Unsafe Driving Practices

Imagine that you are a firefighter, hose in hand, approaching the flames inside a burning building. You open the nozzle on your attack line and...nothing. Someone has driven over the hose outside in the street and ruptured it causing a loss of pressure.

When it comes to winter in the "warmer" areas of British Columbia, I don't think that anyone does a better job of making fun of bad drivers as Adrian Raeside. The trouble is, it's not so funny when you have to share the roads with them. Many continue to drive in the snow and slush as if it is a warm, sunny and dry afternoon.

Our lap dog loves to go for car rides! She's generous too because you are more than welcome to sit underneath her in the right front seat. The trouble is, this is definitely not a good place for pets to ride in the car.

There is a time and a place for everything, but stunting in traffic on the streets and highways of British Columbia isn't it. In addition to issuing expensive traffic tickets to these drivers, police are also required to impound the stunt vehicle.

We've all seen it and I'll bet that we all talk about them, drivers who race us to the next red light. Here they come, weaving through traffic, going over the speed limit and pass by us just in time to stop for the same red light that we do. These drivers put us all at risk to gain nothing and demonstrate their inability to plan ahead.

We take many of our driving cues from what is happening around us when we are in traffic. If we are paying attention and watching for the correct cues all goes well. Stop paying full attention to the driving task, accidentally take the wrong cue and you can easily cause a collision.

I try very hard to maintain at least a two second following distance when I drive. This can sometimes be quite a challenge as it often seems that I am the only driver present that thinks this is a worthwhile accomplishment.

I learned early in my policing career that driving on a flooded road could be hazardous. What looked to be a few inches of water running on a city street hid a 2 m deep hole caused by a broken water line.

Now that the snow has arrived I've noticed so many drivers who don't clean off their vehicles. The wiper blade is the only cleaning tool used before driving and frankly that's a collision waiting to happen. Then there are the vehicles behind them who get the blowing snow off the roof and trunk of the vehicle.

Mirror, signal left, brake and stop before the marked stop line. Look left, look right and the pickup that was following behind stops ahead of me on my right, half on and half off the roadway, to make a right turn. Of course, I can't see cross traffic to my right properly, so he gets to go before I do.