A crash course in common sense

We all know road safety and reducing fatalities are important issues that need addressing. Up ‘til now, governments and their lazy, overpaid researchers and bureaucrats have established a simple solution – more speed cameras!
Apart from filling the state coffers and making basically safe drivers feel like criminals, you and I in the crash repair industry know how well the speed camera idea has worked, don’t we! It’s going to take someone who is very brave and thick-skinned to wean governments off the revenue teat that is the motorist, and take the whole road safety issue seriously.
 
Education vs penalisation
Education is the latest buzzword bandied around. Germany has one of the most comprehensive driver education and training procedures in the western world, and one of the lowest road death tolls per head of population. It also still has unrestricted speed limits on some of its autobahns!
A valuable start here would be compulsory education on car maintenance and its relationship to road safety, just as in Germany. New drivers don’t need to be mechanics, but they do need to know the basics.
I’ve seen the result of plenty of crashes caused by ignorance and laziness when it comes to maintenance. Common to many cars I assess are grimy film on the inside glass, empty windscreen washer bottles, old wiper rubbers, non-working lights, and even tyres that have their steel belts protruding.
Thankfully, the cars themselves are getting much safer. How often have you witnessed a crumpled mess on the side of a highway and the driver standing unscathed by the wreckage on their mobile phone?
Old cars have none of the safety features like collapsible steering columns or airbags of new cars. Older generations of drivers used to develop their driving skills because their life depended on them being able to control a car.
It is great that our cars are safer, although I think drivers today do need to be educated in the operation of the safety features now being fitted to cars in order to avoid a crash. I’ve spoken to people who think that ABS and ESP mean their car will never skid off the road. They also believe they no longer need to learn how to control and correct a car and that these systems will do it all for them.
 
Incentivise young drivers
Speaking of newer and safer cars. It’s been a real travesty of all the road safety ideas that nobody has thought to create incentives for younger drivers to buy and run safer cars. Insurance companies could do their bit here. They could genuinely reduce premiums, not only for those who undertake further training, but also for those who would invest the thousands they would have paid for in insurance, into a safer car.
Certainly thorough driver education, particularly of our young drivers, would make our roads safer. Getting them to drive safer cars would undoubtedly reduce fatalities. One thing is missing however, and I’m not so sure it can be taught to teenagers – a responsible attitude!
It was a real eye opener when I was assessing for an insurance company set up to offer affordable insurance for young drivers. I would speak with many of them about their crash. It quickly became obvious to me that apart from most teenagers not being educated to drive properly, when they do get their licence, they seem to have no interest in the car and how it handles. They’re only interested in the car’s looks, its sound system and where they’re going.
This generation also strongly believes that it’s okay to boost their energy with substances and party 24/7. They haven’t worked out that driving is not a time to multi-task, no matter how bored they are. When cars are travelling in opposite directions, sometimes only centimetres apart, fiddling with an i-Pod, sending text messages and having a conversation with passengers is an invitation for disaster.
Then there are those who have spent a good proportion of their short life playing car racing computer games. They often drive with an inflated confidence in their skills. Throw alcohol, drugs and a street race in for good measure and it’s no coincidence that we regularly hear about the tragic, multi-fatality crashes involving young drivers. The car is often torn apart after an impact with a pole or tree – the result of losing control by travelling well over twice the speed limit.
This sort of irresponsible, reckless behaviour by young drivers is going to be hard to stop. We might get lucky with some new, whizz-bang driver education programs...
Wishful thinking, I reckon!