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Defensive Driving
The best advice anyone can give
about driving
is:
Drive defensively.
Please start with a very important safety device in your
Pontiac: Buckle up. (See "Safety Belts" in the Index.)
Defensive driving really means "be ready
for anything."
On city streets, rural roads or freeways, it means
"always expect the unexpected.''
Assume that pedestrians or other drivers are going
to be
careless and make mistakes. Anticipate what they might
do. Be ready for their mistakes.
Rear-end collisions are about the most preveztable of
accidents. Yet they are common. Allow enough
following distance. It's the best defensive driving
maneuver, in both city and rural driving. You never
know when the vehicle in front of you is going to brake
or turn suddenly.
Defensive driving requires that a driver concentrate
on the driving task. Anything that distracts from the
driving task
--
such as concentrating on a cellular
telephone call, reading, or reaching for something
on the
floor
--
makes proper defensive driving more
difficult and can even cause a collision, with resulting
injury. Ask a passenger to help do things like this, or
pull
off the
road in
a safe
place
to
do them yourself.
These simple defensive driving techniques could save
your life.
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