Precision driving: Let’s do our best to beat the odds

Among life’s activities, driving is not that safe. In fact, it’s the leading cause of death for Americans aged 5-33. And I don’t think drivers get better after age 33 — it’s just that catastrophes like cancer and heart disease become the top causes of death for older citizens. At any age, accidental death occurring from a motor vehicle crash is one of the biggest dangers we face.

In this country, we lose over 40,000 residents annually in traffic deaths. As individuals, our lifetime odds of becoming a victim are 80 to 1. In any given year, the odds are 6,078 to 1. Those odds may seem favorable, but they are much more threatening than other potential causes of death, like succumbing to a dog bite — your lifetime chances of that happening are 151,000 to 1.

Now, getting back to the positive, let’s beat those odds. Precision drivers can take endless steps in recognizing and reducing accident-causing tendencies. I believe that we could cut the motor vehicle death rate in half if everyone avoided the three Ds while behind the wheel: distraction, drowsiness, and drunkenness.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in conjunction with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, just completed some telling research. Over a one-year period, 241 drivers were studied in 100 video- and sensor-equipped cars traveling a total of 2 million miles. The study illustrated the dire consequences that can occur while driving drowsy or distracted.

Over the year, there were 82 crashes, 761 near-crashes, and 8,295 critical incidents. It was found that driver inattention accounted for nearly 80 percent of these mishaps. Of course, with its ever-rising popularity, cell phone use was cited as the most common distraction. According to the NHTSA, both dialing and talking increase a driver’s chance of having an accident by three to four times. Drowsiness also was blamed for increasing your crash risk by a factor of four or more, and drowsiness is significantly underreported according to the VTTI.

Timing is everything, and often things are mistimed. Per a quotation from the VTTI study, “Drivers are often unable to predict when it is safe to look away from the road to multi-task because the situation can change abruptly leaving the driver no time to react even when looking away from the roadway for only a brief time.” That’s one reason why we have accidents. For much of our driving time, we can get away with inattention and errors, so we grow complacent — when crucial situations arise during that complacency, crashes occur.

If at least one driver in any vehicle pairing is fully attentive, accident likelihood is reduced — I want to be that attentive driver. You can be too. Please pull off the road to use your cell phone. Don’t put on makeup while driving, and if an object falls to the floorboard, don’t reach for it while traveling 70 mph. If you are tired, pull over for a nap, or take a quick walk. When there is a roadside “attraction,” such as a vehicle accident, try not to devote too much rubbernecking time to it.

Avoiding distraction and drowsiness may take a bit of practice, but drunk driving should be easy to stop. Like Dr. Phil would say, “Don’t do that.” Please use designated drivers and taxicabs when you’ve had “one too many.” Tis the season for revelry and mixed drinks — just don’t mix them with driving.

Your odds of having a motor vehicle wreck differ a bit depending on where you drive, what you drive, whether you are male or female, and if you are young or old. But the No. 1 factor determining your driving success is your state of mind during the drive. In other words, are you practiced, familiar with your vehicle, sober, awake, and paying full attention to the task at hand? If you can answer all of those questions with an honest “yes,” then you are taking steps to tip the odds in your favor, and avoiding accidents.

If you feel that you could be losing your edge for safe, defensive driving, you may want to take a refresher course. There are several programs available that offer up-to-date tips and recommendations for safe driving. Such programs are offered by AAA, AARP, 911 Driving School, and many others.

Reader H.P. told me of the AARP program, where he is a volunteer instructor. I don’t know H.P., but I like him, as he claims to use my column to pass on valuable tips in his class. The class is open to anyone over 50, costs $10, and earns you a discount with many insurance companies.

Information for the AARP course can be found at www.aarp.org/drive and there are even online courses at www.idrivesafely.com, and www.drivinguniversity.com.