Early man had all of the perceptual skills to qualify for a driver's license. Unfortunately, he was never taught to parallel park, so he never got a license. Therefore, he was stuck in the jungle.
I've got news for you folks. We're still stuck in the jungle. At least it seems that way when you look at our driving behavior. And yet, we still need all those basic perceptual skills to drive a car, primitive as they are. We're still relying on sight, sound, touch, and smell for our very safety.
There's nothing primitive about the demands of driving, however. To operate a motor vehicle safely, a driver needs to possess good perceptual skills. In other words the driver needs to be able to receive messages by sight, sound, touch, and smell, and then translate these messages into meaningful conclusions. Perception is the ability to filter out the extraneous matter from the messages received by your senses and apply the matter to the task or situation at hand.
Our perception of dangerous or hazardous situations is critical to our ability to recognize potential problems--that is, to anticipate what might happen and be ready to take evasive action.
We're constantly receiving messages from our senses as we drive, especially from our eyes and our ears.
Our ears alert us to emergency vehicles and other motorists. They warn us of impending danger.
Our eyes are constantly receiving messages and transmitting them to the brain for interpretation. What's the speed limit? How fast are we actually going? Where should we turn? Where's the problem? What's the solution?
To fully utilize our perceptual abilities, our eyes should be constantly in motion getting a big picture of the roadway to the front, to the rear, and to the sides, watching for impending danger, anticipating situations, and preparing our response to them. About 90% of what we identify in traffic is through our sense of vision.
Our other senses must be working, too. Our sense of smell can tell us a lot about the condition of the vehicle we're driving, as well as the driving environment: "Do I smell fuel? Radiator coolant? Brake fluid?"
Our brain receives literally hundreds of messages from our senses every minute. It processes them, analyzes them, and filters through the ones that are important at the moment. Our perception of the situation is based solely on the important messages that apply to the situation at hand.
By using your perceptive skills to their fullest--to recognize hazardous situations, and to anticipate what might happen next--you'll give yourself an extra margin of safety that can mean the difference between life and death.
COMPLEX REACTION ABILITIES
Some driving situations require complex reaction abilities--the ability to respond to multiple situations at one time. The safe driver has to know how to react.
By "react" we mean seeing the danger, making a decision on what action to take to avoid a collision, and then taking the action based on that decision.
SIMPLE REACTION ABILITIES
Drivers who can only respond to one situation at a time are said to have simple reaction abilities. As you might guess, their driving performance can be affected by increasing their perception time and decreasing the time they have to react to a traffic situation. The decrease in reaction time leaves these types of drivers with little or no time to respond to a dangerous situation.
REACTION TIME
Reaction time is the time it takes a driver to act after identifying a hazard. Consider the following facts from the National Safety Council:
· 60 mph = 88 feet per second
· Perception Time = 1.75 seconds
· Reaction Time = .75 seconds
· Braking Distance = 171 feet
Based on this information, if you decide to stop immediately, how far will you travel before you actually apply the brake?
At 60 mph, you are traveling at 88 feet per second. It takes an average driver at least 1 3/4 seconds to perceive the hazard, and an additional 3/4 of a second just to react. This means that you will travel 220 feet before activating the brake. The braking distance for the average vehicle traveling 60 mph on dry concrete is 171 feet.
What all of this means is that, at 60 mph, you will travel roughly 391 feet from the time you perceive a hazard to the time your vehicle comes to a safe stop.
Impairing our ability to react increases the probability of a collision.
Any impairment or deterioration of our ability to react, however slight, greatly increases the probability of a collision.
What are some of those impairments? Well, as we've already seen, our emotions and our feelings can greatly impair our ability to react.
STRESS
The stress in our daily lives can also affect our ability to react. There may be problems with the kids, financial troubles, or marital problems. We have our mind on them and not on the task of driving. When they get in the way of our ability to react, we may end up compounding the problem.
Stress can:
· Cause blood pressure to go up
· Increase adrenaline flow to the blood stream · Make breathing difficult
Investigators often find that the driver was under stress at the time of a crash. If the stress is great enough, it can cause blood pressure to go up, increase adrenaline flow in the blood stream, and make breathing difficult. Sometimes these factors can be so severe that they impair the function of the nervous system, rendering the driver incapable of making intelligent decisions.
Sometimes the stress level is so great that the driver loses touch with the physical surroundings. It's not unusual for a stressed-out driver to be unable to recall any of the details or circumstances leading up to a collision.
We all have problems of one sort or another. But when we exercise our driving privilege, it's our responsibility to leave as many of those problems as possible at home, and keep our minds on the task of safe driving.
DAYDREAMING
But it may not be a problem that causes a lapse in your concentration. Maybe you're recounting the happiness of a job promotion, or simply daydreaming.
DISTRACTIONS
Remember, lapses in concentration for any reason can be lethal. What if we're distracted by something as simple as tuning the radio?
Have you ever seen drivers eating? Lighting a cigarette? Talking on a car phone? Putting on make-up? Do you think these people are distracted? How well do you think they'd react to a traffic emergency?
REACTIONS
Alcohol seriously impairs our ability to react. Of all the things that can impair our reaction time, they fail in comparison to what alcohol can do.
Alcohol-related collisions kill:
· 1 person every 30 minutes
· 12 people during the time it takes to complete this course
These gruesome statistics alone would indicate that alcohol greatly impairs our ability to react—even one drink! And our reaction ability deteriorates further with every drink we take.
Could you react to a fastball bearing down on you at 100 miles an hour?
If you're traveling at 50 mph, and an approaching car going the same speed swerves into your lane, the distance between your car and the oncoming vehicle is closing at 100 miles an hour -- and sometimes at a distance no further than from the pitcher's mound to home plate.
A lot of times, you have just a split second to react. And anything that impairs your ability to react greatly reduces your odds of avoiding a crash.
One of the most difficult things to judge is the distance between you and other cars.
That's one of the reasons to use the three-second rule for creating a safe space between your car and the vehicle ahead. We use this rule only in dry weather. In wet weather, increase your safe following distance. Observe the car ahead of you as it passes some fixed point-- an overpass, a sign, a tree, or any other marker you can use as a reference point. Begin counting off the seconds it takes you to reach that same point. If you reach the mark before you have counted off three seconds, you are following too closely. You should immediately slow down to put at least three seconds between your car and the one ahead of you.
If you would like to see the animation again, right click on the animation and choose "Rewind" from the menu list.
It makes sense to increase your following distance by doubling the number of seconds when roads are wet, when you are carrying a heavier than normal load, or at night.
In wet weather, use SIX seconds instead of three. In snow, use NINE seconds. In ice, use TWELVE seconds.
When roads are covered with snow and slush, triple the number of seconds, which means you'd be at least nine seconds behind the car ahead of you. When ice covers the road, quadruple the time so that you're at least 12 seconds behind.
Using the reference points is a good way to judge the distance of a car ahead of you. But how about judging the distance of a car coming from the opposite direction? Unfortunately, there's no easy rule to follow here. It's purely a judgment call.
One rule of thumb that helps is this--if the approaching car doesn't seem to be getting bigger, you probably have enough time to safely pass the car in front of you.
Some traffic authorities recommend a safe distance of one-half mile, or about 30 seconds, between you and the approaching car when you're going 55 miles per hour.
