Automatic Driving Lessons Raheny-Reaction To Hazards
I hope you are enjoying the Learner Driver Classroom and you are benefitting from the videos. In our next video we will be talking about reaction to hazards. This is something I cover in EDT 6 and it is a very important lesson. During your EDTs, if your instructor doesn’t talk about this in detail, I find people pick up a lot of marks for this. Only after I explain reaction to hazards to my students, does it make sense when you are driving. See my video below
First of all, I have to define what a hazard is. A hazard is anything that makes you change speed, change course or change direction and there are 3 different types of hazard.
- Stationary (doesn’t move)
- Moving
- Environmental
A stationary hazard that would make you change speed would be a speed bump, a traffic light or even a narrow gap. A moving hazard that would make you change speed would be a pedestrian crossing the road in front of you or a vehicle turning in front of you. An environmental hazard that would make you change speed would be dense fog, snow or ice, rain or even darkness.
A stationary hazard that would make you change course would be a car parked on the left or any type of object that would make you move around it. A moving hazard that would make you change course would be a cyclist or bus pulling in/out.
A stationary hazard that would make you change direction would be a turn, roundabout or a mini roundabout.
The trick with reaction to hazards is that it’s better to act now rather than later. How we do this is by scanning the road ahead and looking out for potential hazards. If you know there is a speed bump ahead, we mustn’t race up to the bump, brake harshly when we get to the bump and make it a rough drive. This is your driving test, everything has to be smooth.
It is the same when we see a car parked on the left. We don’t want to race up to a car parked on the left, instead, we want to see the parked car ahead, mirror, signal and move early, provided it is safe to do so. I will be posting a video about when to signal around parked cars another day so stay tuned for that one.
It is the same with an environmental hazard. Imagine driving on a national road and the speed limit being 100kmph and it was icy outside, that would not be very safe. Although, you wouldn’t do your driving test in icy conditions, you could do it in heavy rain and the tester would expect you to ease off a slightly. Remember it is double the following distance when driving in wet weather compared to driving in dry weather and a much greater stopping distance.
Watch the video above for a detailed description on reaction to hazards and also how to deal with certain hazards. You have to be thinking in advance when driving. I see it so often that students go into a trance while driving. Its all about staying alert and anticipating what is happening ahead.
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