HOW NOT TO DRIVE.COM      

 
 
 

CAUTION: DO NOT READ THE CONTENTS OF THIS WEB SITE! 
 
Unfortunately, viewing the contents of this site will improve your driving and reduce your risk of an accident. The best way not to drive is to just jump into your car and drive like you always do, without improving your knowledge first. Or ever. Hey, you've got a license don't you? And you've gone this far without an accident - you must be doing something right! Right?
 
How Not To Drive.Com Step # 1: Ignore the problem; you already know how to drive.
 
 How Not To Drive.Com Step # 2: Don't click on "MOST COMMON  CRASHES" (link above) after viewing the following VIDEO and information here below:
 
INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM.
 


The drivers that crash in this video are on the gas (speeding) and making sudden lane changes with or without signals (Tunnel video from Russia.) Drive like a normal human being (follow the system, e.g. speed settings) and these accidents don't happen.
 
Although you may or may not believe that you are an accident waiting to happen, the actual problem and the extent of the problem are for the most part invisible to most people, mainly because the average person does not see or hear about the accidents that happen every day, and in fact every hour in any average-sized city.
 
The daily news, television or paper, reports only the very worst and most amazing accidents. The daily list of rear-enders, T-bones, fender-benders and head-butts are not news, and are therefore not reported.
 
The problem is invisible.
 
If an accident is happening right now, you are probably somewhere else, and completely oblivious to it. While you are at work, or at school, or shopping, or at home or where ever you are, someone somewhere else is driving their car into someone or something else, as you read this. Even if it happens on the road you are driving on, within a half-hour or so the accident is cleaned up, the cars towed away and the people off to the hospital or court house. All gone before you even get there, and all that's left is a little bit of broken glass on the road. You don't even notice it.
 
Attitude causes the problem.
 
Very few people ever crash because they don't know the rules. They crash because they think it won't happen, and so they get pushy.
 
The cause of the problem is in the nature of attitude. Attitude toward things like risk, i.e. gambling, and how you feel about it. All accidents are caused by mistakes, and taking a chance in traffic is a mistake. Taking a chance in a casino may win you some filthy lucre, but taking a chance in traffic wins you nothing but perhaps a brief moment of a tiny bit of happiness. But nobody dies because they lost their bet in a casino. People die because they bet in traffic.
 
The problem is why people make the mistakes they do, which they wouldn't if they knew what the problems were.
 
Of course just because you make a mistake doesn't mean you will crash, but all crashes are caused by mistakes. The problem is in your whether or not you believe it will happen to you, which is determined by how you feel about it, which is determined by what you think about it. If you get your nose broken, you'll feel differently about taking chances than someone who has never even felt a pin prick. Taking a chance is, in fact, a mistake, and if you use your imagination, you won't need to experience the reality.
 
Never take a chance, never crash, never pay. For the rest of your life.
 

Never do this.

 

Don't do this either.

 

This would also suck.

 

How does that happen?

 

Good gravy! I couldn't do

that if I tried!

 

Nice tree!

 

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EXAMPLES:

  • There were over 6 million car crashes in North America last year. 6 million car crashes in one year. 6 million! Per year!
  • That equates to over a hundred thousand car crashes in a large city, like New York for example. Over 100 000 per year in one city alone. 
  • Or, for a different example, over 25 thousand car crashes per year in a smaller city such as Calgary, Alberta.
  • Per day, that equates to approximately 16,438 car crashes every day, 274 car crashes per day in New York City, or 68 car crashes per day in Calgary.
  • Per hour, that equates to almost 700 car crashes per hour in North America, a dozen car crashes every hour in New York City, and three car crash every hour in Calgary.
  • Of course, these are statistics, and cars don't crash every hour like clockwork. There are many more crashes on say, Friday afternoon than Sunday morning. Which means that the rate of collisions is actually higher on a Friday afternoon than the statistical average.
  • And even if you account for the spike in statistics caused by bad weather, which amounts to approximately 30% of all crashes, that's still over 200/hour in North America, more than a half dozen/hour in New York, and almost two/hour in Calgary. Snow slippery (but most accidents happen on dry roads!)
More FYI:

Fact: The front of a car hitting the back of another car is the most common crash, twice as common as any other crash, and a third of all crashes. It's always the rear-ender's fault, not the person in front. You have absolutely no reason whatsoever to get close to the car in front of you. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. It is therefore your fault if you get too close.

Fact: It is not illegal to push the brake - HARD - at any time for any reason whatsoever. Many drivers are unaware of this simple fact, or ignore it, and they just can't brake as quickly as they think they can, and driving gets so boring that people start to do other things while they drive, and people start to get pushy when traffic gets heavy, and the result is that the rear-ender is more common than all the T-bone and head-on crashes combined.

Fact: If you hit the back of the car in front of you, it is your fault for either following close or not paying attention. However, even if the driver in front slams on the brake as hard as possible, if you are not following close and are paying attention, you will not crash. Therefore it is illegal to follow close and also to not pay attention, and therefore you are at fault if you do. Or don't. Either way.

 

But what are the chances that the driver in front will suddenly slam on the brake? Fact: more likely than winning the lottery. Much, much, much more likely. But what do you believe? What do you want to believe?

 

Tell you what, try this, if you think you're so lucky: quit your job and buy a bunch of lottery tickets, and then we'll see how far you get, you lucky, lucky you.

 

Conclusion

There are no exceptions to these simple facts. The laws of physics are unchanging. Most drivers have bad habits that make them (the drivers) accidents waiting to happen, waiting for just a bit of bad luck. But if you drive properly, luck has nothing to do with it.

Yet try telling that to people who don't believe it, or don't want to believe it, because if they do believe it, and act accordingly, that means they'll need to increase the space in front of them, which means getting off of the 'happy pedal' (the gas pedal,) and that also means someone else might go into that space.

Is that wrong? That someone might go into that space? Is that so wrong?

Your response to this simple question demonstrates your attitude toward risk, traffic, rules, government, speed, police, other people, society, money, insurance and the other driver's right to change lanes into the space in front of you, and the subsequent, temporary reduction of speed that will result for you from making that little space.

Some people just can't get their foot off of the gas no matter what the truth is. Why? Because they suck.

There are three causes of accidents: lack of knowledge, lack of skill and lack of proper attitude.

Most people don't crash because they lack knowledge of the rules, although there are some rules that are not known to most (because they are uncommon; driver on the right goes first at uncontrolled intersections, for example.)

Most people don't crash because they don't know the difference between a gas pedal and a brake pedal, or how to turn the car. Driving a car is easy.

Attitude is therefore the leading cause of car accidents.

Your attitude is based on how you feel.

What you feel is based on what you think.

What you think is based on what you learn.

What you learn is available here at how not to drive.com.

Whether you read what's here or not will determine whether or not you lower your own risk of a car accident.

But it's your choice. Return to the top and view the most common problems to start with!

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