Since 1900 more than 3 million people have died in car wrecks.

In 1998, 41,907 Americans lost their lives on highways and the total amount of injuries was 3,733,804, which is more than 10 thousand a day.

In 1998, 875 Americans died on Virginia roads and in that same year 71,302 people were injured or permanently disabled.

Accidents are costly and place a tremendous burden on every taxpayer.

Fewer than 10% of all accidents are alcohol-related.

More than 30% of all FATAL accidents are alcohol-related.

Safe driving depends half on good driving skills, and half on your ability to be visible and understandable to others.

A recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that drivers using cell phones are four times more likely to be involved in a crash than drivers who pay attention solely to the road.

Virginia vision standards for safely operating a vehicle are as follows: 20/40 or better vision in one or both eyes and 100 degrees, or better, horizontal vision in one or both eyes.

Driving restricted to daylight hours only are as follows: 20/70 or better vision in one or both eyes, and 70 degrees, or better, horizontal vision. If only one eye, 40 degrees or better temporal and 30 degrees or better nasal are required.

Drivers 75 years or older are three times as likely to die in a car crash than 20 year-old drivers.

Drivers should check their rearview mirrors every three to five seconds.

Driving is a privilege, not a right.

Your driving privilege may be taken away if you either break the law or show yourself to be an unsafe driver.

If your license is suspended, your driving privilege has been withdrawn temporarily.

If you get too many points on your record, the DMV may take action against your driving privileges, which could result in either your license being suspended or revoked.

Revocation means that your privilege to drive has been terminated.

Nearly half of all new drivers aged 15 to 19 are convicted of a traffic violation in their first year of driving.

The four steps of the IPDE process are: IDENTIFY by locating potential hazards within the driving scene, PREDICT by judging where possible points of conflict may occur, DECIDE what action to take, when to take them, and where to take them, and EXECUTE by maneuvering the car to avoid conflicts.

It is important to keep a three second space cushion between your car and the vehicle in front of you. At faster speeds this cushion should be increased to four or five seconds.

It is always against the law to drive while wearing headphones or earplugs.

Never look at one direction too long, get the big picture.

Never drive after drinking or using drugs.

Never ride with anyone who has been drinking or using drugs.

If you are either ill or upset, don’t drive.

The key things to remember when driving are as follows: aim high, get the big picture, keep your eyes moving, leave yourself a way out, and make sure that others see you.

Our eyes provide us with two types of vision: peripheral and central.

When you come upon a school bus stopped on either side of the road with flashing red lights, you must STOP and remain stopped as long as the red lights are flashing.

Light rail vehicles (LRVs) have the same rights and responsibilities as all other vehicles.

Do not drive through a mass transit safety zone because this space is set-aside for pedestrians.

The right-of-way should always be given.

Bicyclists may legally make left turns from the left lanes, as well as move left to avoid parked vehicles and to pass other vehicles or bicycles.

Seat belts, properly and routinely used, can save your life.

Safety restraint systems have a dramatic effect in reducing injury and death in vehicle collisions.

Seat belt use is mandatory in Virginia for both adults and children.

Over 80% of all accidents occur at less than 40 MPH.

Three out of four fatal accidents occur within 25 miles of home.

Never place a child under twelve (12) in the front seat.

When you park alongside a curb on a flat road, the front and back wheels must be parallel and within 12 inches of the curb.

If there is a double solid yellow line on your left, this means that it is illegal for you or oncoming traffic to pass.

A dashed yellow line on the left means that you and opposing traffic may pass but make sure that you have enough room to pass safely.

On multi-lane roads with medians, broken white lines usually separate the lanes of traffic going in the same direction.

Solid yellow lines mark the left side of the road.

Solid white lines mark the right side of the road.

Black-and-white signs are regulatory and state the law; these mark where the regulation goes into effect.

Yellow signs provide warnings; these alert drivers of curves, crossings, speed limit changes, slippery roads, and other conditions where a little warning goes a long way.

Yellow signs may appear before regulatory or prohibition signs.

Green signs tell you the distance or direction to cities, alternate routes, or other destination information.

Blue signs provide service-related information, such as where to find food, lodging, and/or gas.

Brown signs tell drivers about a recreational facility, such as a park campground, fishing site, or boat launch.

Yield signs at entrance or exit ramps, tell you to adjust your speed and look for a safe merging opportunity.

Restricted access High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes are marked with black-and-white regulatory signs containing a white diamond. The requirement is to have either two or three persons in the vehicle, depending on what the signs says.

Orange signs, cones and barrels mark highway construction or maintenance work areas.

A flashing yellow light means that you must slow down and proceed though the intersection with caution.

Regard a flashing red light as a stop sign; stop at the intersection and wait until there is an adequate break in traffic before entering.

If the intersection has no signs or the traffic control signal is not working, treat it as an all-the-way stop. Route signs mark federal interstates and other roadways.

Virginia prohibits operation of a vehicle at a speed greater than is safe under prevailing traffic and road conditions, regardless of the posted speed limit.

The two most common mistakes when entering the freeway are: suddenly slowing or stopping and merging at too slow of a speed.

When changing lanes, make sure that it is safe, and that the drivers around you are not about to change lanes.

You should scan the road 10 to 15 seconds ahead of your vehicle.

Reaction distance is the distance the car travels in the three-quarters of a second that it takes for a driver to react to a problem and apply the brakes.

Braking distance is the distance traveled from the time the brakes are first applied to the time the car comes to a complete stop.

Stopping distance is the normal distance it takes to stop the vehicle from the moment the driver sees a problem to the time the car is stopped completely.

Reaction Distance + Braking Distance = Stopping Distance

A good rule is to stay at least three seconds behind the vehicle ahead of you.

Virginia’s Basic Speed Law states that you must never drive faster than is safe for present conditions, regardless of the posted speed limit.

The speed limit in business or residential districts is 25 MPH unless signs indicate otherwise.

The maximum speed limit on most Virginia highways is 65 MPH; however, for two-lane undivided highways, the maximum speed limit is 55 MPH, unless a higher speed is posted.

Speed limits are set for the type of roads and traffic in each area.

The force of a 60 MPH crash is four times greater than that of a 30 MPH crash.

The speed limit is 25 MPH while children are outside or crossing the street.

Blind intersections are intersections where you cannot see for 100 feet in either direction during the last 100 feet before crossing.

If you want to enter a blind intersection or alley, the speed limit is 15 MPH whenever you cannot see at least 100 feet in both directions for at least 100 feet before crossing.

When driving in fog dim your headlights. At night, dim your headlights by switching to low beams when a vehicle facing you comes within 500 feet.

Perhaps the single most dangerous driving practice is driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.

Over 50% of all highway crashes involving two or more cars are alcohol-related.

Over 65% of all single car crashes involved alcohol.

36% of all accidents with adult pedestrians involved an intoxicated person.

Driving under the influence (DUI) is the leading cause of death for Americans between 16 and 24 years old.

One million teenagers in the United States are alcoholics.

When drivers are intoxicated, the risk of causing an accident is six times greater than for non-drinkers.

A person under the age of 21 is more physically susceptible to alcohol and can become an alcoholic in as little as six months.

60% of people killed in drunk driving accidents are in their teens.

Nearly twenty thousand teenagers are killed annually because of drunk driving.

It is illegal to drive with a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of 0.08%.

If you are legally drunk your license may be suspended.

If you are under 21 years of age and drive with a BAC of 0.02%, you can be fined up to $500 and have your license suspended for six months.

If you let someone drive your vehicle and his or her license has been suspended or revoked, then you may be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Nearly 50% of all drivers arrested for DUI are social or moderate drinkers.

Prescription drugs can affect your driving ability.

At a 0.05% Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) judgment becomes impaired.

At 0.15% your lack of coordination in motor skills becomes apparent.

0.18% is the average BAC found when testing impaired drivers.

At 0.4 to 0.5% BAC, you run the risk of severe alcohol poisoning, certainly unconsciousness, and even death.

Conviction rates are as high as 96% if the police present videotaped evidence of the drunken behavior exhibited by an individual.

If your brakes suddenly fail, downshift to low gear, pump the brakes hard and fast unless you have anti-lock brakes (ABS) then you should never pump your brakes, apply the parking brake as a last resort, sound your horn and flash your lights, and safely steer off of the road into something soft, like bushes.

If your tires fail pump the brakes gently (unless they are ABS), but do not brake hard, concentrate on maintaining the control of your vehicle, steer straight ahead and continue to brake gently, and when you are able to do safely pull the car off the road.

If your engine dies, causing your power steering to fail grip the steering wheel hard with both hands and carefully guide the car to the side of the road, you may have to push your brake pedal hard to stop your car if you have power brakes, once you have stopped, restart your engine (if possible) and proceed with caution.

You must stop if you are involved in an accident.

If someone is killed or injured in an accident, you must report the accident to the police immediately.

Your insurance coverage must provide the following: $25,000 for an injury or death of one person, $50,000 for injury or death of two or more people, and $20,000 for property damage.