Effects on you
A deliberate effort to drive safely will go a long way to ensure your safety. It isn't enough to avoid being an aggressive driver: one has to make the positive effort to actually to be a safe driver. Research has shown that an intentional and deliberate effort to drive safely significantly decreases the chances of getting into an accident. One benefit of this will be in the form of lower due to no-claims.
This can be achieved by learning decision driving, a term coined by American safe driving organisations. Decision driving refers to the ability to react to split second decisions that need to be made while driving. Poor driving decisions often lead to accidents: approximately 95% of all vehicle accidents are caused by indecision or poor decisions.
Decision driving summed up in five steps:
- Look ahead
- Size up the scene
- Signal early
- Plan an escape route (i.e. Learn to spot potential problems and tailgaters)
- Take decisive action
Effects on your family and friends
Now consider the mental and emotional effects of an accident. Commonly dubbed the “Crashback”, mental or emotional trauma can afflict both victims of car crashes and their family members, causing anxiety, nightmares and a strong reluctance to get behind the wheel or into a car. It can persist for up to five years, and requires medical attention in most cases. Effects of a crashback can spill over to other aspects of your personal life, affecting your family and friends as well.
Effects on other road users
Driving is not an isolated process- all road users are required to constantly interact with one another while driving and a dangerous or aggressive driver poses a hazard to other road users. Accidents also rarely affect the responsible driver- often leading to pile ups which carry a hefty price tag in motor insurance, health bills as well as administrative costs.
Aggressive driving often triggers off similar recklessness, resentment and anger from other drivers, creating an extremely unsafe environment for all the users on the road. When encountering an aggressive driver, try not to make eye contact with him, don’t take it personally and give him a wide berth on the road. It takes two hands to clap- if you don’t react aggressively; the chances of a dangerous conflict on the roads are lessened.