"RoseGarden" - - - - - - - from - nscave

The statements were in the news several times over the last few days, following some severe traffic collisions. (They call them accidents. I spent a good part of my working lifetime as a driver trainer for large vehicles. There are very few “accidents.” They are collisions.)

The statements I am referring to go like this: “That road is terrible, it should be twinned.” “If proper road maintenance was done it wouldn’t have happened.” “That road is dangerous, they should do something about it.”

How can the fault of a collision be the road? Its the driver, pure and simple. Are we not supposed to adjust our driving to conditions? Conditions do include the weather, traffic, and other awareness things. The biggest condition we need to be aware of is the road, pure and simple.

I regularly see drivers texting while driving. They are not aware of conditions.

I regularly see drivers speeding way above the speed limit. They are not aware of conditions.

I regularly see drivers passing where they are not allowed to. They are not aware of conditions.

And on it goes.

Heck, there are so many drivers that don’t slow down for heavy rain, icing and other natural weather occurrences it is just amazing. No, its sickening.

I think the worst thing I have seen this year, more than once I might add, is vehicles with the words “Student Driver” on them, making continuous infractions in just a few kilometres. No a student wasn’t driving, I can only assume it was the instructor. Are our driver training programs working?

Some final thoughts.

When you see skid marks on the pavement, it means a driver spotted a hazard - - - too late!

When you see a rental truck or cube van on the road, does it tell you anything? It should. Not always, but there is a great possibility that the person driving it may not be used to that type of vehicle. Be prepared.

This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License