Information related to the author's viewpoint.
In this article Paul discusses inattention blindness. "A phenomenon that occurs when the brain is engaged in something else besides driving and your brain fails to process some of the available visual information." The conclusion is that our focus must shift from “hands on the steering wheel” and “eyes on the road” to “brain on the road”.
Our current system of trying to change driver behaviour largely consists of traffic tickets, vehicle impoundment and driver's licence suspensions. They all rely on traffic policing to find and deal with those who don't follow the rules. Electronic monitoring of chronic offenders would be more efficient.
Many drivers believe speeding alone does not actually cause crashes. While not totally inaccurate, this over-simplified phrase does not paint the whole picture. The fact is, very few crashes are caused by one factor alone, and this includes speeding, but downplaying the impact of speeding can prove to be deadly.
Misbehaving and incompetent drivers get off too easy in the media. How many times have you seen news headlines like these?
I find it interesting that following 2 serious crashes, Neil Menard, the mayor of Merritt, has been taking shots at the maintenance crews that are responsible for the Coquihalla.
Paul Hergott is a personal injury lawyer that practices in Kelowna are regularly writes on road safety. His latest article examines what might happen when the government increases the penalties for distracted driving. The position that he takes is that this could increase the problem by driving everyone to switch to hands free technologies.
I’ve spent most of my 40+ years of driving in Metro Vancouver, but have also had the opportunity to drive in major cities in England, Greece, Egypt, and France. When I return from these trips, I’m always amazed at the level of hostility on our local roads. With the traffic density in these foreign cities much higher than in most North American cities, I expected to see a lot more hostility amongst drivers. What I’ve found, though, is the opposite.
I happened to be on the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway #1) on Vancouver Island during the big snow storm just before Christmas, travelling from Victoria to Parksville, and there were some occasions where I wondered about the sanity of pick-up truck drivers.
Paul Hergott is a personal injury lawyer that practices in Kelowna are regularly writes on road safety. One of his latest articles compares the newspaper headline “Dangerously icy roads lead to crashes” with “Deep water leads to drowning.” His position is that we need to grumble and complain about drivers who fail to use good winter tires and who overdrive the conditions. Not about the naturally occurring ice and snow.
Once upon a time, there was a 33 year old guy in town, who decided he wanted to get a class 1 license. Since I have trucks, and my instructors certification, (albeit from...Alberta) he asked me if I would spend some time with him while he drove one of my trucks.
I ended up going out 4 times with him, 2 to 3 hours each time.