of an eye. Distractions take a lot of your time. Are you getting the relation here?

4. Keep your eyes ahead. This would make you aware of your surrounding and also of cars ahead of you and take necessary actions. Look about 50 metres ahead of you.

5. Speed with reason. At times, drivers just want to move very fast even in the smallest spaces. Just keep to the speed limits as a guide. You don’t want to be break a speed limit and end up seeing a great light.

6. Do not overtake on a bend. How would you know if there is an approaching car in the opposite direction? Just be patient and wait get out of the bend before overtaking. Your car could even skid as you speed round the bend if it’s a sharp one or it’s a rainy day.

7. Pray before driving. Of course you can take all these steps and still be involved in an accident so you can pray against an accident. You would never know what could happen.

Let’s talk briefly on pedestrians as well. They can at times actually cause an accident. They have no cat but manage to cause havoc by crossing roads where they are not supposed to cross. Watch out for such pedestrians my upcoming drivers. You could even call a pedestrian who is not crossing at the correct side of the road to move to a zebra crossing. The person might or might not adhere to your utterance but at least you made an attempt and what do the wise men of old day?”A crumb of bread is better than none”

These seven measures and one observation are based on my experiences. I fortunately have not been in an accident. I have however witnessed some irresponsible driving by drivers who have driven me. One driver was eating whiles driving. He was also moving very fast so how was he to concentrate on the food and the road? To top up, he was also overtaking on curves. One of those overtakes nearly lead to an accident. Fortunately he made a quick decision and we lived. Another driver was also always looking out of the car, hardly ever paying attention to the road. Our tyre nearly entered a gutter. These are just two experiences and they both nearly lead to accidents. This is why this session is very necessary.

I would end this session here. I would end this session here. Just keep in mind that the road can be very dangerous so you must keep these Seven Commandments dearly in your hearts if you want to avoid car accidents. When you are ready, you can proceed to the second session- which is to drive.