Confessions of a Driving Instructor

Esuvee: Keep it on all four

In 2005, the Driving School Association of the Americas, Consumer Reports, and Esuvee.com put together a campaign about driving safely in an SUV.  The campaign lasted about a year and Esuvee.com is no longer a valid web address, but the public service announcement is still neat and the message is still relevant: 

Avoid Hydroplaning

Spring has sprung, and while some parts of the country will still have to contend with a snow storm or two, the bigger weather concern for the next few months will be rain.  Driving in rain is different from driving in snow or on ice, but it is still not as safe as driving on clean, dry road surfaces because the water reduced your tires' grip on the road.

Wet roads are slipperiest during the first few minutes of rain, when oils in the road mix with the water.  Even though you may not see standing water of any great depth, the thin layer of oil and water greatly increases braking distance.  As water continues to fall, the oil will wash off to the sides of the road, but the deeper water produces another risk; hydroplaning.  

Conventional wisdom holds that hydroplaning becomes a risk at speeds of 35 mph, but road and tire conditions can increase or decrease that risk.  Tires with less tread are more likely to loose traction, where tires with better tread will keep a better grip on the road.

Image source: Saferautomobiles.com

Tirerack.com gives the following description of how tires play a role in hydroplaning:

Hydroplaning happens when one or more tires is lifted from the road by a wedge of water that gets trapped in front of and under a tire as the vehicle drives through water. Hydroplaning most frequently occurs during heavy rainstorms when water creates puddles on the highway or expressway. In addition to the accompanying splash and scaring the heck out of the driver, hydroplaning typically causes the steering wheel to jerk and the vehicle to abruptly pull towards the puddle.

The speed at which a tire hydroplanes is a function of water depth, vehicle speed, vehicle weight, tire width, tread depth and tread design. It depends on how much water has to be removed, how much weight is pressing down on the tires and how efficient the tread design is at evacuating water. While deeper water, higher speeds, lighter vehicles, wider tires, less tread depth and less efficient tread designs will cause tires to hydroplane at lower speeds; all tires will be forced to hydroplane at some speed. . . .

. . . Directional tread designs (sometimes called Unidirectional tread designs) are frequently used on tires intended to better resist hydroplaning. Their multiple tread grooves are aligned in a repeating "V" shape to increase the tire’s ability to channel water from between the tire’s footprint and the road. Somewhat like the vanes of a water pump continually pushing water in one direction through the engine, the grooves of a directional tire are designed to push water in one direction through the tire (forward on an angle to the sides). 

A hydroplaning vehicle is in a state of "sliding traction" which may be good for boats and skis, but in  a car it means the driver has lost control.  Check out this video of an SUV that hydroplanes:

Even with tires designed to reduce the risk of hydroplaning, a good driver should change the way he drives in the rain to reduce the risk of losing control.  Key strategies for safe driving in the rain include:

• Headlights on - they may not help you see, but they will help others see you
• Slow down - drive below the speed limit.  Slow down more if heavy rainfall obstructs your visibility
• Increase following distance - keep 4 or 5 seconds between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you.  Remember, braking distance may be doubled or tripled in rain
• Avoid driving through standing water (puddles) if at all possible
• Turn off cruise control - in slick conditions, cruise control may accelerate inappropriately
• Brake early - when approaching stop intersections or road hazards, apply brakes earlier to compensate for increased braking distance
• Eliminate distractions - while it is always inappropriate to drive while distracted, the time diverted to cell phones, food, or changing radio stations is more crucial in bad weather because of the greater distance needed to stop

Bad weather conditions call for increased vigilance and greater awareness of the driving environment.  The safe driver must constantly calculate the risk posed by the road, weather, and traffic conditions and drive defensively to avoid collisions.

Fatal Texting

 The other day, I received the following e-mail from Tiffany Loria of 2 broads productions. Tiffany is trying to get the word out that texting and driving are incompatible actions. If you have read this blog, you know that she and I are in agreement. Read on to discover Tiffany’s facts about texting and driving, then share this site with your friends. Getting the word out will save lives. Don’t text and drive.

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I am reaching out to as many schools and drivers education facilities as possible.

I want to inquire if you have implemented non texting/phone education into your curriculum?

• 500,000 injuries and 6,000 people die every year (twice the World Trade Center death toll every year).
• Talking on the phone you are 4x more likely to be in an accident
• Texting you are 8x more likely to be in an accident
• It’s 4x more dangerous than a drunk driver (let that sink in).
  

The brain physically cannot receive all the information of our surroundings and hold a conversation and certainly cannot text.

It’s not that you can’t successfully text or talk...it’s that our minds are elsewhere.

Please join me and the rest of the country to make this education a mandatory inclusion in driver’s education.


This link is to the most thorough program I’ve been able to find on the dangers of texting/talking while driving. It’s an Oprah episode on the topic with very specific and graphic (not too graphic) real tragedies and even a road test to demonstrate the effects in real time. I’m not sure if this link will always be good if the archive this video. I believe this program should be required watching in every school, every drivers education facility.

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Watch-the-Full-Hour-Americas-New-Deadly-Obsession-Video

THESE DEATHS ARE 100% PREVENTABLE.

Thank you for your attention and response to this rising and devastating issue.

Tiffany Loria

The below photos are all fatal crashes resulting from a distracted driver who was texting.

 

Car Accident Cell Phone Statistics

Data regarding car accidents involving cell phone use and/or texting while driving has been limited in the past, but it's slowly becoming available to the public. The information on this page reflects the most current 2007 and 2008 statistics regarding cell phone usage and text messaging during car accidents.

While the popularity of mobile phones has grown enormously in the past two decades, it's still unclear how greatly cell phone calls and texting contribute to car crashes. What is clear is that talking on the phone and texting behind the wheel both lead to distraction, and driver inattention is the leading cause of car accidents.

In 2008, at any given moment, over 800,000 Americans were texting, making calls, or using a handheld cell phone while driving during the daytime. With distracted driving killing nearly 6,000 Americans in the same year, it's no mystery that cell phone use is risky for drivers.

Teen Driver Cell Phone and Texting Statistics

Despite the risks, the majority of teen drivers ignore cell phone driving restrictions.

Talking on a cell phone while driving can make a young driver's reaction time as slow as that of a 70-year-old.

56% of teenagers admit to talking on their cell phones behind the wheel, while 13% admit to texting while driving. (Note: Because this information was given voluntarily by teens, actual cell phone use numbers may be much higher.)

48% of young Americans from 12-17 say they've been in a car while the driver was texting.

52% of 16- and 17-year-old teen drivers confess to making and answering cell phone calls on the road. 34% admit to text messaging while driving.

In 2007, driver distractions, such as using a cell phone or text messaging, contributed to nearly 1,000 crashes involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers.

Over 60% of American teens admit to risky driving, and nearly half of those that admit to risky driving also admit to text messaging behind the wheel.

Each year, 21% of fatal car crashes involving teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were the result of cell phone usage. This result has been expected to grow as much as 4% every year.

Almost 50% of all drivers between the ages of 18 and 24 are texting while driving.

Over one-third of all young drivers, ages 24 and under, are texting on the road.

Teens say that texting is their number one driver distraction.

Cell Phones, Text Messaging, and Car Accident Information for All Drivers

Talking on a cell phone causes nearly 25% of car accidents.

One-fifth of experienced adult drivers in the United States send text messages while driving.

In 2008 almost 6,000 people were killed and a half-million were injured in crashes related to driver distraction.

At any given time during daylight hours in 2008, more than 800,000 vehicles were driven by someone using a hand-held cell phone.

4 out of every 5 accidents (80%) are attributed to distracted drivers. In contrast, drunk drivers account for roughly 1 out of 3 (33%) of all accidents nationally.

Texting while driving is about 6 times more likely to result in an accident than driving while intoxicated.

People who text while driving are 23% more likely to be in a car accident.

A study of dangerous driver behavior released in January 2007 by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. found that of 1,200 surveyed drivers, 73% talk on cell phones while driving. The same 2007 survey found that 19% of motorists say they text message while driving.

In 2005, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that 10% of drivers are on handheld or hands free cell phones at any given hour of the day.

A study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Motorists found that motorists who use cell phones while driving are four times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves.

In 2002, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis calculated that 2,600 people die each year as a result of using cellphones while driving. They estimated that another 330,000 are injured.

According to the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, drivers talking on cell phones are 18% slower to react to brake lights. They also take 17% longer to regain the speed they lost when they braked

Of cell phone users that were surveyed, 85% said they use their phones occasionally when driving, 30% use their phones while driving on the highway, and 27% use them during half or more of the trips they take.

84% of cell phone users stated that they believe using a cell phone while driving increases the risk of being in an accident.

The majority of Americans believe that talking on the phone and texting are two of the most dangerous behaviors that occur behind the wheel. Still, as many as 81% of drivers admit to making phone calls while driving.

The number of crashes and near-crashes linked to dialing is nearly identical to the number associated with talking or listening. Dialing is more dangerous but occurs less often than talking or listening.

Studies have found that texting while driving causes a 400% increase in time spent with eyes off the road.

Study Reveals the Dangers of Texting While Driving

The following statistics come from a study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI):

Of all cell phone related tasks - including talking, dialing, or reaching for the phone - texting while driving is the most dangerous.

Teen drivers are four times more likely than adults to get into car crashes or near crash events directly related to talking on a cell phone or texting.

A car driver dialing a cell phone is 2.8 times more likely to get into a crash than a non-distracted driver.

A driver reaching for a cell phone or any other electronic device is 1.4 times more likely to experience a car crash.

A car driver talking on their phone is 1.3 times more likely to get into an accident.

A truck driver texting while driving is 23.2 times more likely to get into an accident than a trucker paying full attention to the road.

A truck driver dialing a cell is 5.9 times more likely to crash.

A trucker reaching for a phone or other device is 6.7 times more likely to experience a truck accident.

For every 6 seconds of drive time, a driver sending or receiving a text message spends 4.6 of those seconds with their eyes off the road. This makes texting the most distracting of all cell phone related tasks.

--
Tiffany Loria
Creative Director
2 broads productions
908.303.5116
http://www.2broadsproductions.com
http://www.thebroadsseries.com

National Motorcycle Trainng Institute

Not knowing how, or not having the rudimentary skills, to operate any device or equipment can lead to unnecessary mishaps. Rudimentary operational skills to use any device or equipment as intended by the designer are universally accepted as an element to risk management. The prevention of mishaps due to lack of rudimentary skills for using the equipment is a key objective in any safety program.

via www.nmcti.org

Are you interested in learning to ride a motorcycle? The National Motorcycle Training Institute provides curricula to develop good decision making in conjunction with rider skills development. Check out their website at the link above.

Slow-Mo Car Crash

The Discovery Network has a show called Time Warp where they reveal various events in slow motion.  Unfortunately, they have disabled embedding on a number of videos, like the link below to the video of a car crash.  Even so, it is worth checking out on their YouTube channel.  View the video here.

In a similar vein, here is a video of a remote controlled smart car crashing into a concrete barrier at 70 mph.  Although the body of the car holds up well -- on the non-impact side, the passengers would not survive.  I think the video is proof enough that smart cars should have fuel governors to limit their maximum speed.

2010 Toyota Corolla earns IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK award

2010 Scion xB and 2010 Toyota Corolla earn TOP SAFETY PICK award

The Scion xB and Toyota Corolla bring to seven the number of small cars consumers have to choose from that earn the Institute's highest safety designation. To qualify for TOP SAFETY PICK, a vehicle must earn the highest rating of good in the Institute's front, side, rollover, and rear impact tests and be equipped with electronic stability control.

The xB and Corolla are the first Toyota models to earn TOP SAFETY PICK since the Institute tightened the criteria to win by adding the new rollover test for 2010.

To earn a good rollover rating, a roof has to support the equivalent of 4 times the vehicle's weight compared with the current federal standard of 1.5. In the Institute's test, the xB's roof withstood a force equal to 6.8 times the car's weight. The Corolla's roof supported 5.1 times the car's weight.

Read more about the Institute's rollover test here: http://www.iihs.org/ratings/roof/information.html

The xB and Corolla also earned the 2009 TOP SAFETY PICK award.

"TOP SAFETY PICK recognizes the vehicles that afford buyers the best overall protection in common crashes," says Institute president Adrian Lund. "With more top performers, there's no reason to buy a small car with less than stellar crash test ratings."

IIHS-HLDI: Toyota Corolla

Click the link above to see how the 2010 Corolla compares to previous editions in frontal, side, and rollover crashes.

2011 Hyundai Sonata earns IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK award

I recently upgraded my old '93 Ford Explorer for a 2009 Hyundai Sonata. Alas, if I had just waited a few months, I could be driving around in this stylish beauty.

The redesigned 2011 Hyundai Sonata earns the Institute's TOP SAFETY PICK award. To qualify for TOP SAFETY PICK, a vehicle must earn the highest rating of good in the Institute's front, side, rear, and rollover tests and be equipped with electronic stability control. Criteria to win are tough because the award is intended to drive continued safety improvements such as top crash test ratings and the rapid addition of electronic stability control, which is standard on the Sonata.

This is the first time the Sonata has earned the Institute's safety award. The previous generation Sonata was rated good for front and rear impact protection, acceptable in the side impact test, and marginal for rollover protection.

"With the addition of the new rollover evaluation, Institute test results now cover all 4 of the most common kinds of crashes," says Institute president Adrian Lund. "Vehicles that win TOP SAFETY PICK are designs that go far beyond minimum federal safety standards."

IIHS-HLDI: Hyundai Sonata

Click the link above to see how the 2011 Sonata compares to previous models in frontal, side, and rollover crashes.

A lot more can be said about the new Sonata.  Not only safe, it's stylish and has great fuel economy.  If you are investigating a new car, the 2011 Sonata is worth a look.  Want to know more?  Check out this review by Joel Arellano at Automotive.com.