Avoiding Potential Collisions: Essential Defensive Driving Skills

The best way to avoid taking a trip to the collision repair center is by improving your driving habits and practicing defensive driving. Simply following the common rules of the road and being a good driver will help avoid accidents, but not everyone is a good driver. This is where defensive driving becomes especially important for anyone driving a vehicle. Learn about some of the important ways to drive defensively below.

Be Aware

To react quickly and safely to all the changing conditions of the road, one must always be fully aware. Staying vigilant on the road is the necessary foundation for becoming a proper defensive driver. An important tip that race car drivers use is to look higher and see the entire road ahead, not just the vehicle ahead. When changing lanes, knowing what is to the sides and behind the vehicle is also just as important as checking blind spots.

Stay Focused

Distractions of any type are among the leading causes of accidents. Passengers, phones, food, drinks, music devices, or anything that takes attention away from the road makes driving much more dangerous. The fact that other drivers may be subject to these same distractions is another reason why staying aware of your surroundings is so important. Avoiding driving when drowsy, or while under the influence of any substance is vital as well.

Keep Calm

Road rage and frustration are both large contributors to dangerous road behavior. If others on the road are driving poorly or traffic is causing frustration, don’t allow it to stress you out. Keep calm and give reckless drivers extra space.

Follow Laws

Running red lights, rolling through stop signs, and speeding are all major reasons for crashes and excessive damage. Speeding reduces the amount of time a driver has to react, increases the time it takes to come to a stop and increases damage done during a collision.

Michael J’s Body Shop is there to help if your vehicle is ever involved in an accident or just needs touch-up work performed. Call us at 408-279-2070 for more information.