How Avoid Traffic Accidents

[UnrealizedPotential]

Unfortunately it has been my driving experience that you don't have to be doing anything and things can go wrong. I can think of a few instances when I was sitting at a traffic light and some driver hit my car from behind. How does one protect against that?
That said , I try to drive the speed limit at all times and drive defensively to limit possible accidents.

 

[RobbieB]

Here in America we are way to lenient wrt violations as compared to other countries.

Lot's of countries have an allowable BAC of zero.

Get 1 moving and 1 collision, you don't drive anymore.

We need to start shredding more licenses. Sorry, you don't drive anymore. If you can't drive down the road w/o smashing into stuff, you need to go. If you rear end a stopped vehicle you don't drive anymore.

 

[RetiredAt55.5]

car color also matters

dark colors are less safe -

https://www.autolist.com/guides/safest-car-color

We currently have 3 silver, 1 white, and 1 red. I prefer silver and white since they don't need to be washed as often. But the Miata had to be red.

 

[CRLLS]

Only a "few" instances? I need to use two hands to count the number of times I've been hit from behind. There is not much one can do defensively about that, especially when everyone, including the guy that hits you, is stopped in traffic or at a red light.

When I get behind somebody driving slower than me in bad weather, I relax. I really don't want them driving faster than they are comfortable doing and spin out in front of me. Riding their bumper and flashing my lights as if to pass, only makes them more uncomfortable.

 

[MRG]

I'd probably add a fourth item, which has been mentioned by others:

Drive focused.

Don't eat, shave, apply makeup, answer your cell phone, look at your cell phone, look at the radio, drink coffee, discipline your kids, pet the dog, or anything else that takes your focus away from the road.

Keep your focus on the road.

If you're focused and aren't speeding, you're much safer than not. You'll see what you're about to hit and have the margin to avoid hitting it - a tree, a person, a train, a telephone pole, an embankment, another car, a cyclist, a motorcyclist, etc.

I used to do many of those things, and I've stopped, mostly because of the good influence of my daughter. She hasn't caused any accidents; I have. So I listen to her good advice and admonitions. (I'm 50, she's 18.)

Many years ago I came across a person driving slowly and erratically almost as if they were intoxicated. They had a personalized license plate HeySomeName. I eventually passed and looked over expecting a drunk to be slumped over the wheel. Instead this person was knitting yes indeed knitting! Perhaps someone recommended knitting as a way to relax. But when driving?

 

[Kwirk]

I try to drive my car and every other car around me. If somebody is following closely I leave extra space in front so that I can brake more gently. If I'm coming to an intersection I look to see if anybody may pull out in front of me. I like to avoid the right lane near on-off ramps. I watch for the too common distracted driver. I look for sleepy and intoxicated drivers.

People make mistakes. I try to anticipate their mistakes and make myself ready to compensate. I make mistakes too and I hope that others are ready to compensate for me.

 

[GreenEggs]

dark colors are less safe -

https://www.autolist.com/guides/safest-car-color

We currently have 3 silver, 1 white, and 1 red. I prefer silver and white since they don't need to be washed as often. But the Miata had to be red.

This article kept mentioning certain colors are more difficult to see at night. In my experience cars are supposed to be well lit & are easy to see at night. The worst lighting in dawn & dusk when drivers can see the road okay & some of them forget about turning on their lights. At dusk, dawn, & fog Silver is one of the most difficult colors to see.

I ride a white motorcycle with a white helmet and it has always been very obvious to me how well traffic notices me.

 

[Sunset]

I would love to drive a motorcycle, but won't due to other drivers.
I'll ride a bicycle on sidewalks or pathways, or quiet residential streets, but not a busy street. Too dangerous, as a painted line does NOT make a safe bike lane.

I once got rear ended while in the middle of a line waiting to go through Customs at the border. Not only were we all stopped, but the fellow managed to squeeze his friends legs between our two cars.

In a long line, where I'm going to waiting for a long time (like crossing the border) I'll put the car in park, just so my foot can't slip off the brake, and to give my foot a rest.

 

[savory]

I'll ride a bicycle on sidewalks .

There is a great deal of evidence that bicycling on the sidewalk is NOT safer than the street. I found this link from Cornell that explains it well and suggests there is a great deal of evidence supporting this point of view.

http://www.bike.cornell.edu/pdfs/Sidewalk_biking_FAQ.pdf

 

[skipro33]

1. Don't speed.

I also liked his advice to drive as though an assassin is out to kill you with his car.

I can not agree with this one. At least in California. Driving the speed limit will target you for assassination. Seems speed limit is the absolute bare minimum for the larger commercial trucks even though they are supposed to do 10mph under posted for cars. So unless I can park myself behind a semi, I'm going to be in someone's way. Someone who resents that I am in their way and usually also preoccupied with their 'smart' phone, putting on make-up via their rear view mirror or other wise preoccupied with what is happening on the road around them.

Things have gotten really, REALLY bad out here in the wild, wild west.

Car pool lanes are the worst; during traffic congestion when everyone else is creeping along at 10mph, this lane is going 70+, bumper to bumper. It an exercise in terror to use that lane. Sooner or later, a multi car pile up ensues. Everyone, including the CHP, accepts this as the new norm. Add in that California has the worst roads of any state I've ever driven and things just keep getting worse.

Fortunately, one big advantage for being retired is that I can usually plan my trips around the traffic patterns.

 

[DFDubb]

My favorite new trend to hit the streets is now when everyone is stopped at a stop light and the light turns green, nobody moves because everyone at the front of the line is on their phone and people have to honk to get their attention. It seems to happen at. every. single. stop. light!

 

[sengsational]

I don't think Attia's article concentrated heavily enough on avoiding drowsy driving.

Drowsy driving is dangerous because sleep deprivation can have similar effects on your body as drinking alcohol. Being awake for 18 hours straight makes you drive like you have a blood alcohol level of .05 (for reference, .08 is considered drunk). If you’ve been awake for a full 24 hours and drive—say, after a night where you just couldn’t fall asleep—it’s like you have a blood alcohol level of .10.

 

[JoeWras]

Good article. Good comments.

When I was young, I would dart off the line when the light turned green. No more. I look carefully both ways before going. It has saved a few potential T-bones.

Still, I don't do that when traffic is moving, but should pay attention if there are no cars stopped on the other intersection.

We have too many rural roads with bad sight lines around here, even some in the city that haven't been improved. The feeling from the news is that these are where most of the fatalities are.

 

[atmsmshr]

Our local public high school does not have a driver's education course. Had to teach both my kids, and they had an online test followed by license examination.


Taught them to never tailgate, trust a stoplight, turnsignal, stopsign or friend who had a beer. If pulled over by a cop, keep both hands in sight of the officer - and be polite. Dad - 'whatever'. Told them any DUI results in no insurance and no driving, period. Any moving violation might also result in loss of the Mom and Dad insurance company. 'ok' Later, while away at college, each of them was stopped and rear ended in two separate accidents. Neither were hurt, but both now have better driving habits.


Back in the day, my High School had a driver's education course. I think it was mandated by the state. Three years ago my retired high school driver's ed teacher was found unresponsive in his living room. He was taking prescription anti-depressants. In his hand was a letter from the state suspending his license. Nearby was a bloody hammer. He had killed his wife two days earlier. Now in prison.


There is no moral to this true story.


Squirrel

 

[scrabbler1]

My favorite new trend to hit the streets is now when everyone is stopped at a stop light and the light turns green, nobody moves because everyone at the front of the line is on their phone and people have to honk to get their attention. It seems to happen at. every. single. stop. light!

I see this all the time, and mostly when I am a pedestrian instead of a driver. I live near a big intersection, so I can see the normal traffic flow after a light turns green, like a string of dominos falling......until one car stays put for an extra 5 seconds (cuz someone is texting) until the cars behind it start honking their horns. Never fails to happen.

And, as JoeWras wrote, a very good defensive measure when you are the first car at a traffic light is to make sure the cross traffic actually stops, even if you have green light, because there are always red light runners.

 

[6miths]

Our new car tells you when the car in front of you has pulled away at a stoplight or stop sign. Talk about encouraging bad habits!

 

[Chuckanut]

My RAV4 had Blind Spot Monitor (BSM) as an extra cost option. And it is worth every penny of the cost. In fact, I would give up some things like the lane monitor before I would give up BSM. The adaptive cruise control is also very very nice.

What we really need is the robotic arm that detects when a cell phone is being held by the driver, forces it out of her hands, and tosses it into the back seat or better yet, out the window.

 

[sengsational]

There exists eye tracking systems (CU said it was in a few Caddies only so far), but the system knows if you take your eyes off the road (using a phone or, even more deadly, nodding off). This safety feature would save way more lives than a lot of the efforts so far tried.

 

[tmm99]

Night driving is OK if I'm familiar with the road, otherwise, I shouldn't really drive at night unless there are no other cars around and the lighting is good.

Another thing is backing out of a parking lot. My neck is stiffer and I get lazy, but I should still try to turn my head when I reverse out of a parking lot, to see all around my car before pulling out. I have an old car so I have no fancy cameras, etc.

 

[Boose]

@Skipro, things are not much better down in formerly-mellow San Diego. Cruising speed in a 65 zone is usually 75 or more. And often an outlier will come speeding up from behind, doing 90+ in a pickup or motorcycle. I admit that I have a lead foot and a long commute opposite rush-hour traffic, but I realize I could slow down a bit without adding too much time to my drive.

 

[kingkarmann]

I have an 85 mile commute round trip every weekday. It’s nearly all interstate. I do work an evening shift so I drive home in the dark. 50 percent of the drive is rural. I’ve been doing this drive for 20 years and have seen all sorts of crazy irresponsible behavior and a share that have ended in tragedy.
I’m less than 4 months from my retirement dream and am now even more defensive about driving than I normally am. I want to be around to enjoy the next chapter. Will not miss the road warriors.

 

[Buckeye]

I got Attia's email, too. I agree with his points but I think the overarching issue is impatience. I think back to the few accidents I've been involved in and impatience is the root cause.

Attia suggests not to speed, drive while impaired, or jump off the line at an intersection. I think it could be argued that impatience is at the root of speeding (want to get there NOW), driving while impaired (want to go NOW instead of waiting for a ride and having to return to get your car), and not looking to left and right before taking off at an intersection (want to go NOW).

Before the driving email, Attia sent out an email about the Kobe Bryant accident. I guess Attia uses helicopters when he is in Hawaii even though his wife has asked him not to because it scares her. He was arguing that driving is far more dangerous than using a helicopter.

My response to Attia's Kobe email was the root cause of the Kobe Bryant accident was impatience. Apparently, the weather was bad enough to ground the sheriff's helicopters. Kobe didn't want to wait for the weather to clear nor switch to ground transportation. Both options would have delayed his arrival at his destination. He wanted to go now!

 

[OldShooter]

... My response to Attia's Kobe email was the root cause of the Kobe Bryant accident was impatience. Apparently, the weather was bad enough to ground the sheriff's helicopters. Kobe didn't want to wait for the weather to clear nor switch to ground transportation. Both options would have delayed his arrival at his destination. He wanted to go now!

Sorry. Speaking from the viewpoint of a commercial and instrument rated pilot, I can safely say that you don't have the slightest idea of what happened on that flight.

The pilot in command (not Bryant) made the decision to go. The NTSB will tell us whether conditions were below minimums or not. The pilot was certainly instrument rated; the NTSB will tell us what his experience was. If the WX was above minimums and the pilot was current and proficient, then a go decision may have been entirely reasonable. Given the descent rate prior to impact my completely uninformed guess is that there may have been some kind of mechanical problem. The NTSB will tell us that, too. Their final reports typically are released about 6 months after an accident but with the notoriety of this event I would not be surprised by an earlier release. Until that release, speculation serves no purpose.

 

[Buckeye]

Sorry. Speaking from the viewpoint of a commercial and instrument rated pilot, I can safely say that you don't have the slightest idea of what happened on that flight.

The pilot in command (not Bryant) made the decision to go. The NTSB will tell us whether conditions were below minimums or not. The pilot was certainly instrument rated; the NTSB will tell us what his experience was. If the WX was above minimums and the pilot was current and proficient, then a go decision may have been entirely reasonable. Given the descent rate prior to impact my completely uninformed guess is that there may have been some kind of mechanical problem. The NTSB will tell us that, too. Their final reports typically are released about 6 months after an accident but with the notoriety of this event I would not be surprised by an earlier release. Until that release, speculation serves no purpose.

The last report I saw on the accident (and I don't know what data the expert was looking at) stated there didn't seem to be any mechanical issues with the helicopter. The person speaking attributed the descent rate to loss of situational awareness. Of course, there will be a full report in time. Bryant doesn't make the decision to go (overriding the pilot) but he does make the decision to say it is too risky to go now. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

 

[BasketCase24]

Accidents and causes

In my past job, we worked hard at analyzing accidents and close calls to learn as much as possible about conditions that cause accidents to prevent them. I enjoyed the analysis, learning about safe and unsafe conditions, attitudes and abilities. I also drive a 96-year old car for fun, and a 6 year old car with limited self-driving and safe driving tools. I mention the two cars because it is possible to drive a simple, limited vehicle with almost no safety features safely, while also admitting that the self-driving features are a better driver than I am.

Rational safe driving involves compensating for non-perfect conditions, abilities and attitudes. Recognizing the conditions that increase likelihood of an accident, taking the compensatory actions. Having the attitude to recognize and implement.

I don’t know what happened to Kobe Bryant. However, I think it would be a rare private pilot who would say, “Mr. Bryant, I value your life more than your business. We are not flying today.” Why do I think that would be rare? Because many of us take the same type of risk with our family and friends, who we know won’t fire us. How often do we say “I know it will be ok to drive in these conditions” when we are more wishing than knowing? I know I have, as much as I try not to do that. Do you?