Out of Control

A few weekends ago, while traveling to Katy on Interstate-10, I experienced the scariest driving situation. Luckily, I knew I was driving and was prepared to make my long commute as safe as possible. While on the freeway a car full of young women passed me. I noticed they were all packed in a vehicle, the driver was engaged in a phone call and everyone in the vehicle appeared to be on a cell phone as well.

As we were traveling further down the freeway, the vehicle moved in front of my vehicle. I proceeded to drop back.

I remembered defensive driving traffic school training that informs all students to allow a four second interval between vehicles when possible. A four second interval provides the driver time to steer out of problems at speeds up to 70 mph.

A few miles later, the vehicle with the busy driver and passengers began to steer wildly out of control.  The vehicle had spun so badly out of control that when it came to a stop, it was facing all the traffic on the highway.

According to DefensiveDriving.com, “It is important to note that many passenger car tires are not designed to steer out of problem areas at speeds beyond 75 mph. High speed rated tires are required due to sidewall flexing at higher speeds and turning movements.”

I must applaud everyone on the freeway that day. The driver had lost complete control of her vehicle. Due to space cushions, everyone had plenty of time to react.

This is in part why defensive driving traffic school is very important and why DefensiveDriving.com provides such a valuable service. You  cannot control other vehicles, but you can control  your vehicle and how you interact with other vehicles. There are more life saving instructions and resources available at DefensiveDriving.com.