Life is Short Drive Defensively.

Hello to all! God has blessed me with many opportunities during my high school years. I am not sharing this to be boisterous or in a bragging nature. I am sharing this so people my age might be reminded of the importance of driving safely no matter what sport or instrument you play. You can lose everything important in a matter of seconds when you are behind the wheel.

My father purchased me a white 2001 Chevrolet Silverado 4WD with high mileage. He told me that he knew that there was a high percentage that I would be involved in an automobile accident / fender bender or back into something trying to learn how to drive during my first few years of driving. I like others felt like I could drive better than everyone else. Overall, I felt that I have done a pretty good job.

God wrapped his arms around me and my girlfriend last year. I was on my way home with her from church and a drunk driver slammed into the back of my truck while we were sitting at a red light waiting for it to turn green. It did major damage to the lady’s vehicle and destroyed the rear bumper of my truck. The lady tried to leave the scene of the accident and was eventually stopped by the police and arrested for being 3 times the legal limit of alcohol in the State of Alabama.

Thankfully everybody walked away with bumps and bruises. The lady was convicted and lost her license and had very high fines to pay. I could have easily been a statistic of an alcohol related fatality that night. I share my story to let people my age understand that things can change fast when you’re in your automobile. In my case, I was a driver sitting at red light with a passenger and had no way to do anything but be slammed into.

However, this experience made me reevaluate the importance of many things. The principles that the drivers’ education course teaches is very relevant. One safety technique that can go a long way when driving is situational awareness, and the use of defensive driving strategies to keep yourself engaged and looking for issues prior to them happening. In addition to using attentive driving maneuvers also take the time to invest in your own vehicle’s safety.

One thing that I learned from my accident is that the rear bumper I had on my truck was not very effective to stop her vehicle. Many vehicles are not made with the materials that provide protection the way that most of the older vehicles in years past provided. We decided to go back with a stronger ranch hand type metal bumper in my case. Some suggestions for vehicle safety would be installation of back up cameras, object detection side mirrors, good headlamps, and possibly items such as ranch hand type metal front bumpers to help collisions with deer and livestock for trucks.

The school driver’s education course allows for a starting point to help rid some of the nervousness of driving. It doesn’t address every issue that someone will face on while driving and traveling down the highway. It does not take into considerations many other factors that come into play. Every one of us are aware of the driver that pulls up beside us engaged in texting while driving. In many cases they never even look up and drift onto the shoulder of the roadway while in motion. Another example is being behind the car that is the last one move once the red light turns green and all the other cars are moving. All these are clues to help you with your defensive driving.

Certainly, alcohol and drugs provide major issues. But we can’t forget about the driver that is lacking sleep, dealing with a child in the back seat, or maybe the driver that is eating or putting on make up on the way to work. These all create mental lapses in judgment as well.

Therefore, your ability to be a defensive driver and anticipate the next move is critical. Instead of engaging in the dangers right in front of you start to anticipate the dangers that might exist several cars in front of you. It is impossible to see around the curve of hill ahead.

In closing, I shared my story because I know how lucky I was that night. Please take some of these suggestions into consideration for your own driving and stay safe and alive.

Remember that you aren’t invincible, and someone loves you, God Bless!!