IT’S NOT HOLLYWOOD

[Music] car crashes collisions fire infernos these have been the mainstays hollywood has used to amuse thrill and entertain audiences for generations but that's make-believe no one loses their savings gets hurt or dies stunned people can survive the most incredible crashes because we're prepared for them we have specially rigged cars and lots of protective equipment and we know exactly when they're going to happen not so in real life in real life there's nothing funny about a crash and there's nothing amusing about a collision and since many fatal collisions take place in passing situations we need to learn how to pass safely and correctly safe passing take one the first question you should ask yourself is is this path really necessary after that you need to determine if it's legal and safe to pass the vehicle and if it is this is the proper procedure first you have to maintain the proper following distance just because you're going to pass the vehicle in front of you doesn't mean that you can not maintain the proper distance then you need to check to make sure the lane is clear by using your rear view and your side mirrors put your left turn signal on to warn the traffic that you're going to be passing and look over your shoulder in the blind spot just to make sure that the lane is clear to start as you move left increase your speed and pull your vehicle completely into the left lane so you don't crowd the vehicle you're passing then you want to accelerate to the legal limit because you don't want to stay in this lane any longer than necessary after you pass the vehicle again you want to check your rear view mirror until you can see the vehicle's tires on the pavement turn your right signal on look over your shoulder in the blind spot move back into your proper lane turn your signal off and continue at the legal speed safe passing take two now let's try another take for a different passing situation if the vehicle you're passing doesn't seem to be aware of your intentions before you get to their blind spot tap your horn to communicate the fact that you're passing them and then proceed alongside make sure that after you've passed them you look into your rear view mirror and you can see the pavement in front of their car signal and pull back over into the right lane after you check the blind spot and don't forget to turn your signal off and continue on now that might seem like a lot of steps for something that just takes a few seconds to complete but you've probably never seen or thought about what it takes to make a safe pass and at highway speeds a safe path can take a mile or more to complete but if you master these maneuvers until they become automatic and you use them every time you make a pass you can greatly avoid your risk of being in a passing collision sometimes no matter how good your defensive driving is you may be involved in a head-on situation three weeks ago i lost a close friend and colleague in a head-on collision on a two-lane highway at a speed of excess of 50 miles an hour the car that he was driving was so badly mangled that he was actually pushed from the front seat of the car into the back seat and the car was not recognizable when i was 15 years old my father was driving me to a dance we were hit head on by a drunk driver this was before safety belts were in cars i was in the passenger seat i went through a broken windshield and came back through a broken windshield and slit my throat my injuries were the slit on my throat i had also shattered the bones on my forehead and they did an incision they started with a slit on my eyelid from the crash an incision that goes up to here and they removed part of this brow bone because they were afraid it was going to fall back and hit my brain when they took me out of the emergency room they covered me entirely with the sheet my mother was there waiting for me and they said to my mother if you want to know that marty's alive you can touch her hand but we don't want you to see what she looks like my wife was waiting for the red light to change green when it did she pulled out and turned to the westerly wet uh left westerly direction and she was immediately hit head on in in in the case of a collision like this even at only 10 miles an hour a child becomes a missile my daughter heather was killed in that crash she was cremated in this her favorite costume head on avoidance take one to avoid a hot on we use a formula called before ours the first star is read the road ahead look on both sides of the road look ahead to the next intersection or hill or curb whatever that way you can anticipate a potential head-on before it occurs the second r is to ride to the right [Music] you should always drive in the center of your lane but if you see an oncoming car coming into your lane you want to pull immediately as far right as possible the third rule is to reduce speed this can be done simultaneously with pulling to the right honk your horn flash your lights anything to warn the oncoming driver if he still doesn't see you be prepared to use the fourth rule ride right off the road this could mean driving off the road into a ditch but that's preferable to hitting the vehicle head on there are many maneuvers and procedures that you need to know to avoid a head-on collision so let's take a ride and i'll show you head on avoidance take two if an oncoming vehicle is in your lane your first action should be drive right not left if you drive left and the oncoming driver recovers he'll turn back to his proper lane if you had turned left you'd be right there to meet them in their lane if the vehicle is still in your lane drive off the road onto the shoulder or into a ditch don't skid to prevent skidding brakes firmly as you pull off the road but not so hard is to lock up your wheels sometimes you have to hit something naturally pick something soft brush bushes breakaway barrels if you have to hit a hard fixed object hit it with a glancing blow your greatest impact is when you hit something directly head on so by hitting it with a glancing blow you're going to greatly increase your opportunity of avoiding serious injury or death by now you know how to avoid a head-on collision something hopefully you'll never encounter in real life but if you do you'll have the knowledge and skills needed to greatly increase your chances of survival [Music] you