Root Causes of Why Drivers Crash

 

Root causes of why drivers crash

It's time for me to study the root causes of why people crash as understanding them is key to being a good client centred driving instructor. It's this understanding that will allow me to develop my coaching skills. Let's have a look.

Attitudes play an important part in deciding how well you drive. I find a lot of my pupils have attitudes based on often poor examples set by parents. Some pupils feel that other drivers get annoyed at them because they see their parents driving angrily and berating other drivers so they think this is the norm. Some pupils drive too fast from the very first lesson and look for excitement in driving. All these attitudes can cloud a driver's judgement and lead to poor decision making.

One factor that affects attitudes is called optimism bias. Most people tend to be optimistic rather than realistic about certain things and this can apply to driving. You may think you have super quick reactions so you follow too closely to other vehicles believing you can stop in time, greatly increasing the risk of your drive. Many accidents happen when a person is nearly home and on familiar streets. People tend to be less alert in familiar surroundings and gain a feeling of safety which can lead to inattention and taking it for granted that there's nothing around the corner, because the road is always clear. Refusal to acknowledge the effects of drinking alcohol or taking drugs before driving is another form of bias.

Most bad drivers get away with poor behaviour for a certain time which gives a false sense of security. Such drivers may reap the rewards of their behaviour further reinforcing the sense that they are doing no wrong. This is called the pleasure principle. Driving over the speed limit may save time and get you to your destination early. Cutting other drivers up by constantly changing lanes may give those with a competitive personality a feeling that they are somehow beating other drivers in a race but it is usually a matter of time before an incident occurs.

Distraction is a factor in over half of incidents involving younger drivers. Cars have so much technology built in and with a screen mounted in the middle of the dashboard it's easy to let your attention focus on this instead of on the road. Mobile phones are a big temptation. When your phone buzzes with a text message who doesn't want to look to see who it is. Talking on a handheld phone is even worse as it can affect your physical control of the car as well as diverting your attention from the road. If the phone call gave you some bad news this could affect your emotional state which is also a distraction. Anger or excitement can seriously affect the way you drive. Best to switch your phone off while driving. Some people think they can multitask but this is really a myth. All you do is shift focus from one thing to another and back again. If you are talking to a passenger in the car you may think you are concentrating on driving and talking at the same time with no loss of attention to either but this is not so. Your focus cannot be on the road and on your passenger at the same time.

As any parent knows, children can be a serious distraction. Research has shown that children can be 12 times more distracting than talking to someone on the phone. I remember myself trying to watch the kids in the rearview mirror and also look ahead while listening to their complaints and demands could be a serious headache. Add to that the new technologies added into new cars and it's a wonder anyone can concentrate on driving at all. Having a screen in the middle of the dashboard presenting the driver with information they will probably never need or be interested in is not a good idea. Pupils can have trouble in my car during lessons when they knock the thumb controls while moving the steering wheel. The digital speedometer disappears to be replaced by the average speed of the journey and they stare at the screen wondering what went wrong. It's a real chore to scroll through all the info screens until they get back to the one they want. It's a serious driving risk and symptomatic of putting too many bells and whistles in cars.

One distraction hardly anyone considers is your emotional state. It's amazing how my pupils perform differently from lesson to lesson depending on how they feel. Some have even abandoned lessons altogether because they felt so bad and couldn't concentrate. Feeling angry is probably the worst driving emotion. Speeds go up, attention goes down as well as feeling aggressive towards other drivers. It's a recipe for disaster. If you feel excited the same things can happen. Never drive on after an argument as the saying goes.

There's food for thought for me during my work as one of the quality driving instructors Nottingham. I tend to pay more attention to my pupils' emotional state and this has led to some breakthrough lessons and solved some real problems. Stay safe and drive calmly.