Reality Check. Our driving habits are generally dangerous
Bottom Line: Let’s play a quick game and be honest. There’s nothing to be gained here by lying. I’m going to ask you a series of situational driving questions. Again, be honest... My answers are in parenthesis as some encouragement.
Do you...
- Drive drowsy? (Yes)
- Speed? (Yes)
- Have road rage? (No)
- Occasionally go through stop signs? (No)
- Occasionally run red lights? (No)
- Driven on tires you knew needed to be replaced? (Yes)
- Engage in distracted driving (checking mobile devices while driving)? (No)
- Drive drunk (or when you know you’ve had too much to drink)? (No)
Obviously, these are all risks. And as it turns out there are very few perfect drivers. In a study of drivers by DriversEd.com they found that at least 24% of us do each one of these. The range was from driving under the influence (24%) to speeding at 89%. Now here’s the key. If we all picked one of these, that we’re offenders of, and tried to stop it – we could generally reduce accidents by about 13%. That’s 411 fewer deaths per day and more than 150,000 per year. Worthwhile. Especially when it’s you and your family. A little food for thought. There aren’t many things we’ll do today to potentially save lives. This could be one of them.