Owner`s manual
Defensive Driving
The best advice anyone can give about driving
is:
Drive defensively.
Please start with a very important safety device
in
your vehicle: Buckle up.
(See “Safety Belts”
in
the Index.)
Defensive driving really means “be ready for anything.” On city streets,
rural roads, or freeways, it means “always expect the unexpected.”
Assume that pedestrians or other drivers are going to be careless and make
mistakes. Anticipate what they might do. Be ready for their mistakes.
Rear-end collisions are about the most preventable
of
accidents. Yet they
are common. Allow enough following distance. It’s the best defensive
driving maneuver,
in
both city and rural driving.
You
never know when the
vehicle
in
front
of
you
is going to brake or turn suddenly.
Drunken Driving
Death and injury associated with drinking and driving
is
a national tragedy.
It’s the number one contributor
to
the highway death
toll,
claiming
thousands
of
victims every year. Alcohol takes away three things that
anyone needs
to
drive
a
vehicle:
Judgment
Muscular Coordination
Vision
Police records show that almost half of all motor vehicle-related deaths
involve alcohol
-
a driver, a passenger or someone else, such as a
pedestrian, had been drinking. In most cases, these deaths are
the
result
of
someone who was drinking and driving. About
20,000
motor
vehicle-related deaths occur each year because
of
alcohol, and thousands
of
people are injured.
Just how much alcohol is
too
much
if
a person plans to drive? Ideally, no
one should drink alcohol and then drive. But
if
one does, then what’s
“too
much”? It can be
a
lot less than many might
think.
Although
it
depends on
each person and situation, here
is
some general information
on
the problem.
The Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of someone who
is
drinking depends
upon four things:
How much alcohol
is
in
the drink.
The drinker’s body weight.
The amount
of
food that is consumed before and during drinking.
The length
of
time
it
has taken
the
drinker
to
consume
the
alcohol.
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