A Moment in Automotive History

When did motor vehicle accidents and traffic safety become part of our culture? Who crashed the first car? Who became the first fatality? Who first thought of stop signs?

I don't think anyone can give a definitive answer to all these questions. The first recorded crash has been credited to Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot who drove his steam-powered "Fardier" against a wall in 1770. He survived the collision, but the crash put an end to his experiments with self propelled vehicles.

The earliest recorded motor vehicle fatality was Mary Ward who died on August 31, 1869 in Parsonstown, Ireland after being thrown from an experimental steam car built by her cousins.

Many of the earliest innovations in road safety are credited to a man who never drove a car himself, William Phelps Enos. He is sometimes known as the "father of traffic safety". Enos is credited with conceiving the stop sign, the traffic circle, and the one way street.

Teaching Your Teen To Drive: Objective # 3 - Taking Turns

"Knowledge is gained by learning; trust by doubt; skill by practice; and love by love." ~ Thomas S. Szasz

How does a parent go about teaching a brand new, inexperienced driver how to make proper turns?

Here are the step by step instructions:

#1 - Get behind the wheel to show and explain the proper steps for turning corners. Tell your student when and where to start turning and how to straighten the front wheels for coming out of a turn. Have the kid watch your hands as well as the road.

For a left turn you might use the following script while you demonstrate:

Check your rear view mirror and signal your turn at least 100 feet (about two houses) before the intersection.

Slow down as you approach the intersection and position your car next to the center line as you get closer to the corner.

Look left for cross traffic, look right for cross traffic, look across the intersection for oncoming traffic, and look to your left a second time.

When it is safe to do so - drive to the point where your steering wheel is even with the left corner curb (that straight line of concrete to our left), look out the drivers side window, and begin steering into the lane just to the right of the yellow (center) line.

You should move your eyes towards the right (out the front windshield) as the car progresses into the turn.

Just before the front of the car is perfectly straight begin begin steering back to the right until the car is moving forward in a straight line.

By the way, you're going to have to take very slow turns if you're going to coordinate the words with the actions during the demonstration.

#2 - Find a good place to turn the car over to your new driver. If you can find an empty parking lot, mark out a 200' by 200' rectangle and mark the corners with orange safety cones (or sand filled bottles). If you can't find a parking lot, find a quiet neighborhood with straight streets and 90 degree intersections.

#3 - Review the lessons from Starting and Stopping. Afterwards have the student demonstrate the hand-over-hand technique while the selector lever is in park and engine idles. Then have the student start making left turns very slowly. You can coach by telling him where to start steering, when to hold the steering wheel in place, and when to start straightening. You should be ready to assist his steering with your left hand.

#4 - After making the first few turns begin emphasizing proper eye habits. Learning to visualize the proper turn path and "looking into and through the turn" are essential to making smooth and precise turns.

#5 - Practice right turns in the same manner. Remember to keep things slow.

#6 - If you've been working in a parking lot up to this point, move the lesson out into the streets. It's time to start practicing proper positioning and signalling in a quiet, low traffic area. Your job just became more complicated because now you have to watch the traffic in addition to coaching. Take an aspirin or two.

#7 - You can begin to gradually speed up the maneuvers. The timing of the steering and braking is closely tied to the speed of the car. The faster your student drives the more difficult the turns become.

#8 - Your teen should learn that the time to begin the straightening process is when the front wheels, not the hood, start to point down the street being turned into.

#9 - Progress to areas where you can take a variety of turns. Your teen should learn how to turn from the halt, while moving, when positioned on a hill top, when positioned at the base of a hill, at corners with both sharp and rounded curbs, and from narrow streets to wide streets.

Have fun. And remember this takes time.

See also:

Help! My Teens Are Taking Killer Turns!! Part I

Help! My Teens Are Taking Killer Turns!! Part II

Drivers Aren't The Only Ones Who Are Tuned Out

Yesterday afternoon I posted my account of a spaced out driving student. Last night Chicago's ABC7 ran a feature on distracted pedestrians. Coincidence? Or are we just both impressed by a problem of epic proportions?

ABC7 noted in its report Tuned Out, that 4500 people were struck by vehicles in Chicago last year. Police say there is no telling how many of them were using iPods, Blackberrys or cell phones at the time -- but safety experts warn that too many people are "tuned out" on bustling crosswalks.

In just one afternoon, ABC7 saw hundreds of people who were "tuned out" at intersections with PDAs, mp3's and cell phones. ABC7 found one woman ignoring a "don't walk" sign as she crossed Michigan Avenue on her cell phone.

Two people listening to headphones at intersections recently died in New York City, so one New York state lawmaker is proposing a law to fine pedestrians $100 for crossing streets while on a cell phone, PDA or mp3.

Personally, I don't think we need any more laws limiting our freedoms. If people want to walk around in a daze that's their prerogative. Don't pass any laws banning electronic devices or fining the users. Let the law of natural selection take over.

However, I would propose legislation that would absolve drivers of any fault should they strike pedestrians who committed unsafe actions while engrossed in the operation of electronic devices.

#1 Driver Error

Recently, I've been working with an eighteen year old student. Here in Illinois she is considered an adult and therefore no longer needs to take formal instruction to qualify for a driver's license.

Nevertheless, she hired me to instruct her as she had already failed the state's road test twice and wanted to figure out what she was doing wrong.

I asked her why she had not passed the road tests, and she explained that a car approaching from the right had nearly smashed into her and the examiner as she was attempting a left turn to leave the test station parking lot.

"Did you see that car coming?"

"No, I looked that way once. Nothing was there so I moved out, and then all of the sudden it came around the corner and nearly nailed us!"

"Oh. Why did you fail the second time?"

"I forgot to check my blind spot before making a lane change."

So we immediately went to work on observing intersections, using proper head and eye movements when taking turns, and of course lane changing drills so she would get in the habit of looking into those blind spots.

We also went over the road test events so she could execute all maneuvers with confidence when the time came. I worked with her once a week for four weeks. During those sessions she never had any problem in physically maneuvering the car.

However, she had a tendency to "zone out" after conquering whatever we had set out to accomplish for the day. Whenever the stress or novelty of the situation disappeared, the mental errors would manifest themselves in various ways. She would try to pull away from the curb without checking her left mirror or blind spot. She would have run through several stop signs had I not intervened.

"What's the problem? Tired?"

"No I'm just spacing out. I do that alot. How do I fix that?"

I did not have a ready answer for her outside of telling her to just stay focused. How do you give advice on how to pay constant attention to dangerous circumstances? You think that it would come naturally. You'd think the survival instinct would kick in and that she'd just do it.

Evidently not. Spacing out is the #1 One Driver Error these days. Everybody seems to be doing it.

Why can't people concentrate anymore?

Lists

No fancy prose today. We'll merely look at lists. Perhaps this light reading will cause you to do some heavy thinking.

List #1 - The Top Ten Causes of Accidental Death in America (In Reverse Order)

10. Machinery - Deaths per year: 350

9. Medical & Surgical Complications and Misadventures - Deaths per year: 500

8. Poisoning by gases - Deaths per year: 700

7. Firearms - Deaths per year: 1,500

6. Suffocation - Deaths per year: 3,300

5. Fires and burns - Deaths per year: 3,700

4. Drowning - Deaths per year: 4,000

3. Poisoning by solids and liquids - Deaths per year: 8,600

2. Falls - Deaths per year: 14,900

1. Motor vehicle crashes - Deaths per year: 43,200

Compiled by soyouwanna.com

List #2 - Top 10 Driving Mistakes

On May 27, 2003, the newly formed coalition "Drive for Life: The National Safe Driving Test & Initiative" cited the following as the 10 most common driving mistakes:

1. Failing to pay attention -- "zoning out"

2. Driving while drowsy

3. Becoming distracted inside the car

4. Failing to adjust to weather conditions

5. Driving aggressively

6. Making assumptions about other drivers' intentions

7. Speeding

8. Changing lanes without checking blind spots and mirrors

9. Driving while upset

10. Ignoring essential auto maintenance

For more on the initiative, or to take the Safe Driving Test, visit the Web site at http://www.safedrivingtest.com.

List #3 - Top Driving Distractions

1. CD/Cassette Players and Radio
2. Children
3. Pets
4. Eating
5. Drinking
6. Smoking
7. Cell phones
8. Personal grooming

http://www.safedrivingtest.com/moredistractions.html#tdd

Help! My Teens Are Taking Killer Turns!! - Part II

Dear Mr. Driving Instructor,

Thanks for the advice you gave me concerning John-Boy. It really helped. Can you help me with his twin brother?

Jim-Bob can turn left very nicely, but when it comes to right turns just look out!! He takes 'em wide and we end up crossing the yellow line just like John-Boy did when he turned left. How deadly are those head on collisions supposed to be anyhow?

How do I get my kids to take turns that won't ruin the family car or kill anybody?

Yours Truly,

Now Only Half Desperate Dad


Dear Half Desperate Dad,

It could be your son, Jim Bob, is starting to turn the steering wheel too far into the turn. Once the vehicle noses past the corner you're going to see the car go wide of the right lane. The farther the front of the car is beyond the edge of the intersecting roadway, the wider the turn. Make sure he begins to steer as the front of the car comes even with the right corner curb.

If his timing seems OK to you, there a three other possible problems:

1. Jim-Bob is not steering enough. Although during left turns he usually doesn't have to turn that steering wheel as far to the left as it will go, right turns usually require a full revolution of the steering wheel.

2. He's accelerating too much during the turn. The faster the car is going the faster he has to steer. May be he needs to slow down a bit. Remember 10 mph gets the job done, any faster and you're asking for trouble.

3. He's not aiming the car. Make sure he turns his head and puts his eyes on his intended path of travel. Many new drivers tend to fixate over the hood and that ain't good. Have him look at where he wants to go.

Hope this helps.

Happy Motoring,

The Driving Instructor

What Do You Do If...Objects Are Thrown From An Overpass?

Believe it or not there are those that don't think that driving is risky enough. They want to spice up the experience by throwing objects from overpasses onto unsuspecting drivers and their passengers. We've been hearing about this more often. Just Google "Objects Thrown from Overpass Hit Cars" and you'll get a slew of headlines - here are a few:

Rocks Thrown From Overpass Hit Cars on Beltway - Southern Maryland ...

Orlando Sentinel - More vehicles hit with thrown objects by ...

ROCK THROWN FROM OVERPASS PUTS TEEN DRIVER IN HOSPITALIT WAS THE ...

Parkway West Thrower Targets Driver - News Story - WPXI Pittsburgh

Projectiles range from AA batteries to 20 lb frozen turkeys. Given the force of impact at higher speeds even the little batteries can wreak havoc on vehicles and human flesh.

So what can you do to protect yourself from this menace?

Well, if you're lucky enough to see the thrower before you reach the overpass you can reduce speed, change lanes, and head for the shoulder.

While heading for the shoulder take extra care if other traffic is attempting evasive action. What happens when you have 5 to 10 vehicles scattering to avoid bricks raining down on them? Don't get caught in the melee.

Once you make it to the shoulder you can call 911 (hopefully you have a cell phone) and bring the police to the rescue. Keep an eye the thrower(s). Once he hits a car or disrupts traffic he'll usually flee. It may help the police if you can tell them which way the bad guy went.

If you are unable to take evasive action because you spotted the thrower too late, sound your horn. Perhaps it will divert or even deter the goofball.