Today you jump in the car at 7:45 am as always to get to work at 8 am on the dot. As you drive a few yards, you realize the pedals are further away than usual. You remember you lent your teenage son the car the night before. You do not have time to stop and adjust the seat, so you do it while moving, hoping that you won’t need to brake suddenly.
A few minutes further along, you turn on the radio. You almost jump out of your seat because the volume is so loud. Your reach for the stereo, turn it down and switch from the heavy metal channel your son had on to your usual news station. Again, you do all this while moving as you gave yourself too little time to stop and do it.
As you relax into the news, you remember someone mentioned a training course. You pull out your phone and scroll through your emails until you find one from the human resources department. It tells you today there is a workshop off-site starting at 8:15 am sharp. You type the address into the GPS. It says that it will take 30 minutes for you to arrive. You have 20 minutes, so you start speeding to your destination, ignoring any stop signs that try to slow you down.
All of this might not be what you do, but it is how many people drive. It explains why one report found that a quarter of crashes happen in the first three minutes from the time a motorist takes to the road.
Driving is safer when you prepare
By failing to prepare, drivers must take their eyes off the road to do things they should have done before leaving home. Cutting things close increases the chance that a motorist will engage in reckless driving. If someone injures you in a car crash, it is crucial to discover what caused them to crash, so you can stake a claim to the compensation you need.
