Driver Safety Education Blog

Well, certainly winter is here. Lots of snow and slippery roads. The side roads are interesting to drive on.

It's been two days of snow falling and no Edmonton city plows in sight on the main traffic routes. Sand/salt trucks from time to time at major intersections and hills only. Side roads, other than bus routes, never get plowed.

So for you new young drivers with little or no experience driving on streets with little or no plowing and the snow mushed down to a slippery road cover, listen up.

Do not tailgate! Leave lots of room between you and the vehicle in front of you.
If someone is tailgating you, ignore them. Don't speed up.
Go slower in winter road conditions than you would normally on dry roads.
Test the road surface from time to time by applying the brakes. If it is slippery, your stopping distance is quite a bit more.
Be aware of the yahoos who think they can drive better than you in their 4x4 or 4WD SUV. They can't. They usually are the cause of collisions. (Check the news and see how many vehicles involved in collisions are trucks and SUVs.)
Be aware of vehicles entering your road from side streets. They will need more time to get up to driving speed than usual.
Leave lots of time to get to where you are going. Rushing will probably get you into a snowbank or other vehicle.

Remember: drive to road and weather conditions.

Pat Attention: unexpected surprises by other drivers may be coming your way!

That's all for now.

Have a safe driving Christmas!

Cheers - Mike

From The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, a good powerpoint presentation called, "Young Drivers".

A quote from the 2005 presentation has some interesting statistics and there is more as well. It appears to be mostly from England, however I think there would be similar findings in Canada and the U.S.

* Almost 3,000 under 25 yrs killed or seriously injured
* 1 in 5 crash within 1 year of passing test
* 38,800 deaths and injuries in crashes involving drivers of less than 2 years experience
* 1 in 3 young male drivers crash within 2 years of passing their test
* An 18 year old driver is more than 3 times more likely to crash than a 48 year old

The presentation can be found at the RoSPA site here, along with a large number of links to other young driver articles.

Hope it helps...

Good driving...

Cheers - Mike

The 16 year old son of a friend of mine had a fender bender a couple of days ago. He has been driving for almost 2 years. He and a friend were making a turn at an intersection and due to an ice/snow storm of a couple days previously, hit ice during the turn. The car went straight even though the wheels were turned to the right. He missed one car as he traveled into the opposite lane and then he hit dry pavement, with his wheels still turned. The car turned and he hit another vehicle, which was parked. There was very minor damage to each vehicle.

This was a wake up call. He had been going a little too fast into the turn and wasn't paying enough attention to road conditions. He learned. No one was injured. There was only a little damage to each front bumper. This was his first car, which he has owned for a couple of months. He will be a better driver because of it - gaining experience.

It's too bad that some kids have much harsher lessons about driving.

It's too bad that knowledge transfer doesn't take place between young inexperienced drivers who have just learned a lesson. Adults can help them with stories, but it doesn't seem to sink in most of the time.

Why is it that each generation has to make the same mistakes as the previous generation?

What can we do to help turn this around?

Comments welcome...

Drive safe - Mike