The subject of defensive driving classes came up at work last week. I wasn’t the only person there who’d taken one without having gotten into trouble driving. In my case it was required by my university before one could drive their vehicles.
For this poll’s purposes, “got in trouble” can be either legal trouble that got you sentenced to the class, or young drivers being required to by their parents after an driving misadventure.
Being required to for other reasons, like work or an insurance discount, would fall under “for another reason.” Feel free to elaborate in a post what the other reason was.
I took a defensive driving course before going out to work expat in Africa and the Middle-East.
It turned out to be essential as the driving out there had to be seen to be believed.
Overtaking randomly into dust clouds probably being the most lethal habit, but also not driving a night is at all possible as animals like to warm themselves on the still-warm tarmac after sun down.
Running into, say, a camel at speed would be no joke.
I’ve taken an advanced driving course for work and on checking the wikipedia entry on defensive driving it seems to be on a similar basis.
In my experience the single most important thing to learn is simply to pay attention and ‘read’ the road ahead, anticipating rather than reacting to events.
A simple concept but too many road-users don’t seem to get it.
I took the course twelve years after I passed the basic driving test and it was actually an eye-opener how many bad habits I had picked up over the years.
I took one years ago to keep from getting points on my license for a speeding ticket. I also had to take a motorcycle one to get the MC endorsement the first time. I took a third one as required by my company when I got my CDL. I voted because I got into trouble.
I’ve taken defensive driving, Driving for protective personnel, advanced car control, and several 2-3 day racing/car control classes. The protective class was for a job, the rest were mostly for fun.
I will say it saved my life as I once managed to do a crazy haul turn and avoid a drunk driver who slammed into the median I was driving along. Had he T-boned me, I’m sure I would have been dead or severely crippled.
I had to take a two day advanced drivers training course to drive for work. I have to retake it every two years. It was actually very valuable and a lot of fun!
I consider myself fortunate to have taken it very young - just a month or so after turning 21 - because I didn’t have much to unlearn given that I’d been carless more than 1/2 of the time prior to that (I didn’t own a car until I was 18, and UNH is very much a “walking campus” so I wasn’t even allowed to have my car there as a freshman) and hadn’t done a lot of driving even with a car at my disposal the rest of the time.
I picked “No, but I might someday” - I’d actually love to take a defensive driving class, to improve my driving confidence and as a safety measure. Any idea where I can sign up for one (without racking up a couple of speeding tickets)?
I’m taking one on line right now because it’ll save me on my insurance. And it’s a good refresher, considering it’s been 40 years since I took driver’s ed. Most of it makes me go “duh” which seems to indicate that I am, in fact, a defensive driver. Go me!
As a fed employee, in order to keep my fed driver’s license, our agency requires a annual defensive driving refresher. It doesn’t hurt a bit and the time is well worth it. There is always something new to learn, updated driver stats, etc., that benefit driving, on or off the job.
This past year’s refresher had a trauma nurse come in with the latest information and statistics. Among the stuff she presented:
[ul]
[li]With vehicle airbags, keep your hands on the wheel at the 9-3 or 8-4 position. Any place higher on the wheel and if the airbag is deployed, you will end up with a broken nose and/or hands.[/li][li]People who wear seatbelts but have their seats tilted way back often do not survive crashes. Then end up submarining under the belt and in many cases, end up being decapitated.[/li][li]Cell phone users are as attentive as drunk drivers. They also come out of an accident in worse condition than drunks because they are not relaxed in a collision.[/li][/ul]
I used to work for a large oilfield services company that starts with “H” and ends in “Let’s get into the new Iraq on the ground floor!!” As a policy they would have all their heavy truck drivers take an advanced driving course.
We did simulator time and spent time swerving and sliding around on an airport runway driving a truck retro-fitted with hydraulically-controlled wheels where the instructor could randomly induce sliding and skidding via computer.
“Here comes an icy patch, left side only!”
Instructor hits ‘ENTER’
Instant icy patch, vehicle out of control. Very fun.
I was lucky - my high school driving class taught defensive skills. Of course, here I am 30 years later, and a refresher would not hurt.
Although, teaching the local drivers the basics would be more cost-effective. On Monday, I saw two people swerve from the middle lane on the freeway and cut across the #3 lane and the grassy verge to make their exit. During evening rush hour, so that right lane was not exactly empty. :eek:
twice actually, once for a story back when i was a newspaper reporter (the car was state-of-the-art computer-controlled by the instructor, who sat in the passenger seat and created all kinds of scary driving situations for me to first experience and then try to drive myself out of safely. freakin’ awesome ride. and no, i didn’t always succeed. ).
the other was offered by the police department of the municipality i worked for at one time. all in all, pretty useful stuff that has allowed me to escape trouble on the roadway three times so far since then. if nothing else, i learned to be VERY aware of the cars in front of me, beside me and behind me.
