Driving and hazards

What is Driving?

What do you think of when you consider the answer to that question?

Most people will think that driving lessons are about learning how to operate a car, being able to make it start, stop, go round corners and roundabouts, reverse round corners, do "three point turns" and emergency stops. They may go on to think that it's about learning the Highway Code, and "the rules of the road". They will probably have heard of the expression "mirror, signal, manoeuvre" and "position, speed, look". The idea of doing all of this safely will probably occur to you as well.

Of course you need to be able to handle your car well, that is the fundamental skill of driving a car. But nowadays you need to have a much greater understanding of the rules of driving, how drivers (that means you as well) should think, behave and react. Much more emphasis is therefore placed on driver attitude, alertness, and awareness, the ability to spot potential dangers and driver's judgement, and decision-making abilities. Developing safe driving procedures and routines, which help minimise the risk when you are driving, are very important.

Very often serious accidents occur when one "driver" makes a dangerous error and the other road users have not been paying attention, and have been caught by total surprise. An accident may well be someone else's fault, but if your car is off the road for repair, or you are in hospital for repair, you are still the person who is hurting. If you had been driving defensively, with a MARGIN FOR ERROR, it may have been a near miss, or a less severe accident.