How to get a safer car without spending an extra dime

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The “Safest Car” is the one with the safest driver

Americans are obsessed with having the safest car. Mind you, we’re not smart about it, we’re just obsessed with it. While it is true that some cars make a noticeable difference in total fatalities per passenger/mile, the largest benefit can be had from safer driving behaviors. This is because auto accidents are like atomic bombs - the best way to survive one is “no be there when it happen.”

There is a saying, “Fortune favors the well-prepared” and this is true of automotive safety. Do you lack extraordinary driving skills (just being an ordinary driver like me, and not having had special training)? You can still prepare a safer driving environment for yourself and your passengers by changing your mind about driving behavior. Safety has to become important to you.

Some of this is philosophical: ponder the terrible moment of an auto accident, when lives are changed forever because someone just wasn’t paying attention. There is the sickening instant of realization and then the impact. Then shock, pain, years of rehabilitation and/or grief. Worth a change in behavior?

When I was in high school, a fellow I knew killed several of our classmates in an accident. The empty classroom seats changed my driving habits. I became less aggressive, more interested in ways to avoid pain. I realized you can die in a car. My last moving violation was in 1975.

Many of the behaviors below simply amount to allowing more space around your car. This compensates to some degree for the fact that as human beings, our attention wanders a little bit. Crowding other cars at high speeds expects the unwavering attention of a machine.

Speeding: Don’t do it. Really. Drive the speed limit or slower. You’ll have more room in front of your car, thus an unimpeded view, more reaction time available, and more room to stop. If a collision does happen (and you make one a lot less likely by driving a little slower) there will be a lot less energy. As a side benefit, if you don’t speed, there’s a good chance your kids won’t, either. Ditto for the other behaviors listed below.

There are an endless number of rationalizations for speeding but that’s all they are. If the traffic really wants to fly, get in the right lane and let ‘em go. Oddly, slower, smoother traffic can actually move more cars past any given point per hour than speeding/braking/speeding.

Tailgating: beyond dumb. It blocks your view (especially if the car in front of you is an SUV), so you can’t anticipate the need to stop. Then at the same time, it gives you less time to stop if the need arises. You may survive rear-ending someone but you can inflict terrible injuries on the people in front of you.

Consider the geometry of “angle-of-view” that results from a car that’s right in front of your bumper, as opposed to one that is two seconds of travel time away (88 feet at 30mph).

Give motorcyclists extra room: I just don’t understand people who crowd motorcyclists. Do they think of themselves as decent, life-affirming, caring people? That biker (also known as human being, someone’s loved one) can be killed or maimed by just a careless gesture from you. Back off!

Cell Phones: Herding a 5,000 pound juggernaut down the street deserves your full attention. Don’t make outgoing calls while the car is moving. When the phone rings, if traffic is light, answer it and just say “I’m driving, please hold.” and set the phone down, then pull over to converse safely. If traffic is heavy, just let it ring.

Red lights: never speed up for the yellow. If you can’t get through the intersection before the light turns red, slow down and stop. Do a little math for this: a typical yellow light is 3.5 seconds. Allowing 0.5 seconds for safety margin, that’s 132 feet at 30mph. If you are more than 132 feet from the FAR crosswalk when the light turns yellow, take your foot off the gas and execute a smooth stop.

How far is 132 feet? A traffic lane is about 16 feet. That makes a 4-lane intersection with no turning lanes about 64 feet wide so if you are more than about 2 intersection-widths from the FAR crosswalk, execute a smooth stop. If less than distance, cruise through the intersection at a constant speed.

I have stood on the sidewalk and watched people drive through intersections with their eyes fixed on the traffic light as if it were going to jump off the pole and bite them. You’re much more likely to collide with another car than with a traffic light that’s 20 feet in the air. Traffic lights are color coded for a reason: you can keep tabs on them with peripheral vision while you keep an eye on other cars.

Notice I didn’t even say “don’t run red lights.” If you routinely run red lights and joke about how “...that one was a little pink around the edges,” you’re an idiot and I just can’t help you. Come back when you grow up.

Smooth Stop: Press on the brakes lightly at first, with increasing force as you approach your chosen stopping point. This will give the driver behind you a chance to react to your brake lights while reducing the chance of skidding. Let up on the brake slightly just before the car comes to a complete stop. Obviously this technique is for normal stops, not emergency stops. If you need to stop right away, step hard on the brakes and let the anti-lock system do its job.

Practice manuvering: Don’t wait for an emergency to find out how your car handles emergency manuvers. Practice skidding and ‘cutting donuts’ in an empty snow-covered parking lot. Work up from extremely slow to very slow for this practice. Practice hard stops on an empty dry road or lot, working up from slow to not-so-slow. There are risks in this kind of practice but I think higher risks in waiting to find out the hard way.

If you own an SUV or other light truck, go easy on practice cornering and even braking - your vehicle is prone to rollover. You’re likely to be severely injured if your vehicle rolls over.

Seat Belts: Modern dashboards are a lot more forgiving than the metal dashes of old, but you still wouldn’t want to smash your face into one. That goes double for the windshield: people are often decapitated by windshields. At 30 mph, your windshield is only 0.045 seconds away. Try to imagine four hundredths of a second. Go on, try.

Think the air bag will save you? You really trust them that much? Detroit puts those things in because the gub’mint require it, not because they give a damn about you. Seat belts tilt the odds much more strongly in your favor. Besides, the combination of seatbelts and airbags works very well. (Make sure you are wearing the belt correctly and that it is snug.)

Intersection scanning: as you approach an intersection, scan from side to side to catch cross traffic. Also look for people who are about to turn left in front of you. If you are sitting at a red light, side-scan during the time you move your foot from brake to gas as light turns green. This is to catch people who are fixin’ to run their red light.

Alcohol: c’mon, don’t be a moron. Don’t drink and drive AT ALL! You really want to play guessing games with your life or the lifes of others? What’s the attraction there?

Other impairments: fatigue, cold medicine, anger, your lunch, the CD player...

Safe Cars: all factors considered, cars are safer than SUV’s. A Ford Explorer may have a little more collision resistance than a Taurus, but the Taurus is much less likely to roll over. If you elect to drive a really tiny car (like a Mini or my old VW) you will need to accept additional risk - safer than a motorcycle but not as good as a regular car. In the final analysis, the biggest impact you can make on your safety is HOW YOU DRIVE.