Guest Post by Victor Daily


Traffic is a problem. And to compound the issue, it is filled with poor drivers.
 
An increasingly impatient society has been treating driving laws as more of a suggestion than anything else. And safety has fallen way side to a plethora of new media outlets found in the cars these days. Add these together and we begin to see why the statistics show an alarming figure of well over 5 million accidents per year.

Defensive driving is a great combatant to this. If we want to change the landscape of driving in the future, it is imperative that we arm new students with proper defensive driving courses in the classroom. Many adults can use this type of training as well. In some instances, a person will get their license at the age of 16 and never be tested on it again throughout their lives. With an evolving transportation system, new laws have replaced many of the old ones. And if someone were just not informed, that could spell trouble for themselves and others driving around them.

But are these defensive driving courses enough? What if we took them one step further in making a crash simulator mandatory when taking a driver's test? Most accidents can be prevented. The problem is too many people panic in certain situations, and as a result wreck their vehicles. Perhaps if people were trained with a simulator while taking their tests they would be more prepared for on-road mishaps.

A good example of this is ice. Black ice is really nasty stuff and very hard to see with the naked eye. But even for people hitting icy patches in general, they have tendencies to immediately panic and overreact. This overreaction leads to over steering or steering in the wrong directions to stabilize the path of the vehicle. However, if they could have had some time on a simulator experiencing these types of movements with a vehicle, they would undoubtedly be better prepared to recognize this on the street in real time.

The simulators could also show them a whole host of other scenarios including: wet roads, oil slicks, high winds, and even an actual crash. Sure it might scare a new driver off the streets initially. But maybe a little bit of fear and respect for how fast an impact can happen is a good thing. And in situations like these, knowledge is power. With a simulator, the driver has the opportunity to see firsthand how a vehicle and driver react during a collision. They can actually practice with this type of scenario. The hope is that they can visualize this in their head within that split second situation in real life. This could mean the difference between a life and death outcome.

It's important for people to remember that driving comes with a great amount of responsibility. People take these obligations far too lightly as evident by the statistics. They not only endanger themselves, but those who are unfortunate enough to be driving near them. But instead of pointing fingers and criticizing, maybe a more advanced training system would be a more proactive way to combat these tragedies. And by having a crash simulator for part of the driving tests, it might just drive home these messages more effectively.