Inside CR: Brushing up on driver safety

Every fall, several dozen employees from Consumers Union spend two evenings learning how to be safer on the roads. This is an organization that already focuses on safety (we're supposed to cover hot beverages as we carry them from the cafeteria to our offices in case we bump into someone on the way), so it's not surprising the driver-safety course fills to capacity every year.

The course we take has the same basic components as hundreds of others given across the country, but we're lucky enough to be taught by Bob Fogel, a 17-year veteran of driver safety and president of the Drivers Safety Program, who treats each class like an evening at the improv. He knows what he's talking about, and he delivers the facts in a way that keeps our attention.

Fogel's background is in electrical engineering, followed by 20 years in the insurance business, where he saw up close the smashed results of bad driving. It's that extra knowledge that makes the material resonate. We all may not remember everything that Fogel says, but most of us remember some gem, and it could just be the one that keeps us out of an accident on any given trip from point A to point B.

We asked around the building to see which tips stuck with various CU staffers. Here are a few worth sharing:

• At a stop sign or red light, stop far enough behind the car in front of you to see its rear tires. That ensures you have plenty of room to maneuver should you have to pull out of line.
• Click your seatbelt low across your lap, not higher on your waist. In an accident, the belt could do some serious damage to internal organs if it's riding too high.
• Turn your lights on when your wipers are on. The fact that your car has daytime running lights is no excuse; they don't activate your tail lights, so you're not as visible in the rain from behind. It's the law in many states anyway, but people seem to ignore it. Especially, we've noticed, people in silver or gray or beige cars, which seem to disappear into the road on a rainy or foggy day.
• When in doubt, go right. That's especially true when you hear a siren. You shouldn't waste time figuring out where it's coming from; just pull over to the right so you're out of the way no matter where it is.
• If you're the first car in line at a red light, glance quickly in both directions after it turns green. The guy who's supposed to have stopped at the intersection may have chosen to gun it through the red instead, and you don't want to be the one he hits.
• Making a left turn across traffic? Keep your wheels straight while you wait for an opening in the line of cars. If your tires are turned left and you get hit from behind, you'll be torpedoed into oncoming traffic.
• To judge a safe driving distance from the car in front of you, start counting as it crosses a particular point – a tree, a road sign, a mail box. There should be three full seconds before your car passes the same point. If not, slow down and leave more space. This works for speeds up to 50 mph; faster than that requires more stopping room and you'll need more seconds between cars.

Your movements should never be a surprise to other drivers. Use your signals, be sure your lights and brake lights are working, and stay far enough back from trucks that you can see their mirrors. "You're safest when you're seen by other drivers," says Fogel.

Driver safety courses shave a percentage off sections of your insurance, and may reduce points you've gotten on your license for moving violations, both very good reasons for spending the time and money on the course. But the best reason is the tip or two or three that stick in your mind, and may save a life.