DEFENSIVE DRIVING TRAINING
Four Advantages of Taking a Driving Safety Course
Employed are often encouraged to take a safe driving course to improve their skills early on, but every driver regardless of age can benefit from a safety course.
In the past five years, more than 35,000 people were injured in motor vehicle accidents, according to Federal Police Commission and Ministry of Transport.
One of the main reasons to take a safe driving course is accident prevention, but there are additional reasons to take a class. Here are four advantages to taking a safe driving course:
Obtain safety skills that go beyond the basics
Most drivers learn the basics behind the wheel. Drivers learn how to obey traffic signs, how to operate the car and how to maneuver it on the road.
“Every driver needs to learn the basics, but a safe driving course can add to those entry-level skills,” Asfaw explains.
For example, it’s a good idea to spend time teaching drivers how to recover the car in bad situations.
“If drivers aren’t taught how to handle the car when it slides into a skid from muddy road conditions, or what to do when the brakes lock up, they just react,” Asfaw says. “Every driver, no matter their age, should practice how to respond to these kinds of situations.”
Learn tips from qualified drivers
Driving is usually a skill that’s passed down from one generation to another. Through the years there’s no telling how many bad habits are picked up and taught to young drivers.
Drivers might take a class in school that teaches driving skills, but many times the most influential teacher is a parent,” says Asfaw Tilahun STN Driver instructor and the national program director for safe driving course.
“Most parents don’t have any formal training, they just show their kids what they do, and it’s not always right,” he said. By taking a class, drivers learn skills from qualified drivers.
Learn to remove or handle distractions
Every driver likes to think he or she is a safe driver, but with wireless phones ringing, chirping instructions and radios taking music requests, it’s not hard to get distracted while driving.
“Distracted driving is usually associated with drivers and their cell phones, but distractions come in many forms these days,” Asfaw says.
Every driver should learn how to remove or handle distractions. This is best taught through a safe driving course, Asfaw says.
Rules change over time
Some drivers were taught to think of the steering wheel like a clock, and keep their hands at 10 and 2 for safe driving. With the advances in air bags and changes in steering technology, the correct position is now 9 and 3.
Rules like this change over time, which is why taking a safe driving course is important. Students receive the most accurate, up-to-date information.
“I can’t tell you how many parents listen in during our class instruction and come up to me at the end of the course and say, ‘I had no idea that changed,’ or ‘I’ve been doing this wrong the whole time,’” Asafaw says. “It just goes to show that a safe driving course is valuable at any age.”