I recieve many Email comments about Driverthink.  Wayne Kallmyer wrote to me about the term "Traffic Accidents" .  I thought his comments were very well taken — and anything but boring!  His comments are re-printed here with his permission.  Thanks, Wayne!  It's nice to get the thoughts of a Big Rig guy, and an obviously experienced driver!

Hello Mr. Miller,

I really enjoy having found and read from your articles. They are engagingly written and filled with information that ought to be required reading.

I am a little over 50 years old myself and began driving (in Maryland at the time) when I was 15. I had been riding dirt motorcycles for several years previous. I have since logged over half a million miles in a Big Truck. A couple hundred thousand miles or so on the backs of a large boatload of different makes and models of motorcycle and goodness knows how many miles in various four wheelers.

I've survived a few Wrecks too.

I am a graduate of a Law Enforcement Academy for the State Of Washington as well. That was some years ago.

I agree wholeheartedly with you that driverthink is a tremendously important exercise. Behind training and my own experience here's what I think of a, "good driver".

GOOD Drivers are on a racetrack somewhere. The rest of us had better be working on reinforcing our driving behavior, looking habits, following distances, situational awareness, and the rest - all the time.

A word about the term "Accident" At the Academy there was a Lecturer who made the trip from Olympia Washington and was Chief Examiner (or something like that) for the Criminal Justice Department there.

During the course of the "Accident investigation" portion of the training, I'll never forget what this gentleman said,

"I want you to remove the term 'Accident' from use in this course. There ARE no such things as 'Accidents', or perhaps that is to say so few as to have virtually NO percentage value in the examination of 'COLLISIONS'."

"There are only, Preventable Occurrences."

He went on to say, "The only example of a true accident in his living memory was of a fellow who had stopped at a red light in Seattle and had a car land on him. It killed him, but there was nothing he could have done to prevent the situation. The emergency brakes on a car on an elevated parking structure failed and the car had rolled across the garage floor through/over the low concrete wall of the structure and.... landed on the poor unfortunate in the car below".

I usually took a tape recorder to class to make sure I missed little. The above is very nearly an exact quote.

I think one of the things that should be uppermost in a DriverThink mentality is that understanding.

I think the media should not EVER use the word, "Accident", when describing a, "Crash". Someone has virtually ALWAYS done something that they should not have been doing for the collision to have occurred.  I really think that the concept, "accident" helps the gelatinizing process of brain cells that so many drivers display when behind the wheel. Your description of madness on the highways is good example.

I think there are altogether too many drivers wheeling along with a mistaken belief that if something happens, well it was JUST an accident.

Till their lives are changed by one - or ended.

Personally I try to ALWAYS practice the 2-5 second mirrors glance, dash, mirror & back scan, look as far up the highway as possible, stay 2-4 seconds from that rig in front of me and on and on.

Your idea of an Interstate license is, I think, a good idea. I also think that each person should be exposed to a simulator that is just like riding a motorcycle or driving a Big Truck.  They should at least a get a basic idea of what it's like when someone's in your lane while you’re going around a corner on your motorcycle. You are riding in the right hand lane track and someone is cutting corners over the center of your lane - with a 200 foot drop just beyond the stone wall on your right.

Everyone should have the sensation of pulling off the freeway in a 78 thousand pound semi-truck when another driver cuts across 3 lanes of traffic, gets in front of you and then slams on their brakes.  I won't ever forget the sound of a couple thousand pounds of flour sacks breaking free from their pallets and slamming around in the 53 foot trailer I was pulling.

We have simulators that are quite good and while they may be costly, we are already spending lots of bucks on all other sorts of other things, like miles of mashed up metal parts and twisted car & truck parts. I wonder how many lives could be saved if EVERYONE had to feel what it feels like in either of those previous (and so many more) situations.

Yes, Preventable Occurrences, each and every one.  DriverThink, yes a very important daily exercise.

I have not read all your articles yet but I will over time so I know I'm preaching to the choir here. Thanks again and I hope you receive this and that I've not been boring.

Offered and written by Wayne Kallmyer.  Re-printed with permission by Driverthink.  Thanks again, Wayne.