Avoid Excessive Speed and Aggression!
“IF THE car was invented today it would be banned,” asserts Geoff Large, assistant director of road safety for Britain’s RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents). “You would never be allowed to sell something which would kill and injure a third of a million people every year in this country alone.”
Motor-vehicle manufacturers recognize the potential danger of their product. They invest vast sums of money and go to great lengths to improve the safety features built into modern cars. But as London’s Sunday Express Magazine comments: “Security-conscious drivers know that protecting the car—and its occupants—doesn’t come cheap.” Though advertising may feature safety devices, what captures the buyer’s attention? Often it is the vehicle’s performance, how it achieves maximum speed in minimum time, its power, as well as its sleek lines and sporty trim.
Retired judge Richard Spiegel believes that German motorists seem “to have a neurotic relationship to speed . . . still the most frequent cause of accident.” It is this attitude that he believes is exploited by “motor industry advertising.” Is this true in your country too?
Other factors, such as increasing traffic density and the diminishing quality of the road network, render driving more risky in many countries. Reports from Brazil focus on the perils of unmarked intersections. “In these situations,” comments the Brazil Herald, “one or more drivers suddenly become confused, hesitate, which can lead to an accident.”
Faced with such hazards, it is imperative that drivers of modern high-performance vehicles be responsible, well-trained, and caring people. The Swedish publication Trygg i trafiken? (Safe in Traffic?) offers this estimation: “Next to the right to vote, a driver’s license is the most important thing you can be entrusted with by society.”
Beware of Aggression!
Speed kills. Drunken drivers kill. ‘But,’ you say, ‘I stick to the speed limits, and I don’t drink any alcohol when I am going to drive. I realize driving can be a matter of life and death. What more can I do?’
“The car amplifies a human faculty, that of movement, making it possible to cover distances much more rapidly than by his own means,” writes psychologist Zulnara Port Brasil, adding: “That in itself is not wrong.” So where is the problem? According to Zulnara, it “lies in the manner in which each driver handles that power.”
No doubt you agree with the French daily Le Monde that commented: “A widespread, cultivated attitude of mind makes us take . . . the wheel as a symbol of power . . . If one cannot avoid the foolishness of others . . . , at least one can control one’s own driving.”—Italics ours.
Modern motoring is more arduous and hazardous owing to what the Glasgow Herald calls “the rising level of aggression and intolerance behind the wheel.” Add to this “brinkmanship [the practice of pushing a dangerous situation to the limit of safety before stopping] and cut and thrust techniques,” which have become “increasingly prevalent to the point of physical violence and collisions,” and you have a recipe for devastation on the roads. Canadian police superintendent Ken Cocke comments: “People have just forgotten all the rules—and everybody’s in a hurry. We sense we have to be more aggressive; everybody pushes and nobody waits in line.”
This aggressive streak, characteristic of today’s driver, does indeed provoke trouble. “The worst fault,” reports Rheinischer Merkur, “is that of following too close behind. . . . Few road users appreciate how others feel. For example, drivers of fast cars often feel that motorcyclists are a menace. They feel challenged, envious, and envy can easily trigger aggression.” So common is this trait that “one person in three questioned admits to having felt upset or even insulted by being overtaken.”
Top Priority—Drive Safely!
The increased violence taking place on the highways in the United States seems to reflect this aggression. An item in The Wall Street Journal, August 3, 1987, under the heading “Drivers Are Turning Increasingly Violent,” stated: “In cities across the country, police note a rise in highway shootings, fistfights and other mayhem, many starting with minor run-ins between drivers. In a few cases motorists have been killed.” The New York Times, August 6, 1987, reported: “Since mid-June, violence on southern California freeways has killed four people . . . and left 15 injured.”
There is thus no question about it: to drive safely is a must, for our own benefit and for that of others too. After lamenting the lives lost each year on Britain’s roads, former transport secretary John Moore urges: “Road safety . . . has to be among all road users’ top priorities.”
On the practical side, then, how can you drive safely? What should you be looking for? What advice do safe, experienced drivers offer? Our next article, “Cultivate Safe Driving Habits,” will consider these questions.