Defensive Driving

It is well known that defensive driving is a habit that is worth learning.  Those that understand the principles of defensive driving have fewer accidents because you anticipate problems before they can turn into a catastrophic situation.  But what is not commonly known is that many principles of defensive driving are required of you and if you do not obey the defensive driving laws of the land, it is you who will end up with a ticket.

A good example are the defensive driving laws concerning rear end collisions.  The law is quite clear that no matter what the behavior of the driver in front of you, if you hit him from behind, you are at fault.  Sometimes it takes some significant defensive driving skills to avoid a collision with someone who is driving irresponsibly.  And while avoiding road problems in any situation is always best, it pays to know the defensive driving laws so you have a clear understanding what is your responsibility and what is not from the point of view of the state.

While defensive driving laws do not change a great deal over time, it is easy for your awareness of them to fade as you get used to driving day after day and month after month.  It pays to take the time every so often and take a defensive driving course to get a refresher.  This is not something most of us who are not getting our license for the first time or who are not in trouble from a ticket or accident think about.  But it is worth giving some thought to.

It is also good to take a defensive driving course to understand the defensive driving laws of the state you live in.  If you move into a new state, there may be specific defensive driving laws that pertain to unique aspects of driving in that area of the country.  Driving in Maine is very different from driving in San Francisco and the state laws that pertain to defensive driving are different too. 

The good news is that it really is not that difficult or expensive to take a refresher course in defensive driving just to get up to date about the defensive driving laws you should understand.  There are ample defensive driving courses online that you can enroll in and take them at your leisure.  In fact, if there are multiple drivers in the family who should go through this exercise, you could all take the course together on one enrollment and save a lot of money that way.  The community feel of doing that together can make it less cumbersome to get through a defensive driving course if several in the family do it as a group project.

Defensive driving is an area of life that we take for granted.  Driving defensively is something we do almost by second nature.  But it is an area of adult life worth revising and getting a fresh education about.  If it only saves you one ticket, the little effort of reviewing the defensive driving laws in your state are worth the cost.