If there is one single, safe driving concept more important than identifying road hazards - I haven’t found it.  It comes under the concept of “Driving Experience.”  It’s always important but its absolutely critical on the highway at speed.

Learning to identify road hazards is the single most important driving skill you can ever develop.  It will help you avoid countless emergencies, accidents and it will make you a smoother driver.

So what exactly is a Road Hazard?  Simply put, it is a situation that could quickly develop into a Road Emergency.  A road hazard doesn’t require immediate action, but if it develops into an emergency, you are going to have to take immediate evasive and often dangerous action to avoid crunch, thud or bump.  You may not even be able to avoid it.

A road emergency places you, your passengers and usually others, in serious jeopardy of injury - or worse - no more tomorrows!  So what’s the operative concept?
 
It’s a whole lot easier to avoid a Road Hazard, before it becomes a road emergency!
 
Road hazards can be obvious or more subtle.  They can be visible or can be hidden from sight.  We can all relate to the kids playing ball on the side of the street but what about that “Bob-tail” cruising down the Thruway at sixty five or so?
 
“Bob-tail” is a nick name for the Tractor part of a Tractor Trailer rig.  The tractor by itself is not designed to stop or handle as well alone, as it can when hauling 40,000 pounds of whatever stuffed in a trailer.  Most would think that since Bob-tails don’t carry a load they can stop faster right?  Wrong!  It’ll be dancing all over the road.  When I see a tractor trailer on the road, it gets my serious respect.  When I see a Bob-tail?  That puppy gets all of my attention and all the respect I can muster!

When I’m rolling down the highway, comfortably doing seventy or eighty with traffic, and I come up on a slow driver in another lane doing the speed limit or less, with twenty or thirty cars piled up behind him, I have multiple road hazards.  I have the slow driver who is the obvious road hazard (especially if he’s in the center or left lane) and then I have all of those frustrated (furious?) drivers behind him.

One or more of those drivers is probably going to lose it and cut in front of me to get around pokey.  I need to be adjusting for that possibility and/or be setting up an escape path if I’m forced to make a sudden move to avoid whacking the driver who cut me off.

I’ve personally taken identification of road hazards to a higher level.  I Profile.  Yup - I want to stay alive.

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Throughout my driving years there have always been certain makes of vehicles that I have learned to immediately identify as road hazards.  Just seems like the majority of drivers who buy them, consistently fall into that “road hazard at any speed outside of the driveway – avoid at all cost” category.  The vehicles just seem to appeal to and are often marketed to - shall we just say, the “not so great” driver.  We’re not going to insult anybody by naming vehicles here, but you can soon figure it out.
 
Next time you see a driver who can’t keep it centered in the lane, is obviously not in control, makes an unexpected erratic maneuver or just seems to be obliviously drifting down the road, take a mental note of what make vehicle it is.  Keep doing it.  You’ll soon have your own list.  Wonder if it will be the same as mine!

Yup, I profile bad drivers.  They’re road hazards.  It may not be politically correct, but I want to stay alive.  I’m always trying to identify road hazards.  I almost make it a game.  I can deal with road hazards far more easily than road emergencies.

Oh – and one final note.  I try real hard not to be a road hazard!

DRIVERTHINK CATAGORIES:  Driving Skills - Driving Experience - Road Hazards

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