My Day at the Toyota Driving Expectations.

Before I tell you a little about last Sunday, let me share a few stats with you.

• Motor Vehicle Crashes are the number one cause of death for teens
• Teen drivers are involved in fatal crashes at over twice the rate of the rest of the population
• Teens represent 6% of all drivers and 16% of all crashes
• Driving at unsafe speeds is the most common error in fatal crashes
• The leading cause in death for ages 16-20 is automobile crashes
• 58% of teens killed in automobile crashes were not wearing seat belts
• Finally, 20% of 15-20 year olds will be in a crash within their first year of driving

I learned these things at a defensive/smart driving course I attended last Sunday afternoon called Toyota Driving Expectations.  In these stats, you will notice that car accidents are never mentioned, only car crashes.  The people at Toyota did this because they were confident that most crashes were not acts of God; they could be prevented.  Hence they were called crashes.  The course was pretty cool, and I learned quite a few other useful things, a few of which I am going to share.

One of the main things we talked about was a contact patch.  Say you covered a tire in paint, and set the car down on the concrete, then picked it up again (you feel really strong today).  The paint that is imprinted on the ground would be the contact patch; the bigger the contact patch, the more traction you have on the pavement.  Your tires should be pumped up to the right pressure because this affects the contact patch.

As you can see, the contact patch, as illustrated by the lower part if the first picture, is significantly reduced when your tires are not inflated correctly.  When correctly inflated, the combined contact patch of all four tires is 1.3 square feet. 

This second picture shows how much the contact patch changes when you make a turn.  Most of the tire is still touching the   This is why skidding is a whole lot easier when you are turning, as only part of the contact area has enough friction to be adhesive to the concrete.

The fun part was the driving.  With an instructor, we got to stop on a dime and do different slalom courses.  We also got to skid to a stop while turning, testing out the anti lock brakes.  While doing the slalom courses in particular, I learned something very important.  When you are in any situation, always keep your eyes looking ahead.  Don't stare at the think you are trying to miss, it doesn't work.  Just keep your eyes where you want to go, and use your peripheral vision to avoid whatever obstacle you may be trying to avoid.  I was amazed at how much this helped.

Defensive driving was another topic of the afternoon.  The main formula put forward was P = R ≠ T, that is, Perception equals reality but not necessarily truth.  The driver next to you may look like they are paying attention, or look like they are sober, or look like they are in a good frame of mind, but are they?  Defensive driving sometimes means anticipating an answer of 'no' to the previous question.  There are many ways to be a defensive driver, such as leaving room to move and being aware of your surroundings.

Probably the biggest tool for safe driving is focusing.  After all, the number one safety feature is you.  Over half a million people were injured in 2008 in car crashes because they were distracted.  We live in a world filled with distractions, and this is not limited to texting.  Even calling someone on the phone with a bluetooth headset uses some of you cognitive faculties that take away from you concentration on the road.  Once I was driving home from reffing a soccer game, and I just looked down for one second to turn on the AC, only to look up and stop quickly to prevent from rear-ending the car in front of me, who was turning into a strip mall.  The next time you think about doing something 'productive' while driving, think again.  While it may feel good to get something accomplished while driving somewhere, it may turn out to be a very unproductive thing as it relates to your safety.