Are you a typical driver?

by Bob Gillespie
Apparently, most everybody thinks of themselves as a pretty good driver - have you ever met anyone who said they were a poor driver? I have, but only once in my life. Now comes the obvious question: how come there are so many vehicle collisions if just about everyone is a "pretty good driver?"

I'm assuming most people agree with me that our roadways are dangerous places, with very high collsion rates. Over 40,00 people are killed on American roads every year, and more than 1 million world wide.

Notice I always use the word 'collision' rather than 'accident.' When someone says they were involved in a car accident, the implication is that some outside force is at work, and they are not really responsible for what happened.

The poor drivers can't be involved in all those collisions, there are too many collisions, and the really good drivers aren't involved in all those collisions. So that leaves the "average" driver or "typical" driver.

So, if we agree that the poor drivers and the average drivers are involved in almost all those collisions, then that means the average driver is not doing too well, considering traffic safety experts generally agree that most collisions could have been prevented. Like about 95% of them.

I haven't mentioned new drivers with one or two years driving experience, or the very elderly. It's true that both of these groups have a disproportionately high collision rate, but their numbers are small compared to the general population.

Now, back to the "typical" driver. I'm trying very hard to phrase this so as not to offend anyone. Well, here goes... the typical, or average, driver gets sloppy over a period of time. Maybe they never learned good defensive driving techniques, or choose to disregard them, or have just forgotten. Just stop and think for a moment: could this be you?

The typical driver doesn't drive strategically or defensively, and is usually dependent on the driver ahead; whatever that driver does, that's what they will do. The average driver often drives too fast for conditions, follows too closely, doesn't spot problems or hazards soon enough, lacks really good seeing habits, etc.

Click on the link if you would like information on an excellent defensive driver education program that is a downloadable ebook, and very inexpensive. If it keeps you out of one collision, it's worth it.