Assuming you assume…
We tend to take some things for granted throughout our lives. We assume the weather will always be nice when we take a vacation, we assume people will like us for who we are and we assume we’ll never get hurt while goofing off with our friends or family. We even take this belief of assumptions into the car. Many drivers will make too many assumptions while driving that will get them into trouble legally or worse, perhaps even hurt. Do you assume too much while driving?
For the more than 25 years as a driving instructor with Young Drivers of Canada I’ve witnessed drivers behind us who barely slow down when my student and I are braking before a turn. I’m pretty certain they are assuming we’ll keep going without having to stop, but what if a pedestrian steps out? Since we would have to stop for the pedestrian that could cause a rear crash between the driver behind and our vehicle.
Every now and then I would have a student who would do the same thing; braking only enough to slow down but not enough to stop when they see the brake lights of the driver ahead slowing down. I usually have to explain to my student that the brake lights essentially mean the driver will stop until they see otherwise. If the driver ahead comes off their brake and continues to move along, then we can as well and keep going. But if the driver does stop and we brake enough that we can stop as well, all is good. Why take those chances when you don’t have to?
We often hear of other drivers who make these types of assumptions about the drivers ahead of them. One of the duties I have at Young Drivers of Canada is to assess the actions of other drivers from a variety of companies when they crash their vehicle and then provide solutions so they don’t keep doing things like that. This is a quote from one of those drivers, minus street names and location from one of the drivers; “I was traveling west. There is a yield sign to get onto the street. There was another vehicle in front of me. Instead of yielding, they came to a complete stop. I was looking to see if any traffic was coming and there was no other vehicle. I started to accelerate and my vehicle rear-ended the other vehicle because they still did not move.”
Why didn’t the driver brake enough to stop when they saw the driver ahead of them braking? Why bother looking for traffic when there’s a driver ahead of them anyway? This comes back to making assumptions. It’s time to think through the situation when you see brake lights directly in front of you. You know the old saying, when you assume you make an ass out of you and… Should I assume you know the rest?