Some of the worst accidents on highways occur because somebody became impatient with other drivers or traffic. If you take the time to be patient about your driving, you may well end up living through something that would’ve otherwise killed you. Here are three ways that being willing to be delayed a little bit can keep you alive.
Intersections
Making left-hand turns is so dangerous and so inefficient that delivery routes are planned in a way that eliminates them. Making a left-hand turn, especially across a busy street, usually means you’re going to have to sit there for a while waiting for an opening. To make the situation even more annoying, it will likely be not too long before there is a driver behind you yelling at you through the windshield and honking their horn. Jumping out into traffic to hastily can result in horrific accidents. These most commonly end up with T-bone accidents and, this can be fatal to people sitting on the side that is struck.
Speeding
Speeding makes everything about driving more difficult. It makes corners harder to handle. It increases your braking distance. It requires you to have much faster reflexes than you probably have and, in some cases, faster reflexes than professional drivers have. Slow down. Remember that many of the speed limits you’ll see – particularly the slower ones – are set low because there are pedestrians in the area and you may end up hitting one if they assume that you’re driving at a sensible speed and you’re not.
Stress
It’s easy to think that being angry behind the wheel has never gotten you in any trouble when nothing direct has ever happened because of it. All of the stress you put on your body behind the wheel, however, does real harm to you physically. Stress weakens your heart, it makes it harder to think and harder to focus, it raises your blood pressure and has many other detrimental effects. The fact that it makes it hard for you to focus and that it makes you angry can lead to real problems when you’re driving. Force yourself to calm down if you get angry in traffic. Whistle a stupid song, listen to the radio, even wave at the other driver that got you angry just to diffuse yourself. You’ll drive better and you’ll live longer.
If somebody’s impatience has brought you to harm, contact a car wreck attorney.
