Are You a Safe Driver

Are you a safe driver? Pledge to drive safely

9 deaths each day on UK roads / Each one is an ongoing tragedy for that person’s family and friends.
Belt up
An unrestrained back seat passenger can kill the driver by slamming into the back of their head.
In a 30mph crash, an unrestrained child will hit the ground with the same force as if they had fallen out of a 4th floor window / Most of us belt up in the front
·  Make sure that you do, even on short trips.
Fewer of us belt up in the back
·  If you don’t, you could kill the person sitting in front.
Babies must be in a correctly-fitted baby seat.
Young children must be in a correctly-fitted child seat.
·  Seats must be right for your child’s size and weight and suitable for your vehicle.
·  Never let a passenger just hold a child. In a crash, the child would be thrown forward or be crushed by the person holding them
Check that everyone is restrained before setting off
Move up
There are 250,000 cases of whiplash every year, crippling necks and backs. Many are caused in fairly low-speed crashes. / Check the position of your head restraint – you could be risking whiplash or a broken neck if it’s too low. It’s your cranial crash-barrier.
·  The top should be no lower than the top of your ears.
·  Adjust your seat so the head restraint is close to your head.
·  Check passengers’ head restraints as well.
Buck up
7% of parents say they have crashed because their children have distracted them. / Deaths are caused by drivers failing to concentrate because they are stressed, ‘switch off’ for a second, or are thinking about other things.
·  Lapses of attention include answering a phone, reaching for a sweet or changing a CD or radio station.
·  Driving is the most dangerous thing that most of us do. It requires 100% concentration.
Focus on your driving and the potential hazards ahead. Tell passengers to be quiet if necessary.
·  Drive calmly, and don’t get annoyed by other drivers.
·  If you feel distracted, or need to reach for something, you need to stop and take a break.
·  If a medical condition or illness affects your concentration, don’t drive.
Shut up
Research has found that hands-free phones can be as dangerous as hand-held phones. Both distract your attention from the road. / Never use a mobile phone while driving.
·  Put your phone onto voice-mail.
·  Never read text messages while driving.
·  Stop for messages and a break at least every two hours.
No conversation is sufficiently important to justify risking a life.
Wake up
Stop for at least 15 minutes:
Drink coffee or an energy drink containing caffeine.
Snooze for 10 minutes. Lock doors and hide valuables. Set an alarm – when you wake up, the caffeine will have kicked in. If you feel alert, drive on. If not, don’t. / Tired drivers are lethal
·  If you drive when you’re tired, it’s impossible to stop yourself eventually nodding off at the wheel.
·  Never drive when you know that you’re tired.
·  Get enough sleep before a long drive.
·  Take a break at least every two hours. Allow for these breaks when planning your journey time. Stop sooner if your concentration is slipping.
Sober up
It takes at least one hour for every half-pint of beer, 100ml of wine or single measure of spirits to leave your system. You should count the hours after you finished your last drink. If you’ve drunk 5 pints of beer by midnight, you may – or may not – be under the limit by the following midday. / The rate you metabolise alcohol depends on your weight, sex and other factors. It’s unlikely to be quicker than one unit per hour.
·  Check the strength and quantity of what you drink – wines and beer have got stronger and wine glasses larger in recent years.
·  Drinking coffee, sleeping or having a shower don’t work. Only time works.
·  Never drive if there is even a slim chance that you are still ‘under the influence’. That includes medicinal and illegal drugs as well as alcohol. Illegal drugs can stay in your system for a month.
·  Never drive on medicinal drugs if it says that you shouldn’t. Check with your GP or pharmacist.
Sharpen up
1 in 10 drivers’ eyesight is worse than the legal minimum. You must be able to read a number plate at 20.5 metres. Other eyesight problems can affect your ability to see at night, or out of the corners of your eyes. / Your eyesight can deteriorate without you realising it.
·  Get your eyes tested at least every two years, even if you think that you have perfect eyesight. This is particularly important if you are over 50.
·  If you wear spectacles or contact lenses, never drive without them.
·  Keep a spare pair of spectacles in your car
Back up
The phrase “Only a fool breaks the two-second rule” takes about 2 seconds to say, so it is a good way to measure the gap.
The rule works at all speeds, for all types of road. You need to leave a much longer gap when it is wet, foggy or icy. / Give yourself braking space. You will need it in a crisis.
It’s your external safety cage.
·  When the vehicle in front passes a static object (e.g. a sign or tree), count the seconds until you pass it.
·  If you are closer than a 2 second gap, drop back.
·  A 2 second gap also allows you to spot hazards and drive more smoothly and economically.
Look up
Slowing down by even a few miles an hour can make all the difference.
At 40mph, there is a 90% probability that someone you hit will die.
At 20mph, 90% will survive. / Look up for pedestrians
·  Obey speed limits and be aware of your surroundings and pedestrians.
·  However tightly a parent holds a child’s hand, there is always a risk that the child will break away and run in front of your vehicle.
·  The UK has one of the worst child pedestrian fatality rates in the whole of Europe.
Look up for cyclists
·  In urban areas, cyclists are often killed waiting to turn left at junctions – crushed against railings or under the wheels of vehicles which are also turning left. Check your nearside door mirror before turning left.
·  On rural roads, cyclists, horse riders and walkers are killed by drivers taking bends too fast and too tight. Slow down for bends – you don’t know what is round them.
Look up for bikers
·  One of the biggest killers of motorbikers is drivers who fail to spot them and pull out in front of them. The biker is killed either from impact with that vehicle or are thrown into the path of another vehicle.
·  At junctions, look once for vehicles, then look again for bikers.
“Think once, think twice, think bike”.
·  Remember that they are hard to spot because they are narrower and often wear dark colours.
·  Never assume it is safe to emerge from a junction after an approaching vehicle has passed. A biker could be hidden behind that vehicle.
·  Always check in both mirrors and over your shoulder before changing lanes or setting off – a biker may be weaving between vehicles or lanes.
·  Give bikers plenty of space – they may need to swerve to avoid skidding on manhole covers, oil or litter.
Slow Down
At 35mph, you are unlikely to be able to stop in time if a child runs out in front of you. You are also twice as likely to kill them than at 30mph. The faster you go, the much harder you hit.
Drivers are more likely to kill themselves on rural single-carriageway roads than on any other type of road. Two out of three deaths of drivers happen on these roads. / In towns and villages, many drivers break the speed limits.
·  Check your speed frequently.
·  Change down to 3rd gear in a 30mph zone.
·  Never rush. Be vigilant for hazards
·  Speed cameras at accident black spots have saved thousands of human tragedies.
On rural roads
·  On many single-carriageway roads, the national 60mph limit is too fast for safety.
·  Taking bends too fast, or overtaking in dangerous places cause fatal crashes with other vehicles or with trees and walls.
·  Drivers also kill cyclists, horse riders and walkers. They are particularly vulnerable when hidden around bends or at night.
·  Go very slowly on sharp bends. Always assume that a bend is sharp until you can see the exit.
·  Overtake only when you are 100% certain that the road is clear and conditions are suitable, and that you can complete the manoeuvre within that distance, allowing for the possibility of oncoming vehicles. Do so only if the gain is a worthwhile length of time.
Wise up
Most journeys take place during daylight, but half of all deaths on roads happen in darkness. / Be aware of dangerous road conditions – rain, ice, snow, darkness or (occasionally) glaring sun low in the sky.
·  In these conditions, it’s harder to see.
When roads are slippery, it takes longer to stop.
·  Be the first to switch on your headlights in gloomy conditions. It makes you much more visible to other drivers even if you don’t need them to see your way ahead. Use dipped beam except when you are on a rural road with nothing coming towards you.
·  Be the first to slow down. You must be able spot hazards, including pedestrians and to stop in time. At night, never assume that there is no-one else around.
·  Never ‘hang on’ to another vehicle’s tail-lights.
·  In the wet, leave a gap of four seconds between you and the vehicle in front. In snow or ice, don’t drive unless essential, leave even more space and don’t brake or steer sharply.
·  Keep your vehicle stocked with cloths, washer fluid, glass cleaner, de-icer, ice scraper and anti-freeze. Clear the whole surface of all windows and mirrors.
Check up
In surveys, a quarter of all car tyres are found to be dangerously worn or damaged.
Incorrect tyre pressure can cost you cash. A tyre which is under-inflated by 20% uses up to 3% more fuel and wears out 25% quicker. / Defects such as worn tyres and blown light bulbs are common and they can kill.
·  You must regularly (e.g. weekly) carry out the essential and easy checks yourself.
·  To check the depth of tyre treads, look for the tyre wear indicator bars built into the tread pattern. These are small ridges at intervals across the main grooves. When the tread has worn down to the top of these bars, they are at or below the legal minimum (1.6mm). Change the tyre before this happens.
·  Buy a hand-held tyre pressure gauge and check your tyre pressures when the tyres are cold. The correct pressures will be shown in the vehicle handbook and often also on a label on the edge of the driver’s door.
Talk to your garage
·  As well as passing the annual MoT test, it is essential to have your vehicle serviced at the frequency specified by its manufacturer.
·  To minimise the chance of trouble between services, ask your garage about the condition of safety-critical components and whether they may need replacing before the next service.
Crash protection / The only thing which you can hit without damage is air. At all times, keep sufficient space all around your vehicle. It’s your external safety cage.
·  Always ensure that everyone in the vehicle has their seatbelt fastened before you start moving.
·  Ensure that children have the correct seat for their size.
·  Ensure that the lap part of the seatbelt is across your hips and not your stomach.
·  Ensure that the seat belt is tight against your body.
·  Don’t sit close to the steering wheel.
·  Aim to stop at least a vehicle length behind the vehicle in front, then creep forward for the last part, stopping so you can see the road surface between the vehicles.
·  Always give clear information of your intentions to other road users in plenty of time by your position, speed and indicators.
·  Always check ALL your mirrors before making any manoeuvre. Before pulling out or changing lanes to your right, look over your shoulder in case someone is alongside you in your blind spot.
Breakdown / If you break down on a motorway
·  If there is a verge, exit from your vehicle by the nearside passenger door.
·  Call the emergency services from a roadside phone if practicable. Use a mobile phone only if there is no fixed phone nearby.
·  Wait for help on the verge behind any crash barrier, not in your vehicle.
On other roads
·  If you can’t get your vehicle off the carriageway, try to come to a gradual stop where other drivers can see you from far away in both directions.
·  Put on your hazard lights. Put a warning triangle approx 50 metres behind your vehicle.
Don’t try to repair your vehicle on a road. It could be suicide.
Get tested
A new edition of the Highway code was published in 2007. A survey which put 2000 drivers through a mock theory test found that 93% failed it. / Getting the standard of your driving assessed by a driver trainer can help you improve your safety, and be fun, whatever your age or level of experience.
Both the Institute of Advanced Motorists (www.IAM.org.uk) and RoSPA (www.ROSPA.co.uk) have schemes for individuals to take advanced driver training and tests wherever they live. Do it yourself and give it as the best present possible other drivers in your family.
Sign up now / Re-read this handout, think carefully about each section, then sign the pledge that you will follow these rules each and every time that you drive. Your life and those of others may depend on it.
Signed: ______
Date:

Adapted from the booklet published by Brake (www.brake.org.uk)