Driver education increases new drivers’ ability to recognize dangerous behavior in themselves and those around them, as well as trains their instincts in avoiding traffic collisions. It also raises their awareness of how dangerous driving truly is and helps build safe driving habits.
My dad has been a professional truck driver for 40 years, and he has never caused an accident where he was at fault. While I was in the process of getting my driver’s license, he taught me a lot of valuable information, stories from his driving experiences, as well as driving tips that I wouldn’t have otherwise known if it weren’t for his profession. The company he works for, Cemex, uses a safe driver system called “The Smith System Professional Driver’s Education Course”, which teaches drivers how to drive big rigs safely, but a lot of the information is valuable for all drivers to know, such as keeping a safe distance between you and the vehicle in front of you in the case of an emergency brake, or “looking 15 seconds in front of you” to see what’s happening on the road before you reach that distance and aren’t caught off guard. Another piece of advice that he taught me is to keep your eyes moving, looking at your mirrors every 3 to 5 seconds so that you can collect as much information about your surroundings as you can, to prevent being taken by surprise at another driver’s unpredictable behavior that could potentially affect you. It’s a good prevention for tunnel vision, getting “hypnotized” by the road, and losing overall road awareness. He also taught me that the worst thing a driver can assume is that other drivers can see them, emphasizing the importance of visibility of not only yourself to others, but of others to yourself. When I had first started driving, I was very afraid of using my horn and didn’t really see its purpose other than to agitate and incite road violence. It wasn’t until my dad explained to me its importance that I saw its utility on the road. Using a horn is a HUGE safety feature that a lot of drivers like me are afraid to use. It lets others be aware of you and your position, particularly when you are doing something unexpected or are in another driver’s blind spot. Using this feature to let them know you’re there can prevent a potentially fatal collision. Another thing he told me to do was to lower my speaker volume and crack my car window so that I can hear emergency vehicles coming my way before they are even seen. Also, I’ve come to learn how important turn signals are to making others aware of my intentions before I act upon them, and the importance of defensive driving and being proactive while behind the wheel to avoid a collision even when I’m in the right.
My dad recently told me about a personal anecdote from his career that resulted in him receiving an exemplary award for safe driving by demonstrating the safety technique of looking both ways EVEN IF you have the right of way on a green light before proceeding to cross the intersection. While driving a cement truck, he was at an intersection and the light had just turned green. He looked left, right, and then left again before proceeding to cross the intersection. He moved up about 10 feet when another truck coming from his left side failed to stop at their red light. He would have had a deadly collision if he had not seen him and stopped in time for him to pass.
Another story of his that I remember quite well, is one that a lot of new drivers could learn from. He was driving a big rig 20mph down a residential road coming up upon a cross street with stop signs, when a car failed to stop at the stop sign and ran into my dad’s vehicle, causing severe damage to her car as well as the airbag to deploy. When my dad got out of the truck and ran over to check on the person driving to see if she was okay, her face had an imprint of her phone. She was still holding it in her hand, unable to speak due to the shock of what had just happened. When the police showed up, after questioning her, she confessed that she had been texting in the moments leading up to the collision, and had no idea that he was crossing in front of her.
I have personally never been in a car accident before, as I’ve only been driving for a year and a half, but by using the advice that my dad gave me, I’ve managed to narrowly avoid some collisions that would have sealed my fate if I were not proactive, careful, and aware of my surroundings.