VHA Driver Safety – VA 7350 Course Overview The goal of the National Safety Council’s Defensive Driving Course is to provide drivers with the knowledge and safe driving techniques to prevent collisions and violations. The course focuses on collision prevention through hazard recognition and application of collision avoidance techniques. In addition, the course also addresses common driving violations that result in collisions, and how to change driving habits to eliminate moving violations. Let’s take a brief moment to review the content that will be covered in each Session in this course. In Session 1: Get Defensive About It! you will learn how to: 1. Recognize the need for and benefits of defensive driving. 2. Identify risky driving attitudes and behaviors. 3. Explain what it means to be a defensive driver. 4. Recognize that defensive driving involves both legal and personal responsibilities. 5. Determine if a collision was preventable or non-preventable. List the three basic steps in the DDC Collision Prevention Formula. In Session 2: Making Driving Choices, you will learn how to: 1. Identify the personal benefits of using occupant protection systems. 2. Explain the affects of alcohol and other drugs on driving ability. 3. Identify physical and mental driver conditions that may affect driving ability. List techniques you can use to maintain control in adverse driving situations. In Session 3: What Conditions Drive You?, you will learn how to: 1. Conduct an exterior and interior vehicle check before driving. 2. Identify five uncontrollable driving conditions that contribute to collisions. 3. Identify the driving hazards associated with these driving conditions in time to avoid them. List defensive driving maneuvers that help drivers maintain control for each uncontrollable driving condition. In Session 4: The Choice Is Yours, you will learn how to: 1. List the six most common types of driving errors that contribute to collisions. 2. Identify reasons drivers choose to speed. 3. List alternatives to speeding. 4. Explain how to safely approach and proceed through all intersections. 5. Explain how to make safe and legal turns. 6. Identify the hazards involved in passing. 7. Explain how to evaluate a potential passing situation. 8. Explain the three steps needed to complete a safe pass. 9. Explain how to avoid a head-on collision. 10. State how to determine safe following distance. In Session 5: Infection Control When Transporting a Patient, you will learn how to: 1. Describe how bloodborne diseases are transmitted 2. List the common body fluids that contain other potentially infectious material (OPIM) 3. Identify three risk areas that affect the risk of pathogen exposure 4. Identify ways to prevent exposure to bloodborne pathogens 5. Describe what to do if you are exposed to blood or other potentially infectious material (OPIM) In Session 6: Safely Managing Oxygen Cylinders During Patient Transport you will learn how to: 1. Identify the hazards of transporting oxygen. 2. Describe the safe way of transporting oxygen in a vehicle. In Session 7: Conclusion, the reasons why you have taken this course are reviewed and how this training can be of benefit to you This Defensive Driving Course has been updated much like the vehicles you drive today. It shows you ways to drive safely and responsibly that will become habit as you put them into practice. It provides you with tips for handling what you can control: yourself and your vehicle. It provides you with useful guidelines for coping with everyday driving conditions you cannot control: weather, light, traffic, roads, and other drivers. All these habits can make the difference between life and death, health and injury. We know your experience in this course will be meaningful and, as a result, you will want to be a defensive driver. Session 1 Objectives In this session, you will learn how to: 1. Recognize the need for and benefits of defensive driving. 2. Identify risky driving attitudes and behaviors. 3. Explain what it means to be a defensive driver. 4. Recognize that defensive driving involves both legal and personal responsibilities. 5. Determine if a collision was preventable or non-preventable. 6. List the three basic steps in the DDC Collision Prevention Formula. Introduction Do you think you are a good driver? This course will help you to become more than just a good driver—it will help you become a safe, responsible, Defensive Driver. Many of us think that we are good drivers. However, the facts indicate that we all could improve our driving habits. Let’s take a closer look at what you think about traffic safety. Recognize the need for and benefits of defensive driving. Believe it or not, approximately 40,000 people are killed in traffic collisions each year and 2.3 million people are injured in traffic collisions. Statistically speaking, in your lifetime you will be involved in a collision about every ten years. That’s about six collisions in your lifetime! To most of us, these statistics are just that: numbers. We think that collisions, injury, and death will not happen to us or to someone close to us. But the facts show: it can and does happen every day. When you think of it that way, these numbers become more than statistics; they become a serious threat to you and me. In other words, we need to be not only good drivers but defensive drivers as well. By learning to drive more defensively, we can reduce our chances of being the next statistic. When you are driving, don't just drive for yourself. Drive for the five other people who are important to you. Make it a habit to protect the area around your vehicle so everyone arrives at his or her destination safely. Your attitude toward other drivers and driving usually indicates what you are willing to do to get what you want when you are driving. In other words, your attitudes are your collision-risk factors. The fact is that we all take risks sometimes; and when we do, we temporarily let someone or something else take control of the situation. Before we choose to take a risk and give someone or something else control, we should ask ourselves two questions: 1. Is getting what I want or where I’m going so important that I am willing to risk my life … or other people’s lives? 2. Am I willing to be involved in a collision or get a ticket just to get to work on time, get ahead of someone else, or have some fun? If we answer yes even sometimes to these questions, we also have to accept the responsibility and results of risk-taking behavior. Do you get irritated when other drivers are driving too slowly? In this case, the attitude is reflected in the word irritated. Some drivers might choose to tailgate to get the slower driver to speed up or just to make him or her nervous. Such an attitude contributes to an unsafe behavior, tailgating, which could result in a rear-end collision. If we all lived in a perfect world, driving would be a wonderfully cooperative experience. If everyone would: Pay attention 1. Drive at an appropriate speed 2. Show courtesy toward other drivers We might have no need for a defensive driving course. But the reality is that we do not live in a perfect world. Some drivers seem to be out there on the roads just to make driving more difficult than it should be. In contrast, defensive driving protects us from what is happening around us. Defensive Driving Characteristics. Developing defensive driving habits involves: 1. Making safe and legal driving decisions 2. Creating a stress-free personal driving space in and around your vehicle 3. Driving to your destination safely, without a ticket or a collision, or compromising other drivers’ safety 4. Practicing courtesy, compassion, common sense, and cooperation Recognizing the risks of hazardous driving conditions and behaviors. By definition, DEFENSIVE DRIVING is: “Driving to save lives, time, and money, in spite of the conditions around you and the actions of others.” Based on what we have covered so far, the following statements are some of the benefits derived from being a defensive driver. 1. Saving my life and others’ lives in my vehicle or other vehicles 2. Reducing collision-related injuries 3. Saving time by not getting a ticket or being in a collision 4. Saving money (fines, wages, insurance deductibles, insurance rate increases, attorney fees, car rental) 5. Reducing my chances of getting a ticket or being involved in a collision When drivers get into a collision or get a ticket, most have enough excuses to write a book: 1. The road was slippery. 2. Everyone else was speeding. 3. The driver slammed on the brakes and made me hit the car ahead. 4. I didn’t see the STOP sign. 5. The traffic light turned yellow as I was going through the intersection. Sound familiar? We have all probably used some of these excuses. On the other hand, a defensive driver does not have to blame the weather, the road, the traffic, or other drivers when something happens. Often, it seems that you have to drive not only for yourself but for everyone else too. A defensive driver does everything reasonable to avoid a collision or violation. If that means slowing down in bad weather, the defensive driver slows down. If it means letting a problem driver get ahead, the defensive driver lets the problem driver go and does not challenge the action. Defensive driving is not trying to “get back” at someone who cuts us off, and it is not trying to get to the front of the line first.