Thursday, June 28, 2007

Driver training myths

Driver's training: Put aside the myths
By ROBERT BRYAN Friday, June 22, 2007 11:25 PM EDT

Talk to a few veteran driver's training instructors from area high schools and you find that the you've probably bought into a number of myths. Myths like the one so dear to stand-up comics, the one showing the trainer nervous, humorless, dyspeptic, crawling to safety after his spell in the car.

The Plain Dealer talked to Roger Cook and Daren Porter of the Wabash High School staff and Dick Leming and Mark Coppler of the Metro staff. Veterans all, they appeared serious about the job but not altogether serious about themselves and their experiences. In other words, apparently normal, whole of mind and body.

Coppler and Leming, particularly, are frequently asked by the parents and sometimes by the student drivers, "Don't you get nervous? Do you take pills? How do you unwind?"

Cook occasionally unwinds by going for a walk or a bike ride; Porter has no special formula, but knows he's a bit keyed up at the end of a session. One day, coincidentally keeping a doctor's appointment right after getting out of the car, he found his blood pressure startlingly elevated.

But all four downplayed the idea theirs is a hazardous job.

Said Coppler, "I don't know that the kids make me nervous, but we have had some extremely nervous drivers, and I feel sorry for them."

All four indicated one of the manifestions of the nervous student driver is a tendency to have "tunnel vision" - so absorbed in task that they see nothing but what's immediately ahead.

Coppler and the others try to correct that problem posing little quizzes, "What did that last sign say? What's the speed limit here?"

Leming recalled a species of tunnel vision, a concentration on task that blocks out the big picture: Traveling south a few years ago on Wabash Street, approaching the light at Market, the girl driving showed no sign of slowing down, even as two elderly ladies stepped from the curb and started crossing against the light.

Leming braked the car and asked the driver, "Don't you see those ladies? The student responded, "I have the right of way. The light's green."

The godsend for driver's training cars, of course, is the brake at the disposal of the instructor.

The instructor has to know when to ride "covering the brake - so he can stop a bad move instantly, as when students are parallel parking or driving in heavy city traffic.

He has to know when to brake and when not to. Explained Cook, "You have to give the kid the chance to decide, to make a right or wrong decision."

Ten years ago, the state began allowing kids enrolled in a driver's education class to drive also with their parents. On the whole, that's been a benefit for the driver's trainers. State regulations require just six hours of driving in a driver's education class. That's not very much, and the more it can be supplemented by driving with parents, the better.

Generally speaking, anyway.

Said Porter, "They can pick up bad habits from parents that we have to break in just a few days."

Just as one or two students every year need to be shown where the key goes, and which is the brake and which the accelerator, one or two "know" too much. These are the know-it-alls.
Has he every had a student in his car knowing more than he from Day One about driving?
Coppler laughed slyly, "Not in my car, and you can quote me."


Just this summer Leming had an example of a lesson from home to be unlearned. On a highway marked 55, the student driver was breezing along at 60. Asked about it by Leming, the student passed along his father's wisdom - that it was permissible to do 5 above the speed limit.

"And I said, noooo..." Leming recalled.

And how about the notion that other drivers sharing the road with a carload of students generally are driving their Sunday-best? Courtesy and safety would surely guarantee that.

Pose that to a driver's trainer and you will get something between a guffaw and a sad chuckle: There are exceptions, of course, but many drivers, they said, exhibit the same bad behavior they normally do, and some are provoked into terrible behavior.

Said Cook, "Especially on highways, they pass on the double yellow lines, they pass on hills and on curves. We're doing 55 and they pass us like we're sitting still."

Porter took it from there, "Others will honk, stare, swerve at us, especially teenagers. They think it's funny. They think its funny to see their friends mess up."

The good guys sometime win in these encounters: Two or three years ago out on U.S. 24, Coppler's car full of students was being bugged by a car-full of teenagers.

"They would get very close behind us, pass and slow up, making vulgar gestures, and hanging out the window. I had my cell phone and called state police and within three minutes they were pulled over.

There's nothing good about having to endure such behavior, but the trainers can use it for educational purposes - partly as vivid examples of what not to do.

There's another thing to be said for bad, bad driving, as Coppler remarked: It's good practice for the students in driving well despite distractions. Out on their own, there will be times the radio will be blaring, two friends will be talking, a friend in another car will be passing and signally something. Sooner or later, the good drivers will learn to stay on task, Coppler said.

To end on a somber note:
All veteran driver's trainers have had the experience: They'll pick up a newspaper and see a familiar name, a former student from last month, last year or last decade arrested, say, for speeding, or reckless driving, or worse - injured in an accident apparently their fault. Or still worse, killed in such an accident.

Sometime during the brief time instructor and students have together, the instructor is likely to tell them, "I check that part of the paper. I don't want to see you guys' names there."

Leming and Coppler said their experience suggests that, in general, it is the better drivers during training whose names appear in the bad part of the paper. Is it cockiness?

Overconfidence? The students not quite so skilled , they said, seem to fare better, perhaps because they have to work on it.

Why do they do it year after year? For Coppler, Cook, Leming and Porter - it has become a part of the summer routine. The compensation is OK, they enjoy it, the kids are highly motivated.

And all four firmly believe school-oriented driver's training is important.

Said Leming, "I hope we don't price kids out of the opportunity to have driver's education."

Monday, June 25, 2007

No ''routine'' traffic stops

by Bob Gillespie
I'm sure glad there are people who want to be police officers; I wouldn't (and couldn't) do the job no matter how much they paid me. Pulling over a motorist must be pretty scary; apparently attending domestic disputes is up at the top of the list also.

I'm sure police officers deal most often with the lower strata of society, ie criminals, bikers, druggies etc. So if we get pulled over for speeding or some driving infraction, lets not get huffy or play games. Actually, I believe if we treat them courteously and with respect it will be to our own benefit.

Hats off to these people who often have a thankless, and dangerous, occupation.

You will have less chance of being pulled over by the police, and much less chance of being involved in a collision, if you take a defensive driver education program.

A defensive driver course is not just for teenagers or beginning drivers - it's for anybody, I don't care how long you've been driving. If you're an experienced driver and you don't find any valuable defensive driving tips in my ebook "Learn To Drive And Survive" I will gladly refund your money - but I doubt that will happen. Avoiding one collision will pay for the course 100 times over.

Following is an excellent article about being pulled over by the police. If I'm ever pulled over I'm going to do exactly what he suggests; it certainly makes sense.



by Tommy McIntyre
There are too many horror stories about police officers being shot to death during a routine traffic stop.

First of all, any veteran police officer will tell you there is no such thing as a "routine" traffic stop. All traffic stops, including little old ladies, have a deadly potential.

"You never know who you are stopping," Venice Police Lt. Tom McNulty said. "We have a definite plan on the side of officer safety."

McNulty would not elaborate on the plan.

In the event a routine traffic stop does become deadly, the officer most likely did not do something right, something he or she had been trained to do, trained to watch for.

Maybe the officer took his eyes off the driver's hands; maybe he walked into the "dead zone."
The dead zone is defined in some police academies as any point forward of the driver. If the officer stands slightly behind the driver, it is more difficult for the driver to use a weapon.

Chances are, the officer knows quite a bit about you before you even stop the car.

"We call the tag in, make sure communications has a description of car and the location of the stop," McNulty said.

Felony stops
Felony stops are a different ball game.
"We already suspect he (or she) has committed a felony crime," McNulty said. "So, we know who we are dealing with, that the person could be dangerous."

Different tactics apply to felony stops.

Several back-up units suddenly appear from out of nowhere. Sometimes, depending on a number of variables, officers with drawn guns crouch behind open patrol car doors as shields.

Another officer, usually a supervisor, will order the driver out of the car with precise directions.

"Driver, with your right hand, remove the keys and throw them on the ground ... ," he might say. "With your left hand, open the door slowly and step out with your hands raised over your head."

What should you do?

If you are stopped for any reason, there are certain things you need to do to make things easier for yourself.

First, safely pull off to the side of the road. Do not get out of the car. Some police agencies consider a driver exiting the car and approaching the police vehicle as an aggressive move. Place both hands on top of the steering wheel.

Don't automatically reach for your wallet. Wait for the officer to ask you for your license and registration. When he does, make sure you move slowly.

If you are carrying a gun legally, make sure you tell the officer you have a concealed weapons permit and are carrying a gun. He may want to see the concealed weapons permit.

tmcintyre@
venicegondolier.com

By Tommy McIntyre
Staff Writer

Friday, June 22, 2007

Fraudulent licenses

Number of fraudulent driver's licenses on the rise
09:45 AM CDT on Thursday, June 21, 2007
By Rucks Russell / 11 News

Identity thieves are out to get your license. A privilege reserved for those who follow the law is under assault, some say, by criminals stealing your information to obtain a license.

The rising tide of traffic through Houston: a moving mass of metal and sometimes law-breakers gaining access to the roads by stealing someone else’s identity.

One victim, a man called Herman Fifer, has evidence that someone obtained a driver’s license in his name. Authorities confirm the suspect racked up thousands of dollars in traffic tickets, and the fines were mistakenly billed to Fifer.

“I’ve paid this since 2002 and am out quite a bit of money,” Fifer said.
Other victims like Robin Sporba actually know the alleged perpetrators.
“She was a friend,” Sporba said.

The realtor said her former employee used a bogus license to obtain a loan for a speedboat in her name.

“They were ready to deliver the speed boat until I found out, and the loan company had never spoken to me,” Sporba said.

The list of those taken advantage of seems unending in a state with an estimated 16 million licensed drivers.

It’s an enormous number, among the highest in the nation. But Department of Public Safety officials concede a percentage of these drivers obtained their licenses through fraud, and for now they have no clear way of determining precisely how many.

“It’s an ongoing battle,” DPS Trooper John Sampa said.

Sampa has been engaged in it for more than 10 years. But now a biometric identification system, or visual recall, is set to go online next year.

“I think it’s gonna have a big impact,” Sampa said.

Because currently, duplicate licenses can be obtained without the use of a picture ID, and DPS countertop computers cannot access a driver’s license photo. This makes it easier to fool an agent by presenting someone else’s Social Security card and information. But the new system makes every licensed driver’s photograph just the click of a mouse away.

“That way we will know who we’re giving an ID to,” Sampa said.

The multimillion dollar software could be up as early as January.

Until then Texas roads will remain the dominion of cars potentially concealing a crime.

Authorities admit the new software won’t eliminate fraud. Their best advice is that you guard your personal information always, and only carry with you what you absolutely need.

Monday, June 18, 2007

More on cell phones

By REBECCA LERNER STAFF WRITERrlerner@thnt.com
State lawmakers are considering a new law to crack down on motorists who drive while talking on hand-held phones, but statistics backing the measure are murky.

The state Department of Transportation, the State Police and the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety told the Home News Tribune they don't have any data linking cell-phone use to traffic accidents.


"Everybody's clamoring to ban cell phones, but we do need to make sure that the data correlates with what everybody's saying out there," said Pam Fisher, director of the division of Highway Traffic Safety. "It's a problem . . . And in this business, we need to make sure we're truly looking at the science behind this."

The bill would make it a primary offense to talk on a hand-held phone while driving, allowing police to pull over offending motorists for an infraction and write a $250 ticket, or $100 for text messaging. Using a hands-free device, however, would be legal.

By comparison, the current fine for reckless driving, a more severe form of careless driving, starts at $50 and caps out at $200 for a first offense.

Under the existing 2004 cell-phone ban, talking on the phone is a secondary offense, so police can't stop a driver without a more serious infraction.

In Edison, where police have been keeping track of cell-phone use as a cause of crashes for four years, authorities haven't found a significant correlation between cell-phone use and collisions, said police Lt. Joseph Shannon.

South Brunswick, too, has kept records and hasn't found a direct correlation, said police Detective Jim Ryan.

That could have something to do with the method of data collection, police said: Motorists aren't always honest with investigating officers, especially when they don't want to admit fault after a collision.

Yet larger studies also offer contradictory conclusions.

A study published in July 2005 in the British Medical Journal found that drivers who use mobile phones are four times more likely to be involved in a crash that requires hospital care. And the study, conducted in Australia, found that using hands-free devices didn't change the risk of crash.

A California study found cell phones were cited in 11 percent of distraction-related crashes, more than any other factor.

But an analysis of data from 16 states by the nonpartisan National Conference on State Legislatures found that cell-phone use correlated with less than 1 percent of car accidents, and a May 2001 study by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center put cell phones eighth among distractions that cause crashes.

"It should give pause to those who want to craft just very narrowly focused bills," said Joe Farren, spokesman for CTIA-The Wireless Association, a Washington, D.C.,-based advocacy organization for wireless telecommunications companies. "Driver distraction is a broad and varied issue. What about the folks who are caring for a child or pet? What about the folks who are reaching for a CD, combing their hair or putting on their makeup?"

Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, said he has "serious reservations" about the bill and would rather support an all-encompassing driver-distraction measure that "would free up the Legislature from having to routinely create new legislation to address the distraction du jour."

"I have a concern about legislation that targets cell phones or Blackberry texting. They are distractions, no doubt, but they are two of many distractions that confront drivers in their cars," Wisniewski said. "Why should the act of talking on a cell phone be subject to a much more serious penalty than reckless driving?"

A 2006 study published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute estimated that nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involve some form of driver inattention.

Similarly, a January 2007 survey by Nationwide Mutual Insurance found that 31 percent of respondents admitted they daydream while driving; 19 percent said they fixed their hair, text or instant message; 14 percent comfort or discipline children; and 8 percent drive with a pet in their lap. Some surveyed also confessed to reading books, watching movies, putting in contact lenses and even shaving while driving.

"We had an incident where a woman was eating a bagel (while driving), then she choked on the bagel and died," Ryan said. "Phone use, the radio station, text messaging, kids in the car — all are potentially distracting."

Advocates for the cell-phone bill, supported by state Senate President Richard Codey, said they stand behind it.

"Oftentimes, common sense is a good guide for legislation," said Assemblyman Bill Baroni, R-Mercer. "We want to do everything we can to make driving more safe. If we can encourage people to use hands-free devices, that's a smart thing for the state."

Both Baroni and Wisniewski spoke to the Home News Tribune while driving, using hands-free devices.

The bill is expected to come up for a vote in the Assembly later this month. If passed, it would then head over to the state Senate, which approved a slightly different version in February 2006, and finally to Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Driver personality tests

Learners could face personality tests1.22, Sat Jun 9 2007

Learner drivers could soon be undergoing personality tests to see if they are more likely to take risks on the road.

Road safety charities are calling for the psychometric tests which they claim would allow instructors to spot those who were more likely to jump red lights or break speed limits.

Robert Gifford, director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, said: "What one would want to do is - in addition to the multiple choice questions that there are in the theory test at the moment - we would give people a series of value judgements.

"It would be a way of picking up their underlying values rather than just the facts that they have at their disposal, which are a series of multiple choice questions."
The learners could then receive training from their examiners to modify their behaviour.


The idea has been welcomed by the Brake road safety charity.
A spokeswoman said: "One of the weaknesses of the driving tests is that it only tests your skills. Possibly somebody is a fantastic driver but they have the attitude to test those skills to the limit on the road.


"If there could be some way of measuring how much of a risk taker somebody is likely to be, including that in the test would do a lot for safety."

But the RAC Foundation said young learners should be taught about road safety at a much earlier age rather then at 17 or 18.

Executive director Edmund King took an opposing view, he said: "We accept we have to do more about young drivers who are most at risk on the roads.

"We are not opposed to new ideas but the concept of psychometric testing is not the solution and a bit of a gimmick, we would like to see prior training in education."

The proposal was criticised by Paul Smith, founder of organisation Safe Speed, who said road safety was a "complex matter of individual risk management"
.
He added: "We could write a million rules, obey them perfectly, and still fail to observe someone stepping into the road ahead."


The Driving Standards Agency is carrying out a review of driver testing and once this is complete the proposals will be put out to consultation.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Bad-driver tip line

by Bob Gillespie
It seems that drivers ratting on each other has some downsides. Basically I like the idea, in an attempt to get the crazies off the road. But as the article below says, how do we know it's not the offender who is phoning in?

Even though few arrests seem to occur with this program, I think it serves a very useful purpose, which is to serve notice to those dangerous, aggresive drivers that they are being watched.

You can help to protect yourself from the dangerous drivers with a good defensive driver education program. You may be dismayed to hear this, and it might sound shocking, but a defensive driver course will benefit almost everyone, no matter how long they've been driving.

I can attest to that personally. I had been driving for about 20 years when I took a defensive driver course and a driving instructors course. I really didn't think they could teach me anything new, but I was totally amazed at the things I learned, and I realized I wasn't such a great driver after all. For the low investment of a driver training ebook you will become a better, safer driver.


Bad-driver tip lines gain in popularityWASHINGTON, June 11 (UPI) --

Dangerous drivers on U.S. roads are being reported to the police by the thousands thanks to tip programs in 26 states.

The Governors Highway Safety Association said the programs include phone numbers, Web sites and addresses that can all be used to report the license numbers of drunken and reckless drivers.

USA Today said Monday that in Missouri 10,000 tips were phoned in per month. About one quarter of those report suspected drunken drivers.

Some experts, however, see a weakness in the fact the reports are often anonymous and don't offer much evidence.

"You want to get people who are behaving badly off the road," Martin Pietrucha of the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, told USA Today. "But how do you know the person calling in or ratting somebody out is not the person who is actually responsible?"

Other traffic experts noted that the tips often don't result in an arrest but rather a letter in the mail reminding the alleged scofflaw of the dangers of poor driving habits, the newspaper said.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Electronics and road safety

Tiefensee: Electronic Systems improve road safety and help prevent congestion. Germany supports rescue system "eCall"

Berlin, Germany - On behalf of the Federal Government, Wolfgang Tiefensee, the Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the rescue system eCall.


With this, Germany is supporting a Europe-wide introduction of this electronic emergency call system, which is designed to speed up rescue operations.

Sometimes it can take a long time for the rescue services to reach the site of an accident, especially at night or in remote areas. With eCall, a signal is transmitted automatically when an air bag is released, giving the exact position of the accident to the emergency response centre.

Satellites support the rescue services in locating the crashed vehicle.

Tiefensee: "In Germany we already have an exemplary rescue system. eCall will further improve the system with the help of sophisticated technology. If rescue services can reach the scene of an accident more quickly, this will save lives. I expect other member states to take a prompt decision to cooperate in eCall. If possible, by 2010, all passengers cars entering the market will be fitted with eCall as standard."

Within the framework of the EU Presidency, Federal Minister Tiefensee opened the conference on the EU's "eSafety Initiative".

Tiefensee: "Traffic will increase significantly in the years to come. We must adapt to this situation now. Safety on Europe's roads is a major concern of the European Union. I support the objective of halving the number of road fatalities by 2010 with the help of the eSafety initiative. In order to achieve this objective we must deploy the accomplishments of modern technology for road safety and traffic management."

Improving the broadcast of traffic information and introducing braking assistance systems, lane keeping assistance systems and lane guiding systems are some of the topics that will be discussed during the conference.

Under the auspices of the German Presidency the participants will elaborate conclusions for political decisions to be taken at EU level.

Tiefensee: "European enterprises are already leading in developing intelligent driver assistance systems. German companies alone invest 16 billion euros a year in improving our vehicles, mainly in safety measures. By now, electronic devices accounts for half of this amount. We must now pave the way for acceptance and a broad-based commercialization."


Monday, June 4, 2007

Running red lights

by Bob Gillespie
Running red lights is not that uncommon; I can't think of anything more dangerous than that, except playing Russian roulette. On second thoughts, I suppose perhaps they are equally dangerous.

Running yellow lights is not a very good idea either, ie going through a yellow when you should have stopped. What if the driver on the cross street jumped the green light? Considering that major intersections with traffic lights are about the most dangerous places on our roadways, it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to run the lights.

I know that sometimes a driver doesn't stop for a red light because he just doesn't see it, but you can be quite sure that in the majority of cases a driver doesn't feel like stopping.

The article below concerns 'red light cameras', and some people are against them because they feel that they violate our constitutional rights. Myself, I don't see it that way, and quite frankly, I love to see these people caught in the act. Some of the worst collisions are caused by people running red lights, and innocent people are killed or injured.

A very good driving habit is to scan left, center, and right before going through every intersection. This, and much, much more is discussed in depth in my defensive driver education program.



‘Photo red’ — Safety key feature of new Virginia law
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

A new law in Virginia allowing the use of cameras to catch motorists who run red lights treads the gray area between making our roadways safer and protecting the constitutional rights of travelers.

The bill, which gives localities the option of installing photo-monitoring systems to enforce traffic light signals, is being hailed by many on the state and local level.

“We see it all of the time,” Bluefield, Va., Police Chief Harry Cundiff, told the Daily Telegraph. “Route 460 is probably the worst — especially there at Leatherwood Lane. If you went out to Leatherwood at 460, and if you sit there for an hour, you will probably see about five people go through this red light at 55 to 60 mph. A good driver will slow down and expect the light to turn.

When you see a yellow light that doesn’t mean to speed up.”

Cundiff said officials hope the new photo-monitoring system will help prevent future accidents.
We, too, are hopeful the possibility of motorists being caught on camera will serve as a wake-up call to those who thoughtlessly — and dangerously — run red lights.

No matter the time of day, traffic conditions or any other reason a driver may give, there is no just cause for running a red light. Too many accidents and deaths occur each year due to such careless actions.

“Intersections are dangerous places for accidents, and you can’t have a police officer at every intersection,” Cundiff said. “If people will obey the law, they don’t have to worry about getting a ticket. It (the new law) gives the police officers more of a safety net to police those intersections without having someone there. I know it is drawing some controversy, but they have pretty well proven the photo is a good identity of the vehicle by the license plate.”

We agree with Cundiff. If motorists drive legally, they should have no problems with the new photo-monitoring system.

But, we also realize the use of cameras to monitor citizens’ actions brings to mind images of a Big Brother society.

We believe a government’s intervention in the lives of its people should only occur when there is reasonable and justifiable rationale to support such action. If cameras at red lights will reduce accidents and deaths, or deter reckless driving by motorists, then such monitoring has grounds.

However, we also encourage the Commonwealth to monitor the new law to ensure the constitutional rights of Virginians continue to be protected.