If we eliminate random, freak occurrences—such as an earthquake taking out a bridge just as you are driving across it—then what we have left is driver error. What about bald tires, you say? Nope; as a driver you are responsible for the tires on the car you are driving. Cell phones? Nope, again; no cell phone ever caused a crash, but some people talking on cell phones and not paying attention to their driving while doing so have caused crashes. Winter snowstorms and icy roads? Nope, again; no snowstorm ever caused a crash, but some people driving in winter conditions and not driving appropriately for those conditions have caused crashes.
With that in mind, let’s offer up some simple, basic safety pointers organized into a couple of categories: Things About the Vehicle, and Things About the Driver.
Things About the Vehicle
Tires
How to tell if they’re in decent condition? Look into the grooves in the tread pattern and you will see shallow, raised bars of rubber. If the tread on the tire is worn to where it is even with those little bars, the tire should be replaced, because there isn’t enough tread left for the tire to have proper grip on anything but absolutely dry pavement. Puzzled about inflation pressure? There will be a little sticker, sometimes on the driver’s door pillar, sometimes in the glove box, listing correct inflation pressure. Do the rest of us a favor; keep decent tires on your car and keep them properly inflated.
What to do with a sudden flat on a freeway? Get the thing off the freeway, no matter what it takes. No torn-up tire, beat-up wheel or banged-up fender is worth someone’s well being. A flat tire is a minor inconvenience. A trip to the hospital is not.
Miscellaneous Vehicle Equipment
Brakes, lights, windshield wipers and so forth are your responsibility. Windshield wipers, for example, go largely ignored until the second day of the first rainstorm of the season, but about two years is all you can reasonably expect them to last. In fact, they deteriorate enormously in the hot summer months when they’re not being used but are being given a daily cooking.
Things About the Driver
Pay attention to what you are doing behind the wheel. If everyone paid proper attention to his and/or her driving, traffic crashes would be virtually eliminated. Here’s one simple little rule: Never do anything that causes anyone else to have to make an allowance for you—because they may not make that allowance. If you cut in front of someone, expecting that person to slow down and let you in, and that other person doesn’t—for whatever reason; maybe he’s on the cell phone, maybe she’s fiddling with the radio—then you’re both going to have a problem. It’s not that person’s fault for not making the necessary allowance for your bad driving. It’s your fault for having the unreasonable expectation that they will.
Seatbelts
A few years ago a well-known manufacturer of sport-utility vehicles and a well-known manufacturer of tires were embroiled in a well-known mess regarding tires blowing out, sport-utility vehicles rolling over and people being injured or killed. Let’s look at a less well-known aspect of that entire tragedy:
In at least 80 percent of those cases where people were killed, they weren’t wearing their seatbelts. Got that?
Rolling Over
Many people believe the primary cause of rollover crashes is the relatively higher centers of gravity of such vehicles as sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks. It’s just not so.
About 95 percent of all rollovers happen because the vehicle is “tripped,” which means it went off the pavement and hit something—such as a curb—that caused the vehicle to “trip” and roll over. This has nothing at all to do with a high center of gravity and everything to do with keeping the vehicle on the pavement.
In fact, sport-utility vehicles do not have the highest rollover rate. Rate-wise, what rolls over more often? Try two-door, high-performance sports cars, those with the lowest centers of gravity and highest handling capabilities. Do you think it might, just might, have something to do with the ways those cars are sometimes driven?
The evidence makes rollover crashes a driver error thing, not a vehicle thing.
Your Physical Condition
The problem with telling people not to drive when they’re drowsy or drunk is that, when they’re drowsy or drunk, they’re not paying attention to you telling them not to drive when they’re drowsy or drunk. Still, we will all ask you one more time: Just don’t do it, OK?
Pedestrians
In a crash between a car and a pedestrian a pedestrian loses. Talk to police officers who investigate such things and you will find a near-universal conviction that in those events it is usually the pedestrian who is at fault. Even if you’re in a marked crosswalk, you’re still on a road that was most definitely designed and built for cars. Just because you have a legal right-of-way in a crosswalk does not mean you should expect all drivers of all vehicles to see you and take the appropriate action of stopping in time. It may be the driver’s fault for hitting you, but you’ll be the one staring at the ceiling of a hospital room—if you’re still able.
Parts of this may have seemed a little hard-edged, but our only thought was this: When considering the dangers of driving, we really would like to try and keep people from being hurt or worse. Drive safe, take care.and our very best, sincere wishes that you get there in one piece.
