S-turns, drunk goggles, and emergency braking – defensive driving by Ford Sollers

08 October 2015

On October 8, Ford Defensive Driving Academy began its operation in Chelyabinsk. In four days of the Academy, more than 300 young drivers were able to participate in free trainings aiming to tackle most common mistakes made by novice drivers.

All drivers know that experience is everything in those first three years of driving. However, not all know that 17% of all road accidents in Russia are linked to unexperienced drivers. Young drivers violate right of way rules, often cannot adapt their speed to certain weather conditions, do not yield to pedestrians. They are also prone to overestimate their skills and believe in their immortality. Young drivers often consider their response time better than it really is, and rarely believe that cellphones, lack of safety belts, and alcohol do not mix with driving.

Ford Sollers and Road Safety Russia developed Ford Defensive Driving Academy program based on age and psychology peculiarities of young drivers, as well as on official statistics on most common types of road accidents involving them. Program trainings in 2015 were extended to six Russian cities with million-plus population.

From October 8 to October 11, Ford Defensive Driving Academy was open in Chelyabinsk. With the help of special goggles, young drivers in Chelyabinsk were able to see for themselves how their perception changes under the influence of alcohol. Safety procedures prohibit wearing  these goggles when driving, that is why all those willing were only able to try and walk a straight line while wearing the goggles (which isn’t as easy as it seems, as not one participant of the trainings has yet accomplished this feat). This simple exercise allows participants to understand how hard it is to control and perceive the situation on the road under the influence.

Considering that Chelyabinsk winter lasts for 145-150 days a year, with snow accumulation amounting to 30-40 centimeters, and outside temperature of 32 degrees Celsius below zero being a local normal, Academy instructors paid special attention to emergency braking in such weather conditions. Once again, none of the participants was able to brake in time in order to avoid crashing into a dummy, as none of them was able to make the right assessment of the braking distance.

Ford Defensive Driving Academy dispelled the illusion that texting and driving was easy. Young drivers were offered to complete an S-turn exercise while trying to send out a short text. Needless to say, none of them was able to do so without knocking down traffic cones.

These and other exercises of the Academy aim to eliminate any doubts in the necessity of further driving education and driving skill improvement upon driving school graduation.

On October 8, the organizers held a conference in Chelyabinsk on the topic of road safety improvement in Russia. Head of the Chelyabinsk Region Department of the State Road Traffic Inspectorate at the Russian Ministry of Interior Andrey Muryguin, First Deputy Head of the Department for Cooperation with Law Enforcement and Military Authorities in Chelyabinsk Eduard Orlov, Director of the Special State Technical Sports School For Motorsport in Chelyabinsk Alexander Platonov, and Deputy Director of Road Safety Russia Alexander Revsky attended the event.

 «One could always do with some further knowledge or skills. You can say that Chelyabinsk is climatically challenged; driving in Chelyabinsk requires special kind of mastery and prolonged education. It’s a good thing that there are such programs allowing people to practice their skills for free and motivating them to be more careful on the road», – noted Head of the Chelyabinsk Region Department of the State Road Traffic Inspectorate at the Russian Ministry of Interior Andrey Muryguin.

«The main goal we’ve set with Ford Defensive Driving Academy is to form and promote safe driving culture among drivers with less than three years of driving experience. As young drivers will soon “upgrade” their driving category to become experienced ones, it is crucial to start teaching them defensive driving even now. When preparing the project, we tried to consider the most common mistakes made by young drivers, and included corresponding exercises in the program. We do hope that Ford Defensive Driving Academy will become one of the steps to improving road safety in our country», – Ford Defensive Driving Academy Senior Project Manager Alexander Revsky commented on the results of the project.

Share




Comments

So that to post a comment you need to login the web site

News

We recommend to look



Login Register
Login Register