Hello this is Timothy Whitener; I would like to talk to you about safe driving and safe driving tips. As a professional driver hauling freight around the country, I see a lot of people making a lot of the same mistakes. Two of the mistakes are the lack of signal light usage and following distance. First I only see approximately five to ten percent of the general public using signal lights for lane change or making turns, and forget about exiting on an on ramp or exiting off an off ramp back on a US highway or interstate, most of the time no signal light, and the one or ones exiting just expect the already flow of traffic to move over for them (bad deal) secondly is following distance people drive way too close to each other, close enough they smell the exhaust of the vehicle in front of them, and know if its running lean or rich. The following distance in any city of any state is very poor, meaning to close. It’s no wonder why there are so many accidents in this country. People don’t drive safely, people don’t drive defensively which is the safe no contact way. They drive offensively which causes more accidents.

To everyone (Please Drive Defensively) meaning no contact. Drivers cut others off right in front of them with no signal and they just do it. I know I can have forty to forty-five thousand pounds of freight on my trailer and drivers of cars and pickups cut me off with no signal most of the time right in front of me and do the same to other drivers in front of them up ahead. I have been in three driver courses, one in high school and two professional driver courses since high school, and most everything I see today goes against what I was taught. People have got away from safe driving habits, that (People Alive) and go home to their families. Their children depend on them. I have been in traffic jams around the country where there were five car pile ups and it takes nearly two hours for the police, fire trucks, ambulance to get it cleaned up, where the traffic can go again. A lot of times people die, that’s the sad and horrible part. And we are in the holiday season: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

People need to drive safe and Arrive Alive; children like to see their mothers and fathers come home to them. Proper signal light use, and increased following distance is just two of the many safe driving habits this country needs. People will drive in packs as well and if someone does something wrong against safe driving or defensive driving it can be fatal. We all need to allow more time to get to where we are going, commonly called Arrive Alive, that’s the best part.

Some safe driving tips such as stay focused on the road and your surroundings. Stay off the social media, no texting, avoid arguments and stressful or emotional conversations with passengers, or phone conversations, if you need to just have that conversation pull over to a safe haven and have that conversation. Then after it is resolved or taken care of then get back on the road. Be sure children are properly and safely restrained, check your mirrors often every four to six seconds, remember the situation is always changing. Look 20 to 30 seconds ahead of you, when you see brake lights come on slow down. Don’t rely on other drivers for what you do. Stay calm, don’t put your phone to your ear to talk. I see a lot of people with the phone to their ear instead of in the phone mount. There is a lot more that could be said about safe driving. Most people think that all driving is, putting a key in the ignition, turning the motor on, putting the car in drive and stepping on the gas to go forward, but there is a whole lot more to it than that.

I pray that people would at least act like they had a defensive driving course even if they have not and live by it. To the general public, I hope you find this interesting and take it seriously that when anyone gets in a vehicle to drive, please exercise safe driving skills. It’s important to your life and the life of someone else. So, enclosing be safe out there it is the holiday season, please be safe from January 1 to December 31. Everyone is important.  Sincerely Timothy Whitener.