Defensive Driving- Page 179

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Defensive Driving

The best advice anyone can give about driving is: 
Drive defensively.

Please start with a very important safety device in your
vehicle: Buckle up. See “Safety Belts” in the Index.

Defensive driving really means “be ready for anything.”
On city streets, rural roads or freeways, it means
“always expect the unexpected.”

Assume that pedestrians or other drivers are going to 
be careless and make mistakes. Anticipate what they
might do. Be ready for their mistakes.

Rear

-

end collisions are about the most preventable 

of accidents. Yet they are common. Allow enough
following distance. It’s the best defensive driving
maneuver, in both city and rural driving. You never
know when the vehicle in front of you is going to 
brake or turn suddenly.

Defensive driving requires that a driver concentrate 
on the driving task. Anything that distracts from the
driving task 

--

 such as concentrating on a cellular

telephone call, reading, or reaching for something on 
the floor 

--

 makes proper defensive driving more

difficult and can even cause a collision, with resulting
injury. Ask a passenger to help do things like this, 
or pull off the road in a safe place to do them yourself.
These simple defensive driving techniques could save
your life.