According to a report carried out for the Department for Transport earlier this year, the most frequent factor associated with road accidents was failing to look properly. This error was more frequent than speeding and was associated with 38% of accidents reported to the police, according to the Department for Transport’s Reported Road Casualties Great Britain: 2009 publication. It highlights the constant need to be aware of the risks of not looking properly when driving. Something we know already but it does no harm to be reminded, especially as it’s something we as drivers have direct control over.
From my experiences I know that many accidents occur at roundabouts, when the driver is looking to the right to see if there’s a gap to pull out into, all the while unaware that the car in front of them has stopped. This is likely to result in a rear end collision. Or maybe the driver is unaware that they are drifting out of their lane because they’re concentrating so hard on what’s coming from the right at the roundabout. This is something that occurs with learners, but also with more experienced drivers.
Another time when you can see people not looking properly is when they get too used to a particular piece of road. It could be a quiet junction on an estate where “no one ever comes along this bit of road” so it’s easy to get complacent, and when someone does come along that bit of road the driver isn’t looking properly and pulls out into the path of another vehicle.
Or it could be something as simple as reversing out of a parking space in the supermarket car park and not making effective observations – possibly bumping into the person reversing out of the space behind you, who also isn’t looking properly. A fairly regular occurrence.
If you want to avoid becoming one of the statistics on your lessons, or afterwards, remember to make sure you really know that the situation is clear before you act. Never assume that there isn’t anything there if you can’t see that to be the case. Always anticipate that there will be something coming until you know for sure that there isn’t. It’s always better to stop when you didn’t need to, than to go when you should have stopped.
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