Top 3 Stupidest Things that the Dumbest Drivers Do

If you’re guilty of committing even one of these stupid things, it’s time to seriously review your driving skills. If you’ve never been in an accident, you can thank your guardian angel or just plain luck.

#1. Looking at Passengers when Talking

What’s going on with drivers’ brains that they can’t simultaneously talk and keep their eyes on the road?

The ability to do this isn’t “multi-tasking.” It’s “bi-tasking”: doing only two things at once. Many people can’t or won’t do this bi-tasking. Why? Why do they feel it’s crucial to keep turning towards their passengers while speaking to them?

My brother even turns to look at people in the backseat! What the fudge! If you’re compelled to keep craning your neck to look at your backseat passengers (whether they’re adult family members, friends or mischievous children), then why not just glimpse at them via the rearview mirror?

Better yet, do what a smart driver does: Save your speech for when your vehicle is stopped if your backseat crew can’t hear you.

Why is looking at passengers a dumb thing?

A vehicle going 60 mph covers 88 feet in one second. Suppose you’re on the highway, and drivers in the opposite direction (coming towards you) are also traveling 60 mph. If your vehicle and theirs are 352 feet apart, it’ll take only two seconds for both vehicles to collide if they’re on a collision course.

Some foolish drivers literally have their head turned for two seconds. But even if it’s just for a “split second,” it takes only one second for the scenery ahead to drastically change.

If a northbound vehicle at 60 mph is 176 feet from a southbound vehicle at the same speed, they will pass by each other after only one second. When drivers turn to look at passengers, it never takes under a second, and often can last two seconds, especially when turning towards the backseat. Two seconds is a LONG time when the context is vehicular collisions.

Why do drivers do this anyways?

Beats me. I never, ever turn to look at passengers when I’m talking, no matter what the topic. Why’s it so difficult for these dopey drivers to keep their head pointed straight towards the road, eyes smack on the road, while speaking? How can a sober, wide-awake driver be incapable of such simple bi-tasking?

• Maybe these doofuses think the passenger won’t hear them? Then speak louder or save your groundbreaking speech for when you’re next stopped at a light.
• Maybe these dunces believe that it’s impolite not to look at someone they’re talking to? No charm school teaches that driving isn’t an exception to this rule.

What’s the big deal if a driver wants to momentarily turn to a passenger?

• Six million motor vehicle crashes occur every year in the U.S.
• Three million people every year are injured.
• Two million suffer permanent injuries.
• 90+ people die every day from a vehicular accident.

So yeah, turning to look at your passengers IS a big deal! It’s beyond dumb. It’s incredibly stupid. Unlike drunkenness and texting, this inexcusable habit cannot be proven post-crash. But I’ve seen plenty of drivers swivel their head to talk to passengers.

Ever wonder why two vehicles slam into each other even though no drugs, alcohol, sleepiness, texting or mechanical malfunction were involved? It’s very probable that the one who didn’t “lose control” (e.g., traveling northbound but gets creamed by a southbound vehicle that crossed the median) had his or her head turned right at the moment the other driver crossed the median.

Though such a collision can be next-to-impossible for even the best driver to evade, keep in mind that a whole second can make a big difference.

This isn’t about being a Nervous Nellie or Edgy Edward when driving. It’s about simply deciding to stop engaging in a most stupid habit that is 100 percent NOT NECESSARY.

A collision course can be set in motion right at the moment YOUR frigging eyes are on your passenger’s face, leaving you NO time to attempt an evasive maneuver! And all for what? Because you had to see your passenger’s face!

Drivers can get so complacent with looking at their passengers that the one second may eventually evolve into three seconds.

It’s a stupid habit that serves no useful, logistical or tactical purpose.

In an evasive or defensive reaction to an errant motorist barreling towards you, you need every fraction of a second you can get.

#2. Curiosity Slowing

This is when drivers slow down to stare at any number of things off to the side of the road, without giving a second thought to what their slowing down does: causes bottleneck traffic jams, sometimes stretching for several miles.

I’ve been forced many times to slow into the single digits, only to discover that a mile or two ahead the cause of the bottleneck was a person off to the side of the road examining his front hood! Or changing a flat tire!

Why do people have to slow down to stare at these events?

Are their sorry lives THAT dull? Sometimes the object of attraction is a cop speaking to a stopped driver – on the shoulder, blocking nobody. People slow way down for this. Why?

Do these numbskulls think that if they go 55 mph on a highway, a cop—who’s speaking to the pulled-over driver—will suddenly drop what he’s doing, run to his car, and race towards someone driving by and give her a ticket for going 55?

• What’s up with these clowns who just have to slow down to gawk at something mundane on the road’s shoulder?
• What is so exciting about someone checking the hood or changing a flat tire?
• What is so enthralling about two cars with fender benders on the shoulder, in nobody’s way, such that people must slow down to observe, with no consideration whatsoever to other drivers behind them? How DARE they cause a stoppage wave!

While at highway speed, a person with normal intelligence should not have to slow down to process what someone is doing on the shoulder. In fact, a sensible driver won’t care and won’t allow herself to become distracted by a trivial event off to the side that’s not obstructing her way. I mean, MYOB and don’t cause a stoppage wave!

It takes only a very small percentage of drivers to cause the stoppage wave. And once the wave forms, it can last quite a while.

#3. Drivers Leaving Their Turn Signal ON: Hello? Wake Up!

There are many articles about why people don’t use a turn signal, but this is the only one about leaving it ON despite not turning or making a lane change. This fakes out other motorists! Click here to read.

Source: driverknowledge.com/car-accident-statistics/