10 Most Lethal Driving Mistakes

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1010601&icid=autos_msnmoney

In an ideal world, drivers would execute every road maneuver with precision and ease. Sadly, we do not live in a never-never land, and not everyone walks away from metal-to-metal mayhem. Truth is that drivers are not created equal. Some are too brash, others too conservative. Some are even downright clueless. The common thread is that they can all turn a pleasant day on the motorway into a surreal nightmare in the blink of an eye.

And don't just blame it on "them." Everyone is guilty of making common driving mistakes that can endanger us all. Think about it: We'll bet you can recall with vivid exasperation a whole litany of stupid moves you've made throughout the years — some benign, some not so much.

To help you stay safe behind the wheel, here's a list of 10 driving behaviors to avoid.

Swerving

The No. 1 fatal mistake made by drivers is perhaps the most simple: not staying in their own lane — i.e., running off the road or drifting into the adjacent lane. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2007, 15,574 people died in crashes where the driver simply couldn't stay in the lane.

Driving While Drowsy

"Driving a vehicle when you are fatigued is as dangerous as driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs," National Transportation Safety Board Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker said after a fatal highway accident in 2003 in which a college student who had been awake for the previous 18 hours was driving a carload of fellow students at 5 a.m. According to the NHTSA, in 2007 fatigued driving caused the deaths of 1,404 people, and more traffic fatalities occurred during the hours when most people are accustomed to being asleep (3 a.m. to 6 a.m.) than at any other time of day.

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Ages ago, I was trying to drive from Connecticut to North Carolina overnight so I could be at work in the morning. I fell asleep at the wheel in central Virginia and rolled down an embankment at high speed. What saved me was the big old solid '63 Chrysler New Yorker, and having seat belt on. Lucky to be alive.

Yet it's perfectly legal. You have to be rather intoxicated for it to have the same negative impact on your driving as driving on minimal sleep does. The British auto show "Top Gear" once performed an auto skills test on four different groups of drivers. A group high on marijuana, a group drunk on alcohol, a group that was sleep deprived and a control group. The groups finished the tests as follows (from best to worst):

1) The stoned group.
2) The control group.
3) The drunk group.
4) The sleep deprived group.

It was posited that the stoned group fared better because of the paranoia that marijuana provides. The sleep deprived group did a fare bit worse than even the drunk group.

scary stuff...won't relay my story here...but lets just say i was so far gone i think i was in a dream...

sP

...and I actually caught myself trying to justify the notion that I could close my eyes for just one second. It'll be OK, just close 'em for one second.

When I realized what I was thinking, I immediately pulled over and took a nap, followed by a large coffee...

I learned to change my focus often and of course pull over..or off the road and into a diner or coffee place for a rsest:)

The acceleration lane is for accelerating up to highway speeds, not braking and freaking out.

How hard is it to merge? Really?

I just wanna ram in the back of that stupid car that is at a complete stop at the bottom of the on ramp, with it's turn signal flashing.

Instead, I just lay on the horn.

need to be reinforced. K&R.

...

just kept driving straight into that . . . stalled School Bus.

and hit the stopped obstacle at low speed than to swerve out and hit someone else broadside or head on.

The original post is incredibly ill-informed. The primary safety device in any automobile is the driver, who should be trained and able to maintain control sideways on ice, rain, mud as well as on dry pavement.

Americans are, by and large, incompetent drivers in SUVs and cars that are too large and softly sprung to be maneuvered safely.

hold your course and slow down, they will likely move, if not, a squashed cat is better than cars full of dead people.

pot holes, squirrels, ducks, dogs, cats, yops... stuff like that.

Last fall I mowed a deer down. I was on the highway so stopping in time was not an option. Swerving off the road is just stupid so I shifted in my lane and made sure to hit it with the front corner of the car (so if it came over the hood it would hit the A-Pillar and not come throught he windowshield). I was lucky because it went under and the front & rear tires took care of it. Didn't leave a scratch on the car... but there was a bunch of fur in the wheel wells and the bumper was a tad loose.

Impala > Deer

I commuted in serious deer country for a few years. You can't swerve, because that will really screw you up when you go into oncoming traffic. You can't brake, because that puts the weight on the front tires and you have less control.

You have to take your foot off the gas, take a quick breath and hit whatever's in the way and hope it isn't going to go through your windshield. Brake after the impact and stay in your lane at all costs.

...Great story a few years back about a motorcyclist who followed this advice (he was an instructor, actually) and lived to step off his bike and marvel at the dead deer on his front fender.

I nearly went postal.How can people in this day and age do that?Our DPS has a free car seat program.
I tried to catch up to her,but couldn't.

May I add my two cents?

I've noticed that a lot of late model dark or silver toned cars tend to blend into the background. It's a combination of shape and color aggravated by the grey skies around here. It's a good idea to have your headlights on to make yourself more visible. Those headlights might also alert another driver that you're in his blind spot.

Lies and deceptions!!!
Toyotas are KILLING MACHINES!!!1!!1one!!

double post

It seems that some of this data is sloppily presented. For instance, here's a clip from the blurb about speeding:

"Racing, driving faster than the posted speed limit or simply going too fast for road conditions — i.e., speeding — comprises the second highest cause of death in fatal crashes, according to the NHTSA. Once you hit 55 mph, you're in the danger zone: 30 percent of fatalities occur at 55 or above."

So, 55 mph and higher is "the danger zone", yet only 30% of fatalities occur at 55 mph or above? Wouldn't that also mean that 70% of fatalities occur at 54 mph or lower? Wouldn't THAT then be the danger zone? Someone please correct me if I've got my math wrong.

Also, the author goes into "overcorrecting" and says this about it: "You get panicky when the wheels of your SUV hit the rumble patch on the shoulder of the highway, so you throw the steering wheel in the opposite direction to get the vehicle back on the road. This is a classic example of overcorrecting or oversteering". Overcorrecting is correct, oversteering is not. Oversteering is something that your car does, not something a driver does. It's the condition of when your car, through either too much power to the rear wheels or through having too much momentum in the rear of the vehicle ends up turning more than the steering alone would have provided.

The 30% cannot be compared to the 70% without knowing what percentage of driving is done in each category. Firefighters for example spend way less than 30% of the time actively engaging fires, yet few would argue against the claim that it is more dangerous than training or being on call or just responding to nonemergencies. If we spend 85% of our driving time under 55mph and 70% of fatalities happen there, it is far safer than the 15% of our driving and 30% of fatalities above that speed.

Perhaps if it was mentioned that 30% of fatal accidents occur at over 55 mph while only 20% of driving is done at that speed, a bit of a case could be made that 55 mph and above is a "danger zone". But as it is, that particular statistic makes it sound like it's SAFER to drive above 55 mph than below it. Without that additional information, that particular statistic is worse than worthless.

However, most driving occurs at less than 55 mph. Speeding at more than 55 mph increases disproportionately of being in a fatal wreck.

"Oversteering is something that your car does, not something a driver does."

Oversteering is when you turn a corner to sharply. Yes, vehicles have their own tendency to oversteer and understeer. The actual act of causing a wreck by oversteering or understeering is still human error.

I have my car oversteer intentionally all the time, yet my car goes exactly where I want it to. Oversteer is not necessarily caused by turning into a corner too sharply, it can be caused by simply providing the rear wheels with too much power. Turn into a corner too fast or too sharply in a front wheel drive car and chances are that the car will understeer rather than oversteer. Oversteer is a characteristic of a car, not a driver. It's overcorrecting that the author is referring to that causes these crashes. Yes, oversteer can cause crashes too, but it has nothing to do with corrections made to a driving line, it's simply about not knowing the dynamics of your car.

With regard to the "danger zone" again, my point was that without additional information to provide context, the information that the author provides is not only meaningless, but counter intuitive. You say that most driving occurs at less than 55 mph. I have no doubt that's true, but without any solid numbers, one is left with the impression that driving faster is actually safer. If say, 30% of driving occurs at 55 mph and over, that little tid bit would still suggest that it's equally likely to be killed going over 55 mph as it is going less. 80% of my driving is done at speeds over 55 mph, I know I'm not representative of the typical driver, but some context would be very helpful in this case.

This is oversteer:



This is understeer:



This is an overcorrection



Cars have a natural tendency to oversteer and understeer, especially when pushed to their performance limits, but losing control of the car is still operator error. Particularly when it comes day to day driving.

"With regard to the "danger zone" again, my point was that without additional information to provide context, the information that the author provides is not only meaningless, but counter intuitive."

The comments are technically correct, and meaningful, although a little unsupported. That said, it's entirely common sense. If you're speeding on a fast moving highway and get in a crash, you're a lot more likely to die then if you're speeding through a slow residential area and get in crash there.

You seem to note that overcorrection is what the author is referring to and that oversteering is a completely different animal. The author was trying to suggest that they are both the same thing, they're not. He'd also be forgetting to mention that understeer causes far more accidents than oversteer does. You also note that it's the cars themselves that oversteer or understeer and not the driver which is the point that I was trying to make. And with regard to your illustrations, it should be noted that the green line is NOT the intended driving line, rather it would be the driving line had the car followed the path taken if the front wheels had their way.

And yes, the comments are technically correct, but given the context provided (which is very little), they're rather misleading and do nothing to bolster his argument.

woke up. No ill effects except a dent in the passenger door and wounded pride. I have since learned to take preventive action. I try to get more sleep consistently and pay attention to the times of the day when I am likely to get sleepy while driving (right after lunch or early evening) and make the necessary adjustments - pull over and get a cup of coffee BEFORE the eyelids get heavy.

That's the first rule of driving we taught our teenagers, just after putting on their seatbelt. It's not all that uncommon to see an SUV driver on the phone while cutting across three lanes, crossing the cement median than doing a U-turn in rush hour traffic. Jacksonville has some of the most ignorant drivers in the US and we have to constantly drive defensivly just to stay alive.

That way you leave room for people to merge and you buy yourself time if you are distracted for any reason. It doesn't cost you enough time to be concerned about - people will use that extra space to move into your lane but you should maintain your following distance anyway.

You don't want to crash or die because you had to check DU and left home a minute late.

I don't understand the rationale for doing so myself? It befuddles me. Like you said, you don't get no where no quicker anyway.

Don

My first pet peeve when driving around here is that many owners of those huge SUVs just don't know how to drive them. Especially when turning.

...It's not the same woman looking into the mirror as is seen looking out of it. :D