How to detect hazards
Most crashes can be avoided by drivers who keep their
crash avoidance space free.
If you tried the activity Judge crash avoidance space, you’ve had
some practice noticing vehicles and pedestrians that could move
into your crash avoidance space.
When you start practicing, you’ll probably be looking for
hazards in the area just around your crash avoidance space - doing
this will not give you much time to deal with a hazard that could
turn into a crash.
You can teach yourself to see hazards earlier by training
yourself to be a hazard detector.
Activity: Learn to be a hazard detector
- While you are a passenger, say to yourself or the driver “The
next hazard that could enter my crash avoidance space is…”
- Notice how many seconds it takes for this hazard to reach you.
It will probably be three or less.
- Now detect hazards that could enter your crash avoidance space
that are at least five seconds away, then 10 seconds away, then 15
seconds away. If you need practice calculating seconds, try the
activity Judging distance.
- Now detect hazards that are in the whole situation ahead (not
just your crash avoidance space) up to 15 seconds away.
Good hazard detectors know that often there is too much around
them for their brains to take in. That tells them to slow down.
Next activity: develop X-Ray
vision
