Unfortunately, traditional driver training courses fall short in teaching skills for dealing with high-risk situations like emergency steering, skid recovery, mid-corner corrections, and panic braking. Because of this skill deficiency, most drivers aren’t prepared to properly react in these critical situations. Let’s explore some essential emergency driving tips for teens that can make a difference.
Tips to Successfully Navigate Emergency Driving Scenarios
While it’s difficult to fully prepare for emergency road situations without specific training, here are the two most important emergency driving tips for teens from the team at Greenlight Simulation that can help them handle these roadway surprises:
- Look for the Safe Place: Drivers often get fixated on the thing they do not want to run into, which is exactly what causes them to run into that thing! Your eyes and hands work together to steer the car, so you are naturally going to steer at what you look at. Instead of looking at the thing you don’t want to hit, look for the safe place that you want to get to. Looking to safety will instinctively cause your hands to steer to safety.
- Keep Driving (aka Fight the Freeze): One of the most common reactions in an emergency is to “freeze up” and not do anything. This isn’t an option in a car as you must keep driving the car through the emergency. This means actively trying to control the car by continuing to steer, brake, and accelerate until you’ve made it safely to the end of the event, or the vehicle has come to a stop. It is possible that you will have hit something, but are still moving, so your job as the driver isn’t done until the car is stopped.
A Better, Safer Way to Prepare for These Challenges is Here!
Until now, specialized training like this was hard to find, costly, and inconvenient. But Greenlight Simulation is now making this invaluable training more affordable and easily accessible through simulator-based training courses. Delivered at Greenlight’s Danville training center, the new REACT (Road Emergency Awareness and Control Training) course builds the crucial driving skills needed to successfully deal with emergency road situations and properly react when the unexpected happens. These courses are an essential part of learning emergency driving tips for teens.
Greenlight’s Chief Driving Officer, Josh Hurley, has pulled from his thousands of hours of driver training and coaching experience with the US Special Forces, professional racing drivers, and US Department of State foreign service personnel, to create a dynamic and comprehensive training package. Hurley points out that, “The beauty of taking this course in the simulator is that it allows drivers to safely make mistakes without any real-life consequences. They learn from their mistakes and repeat drills until they have a solid grasp of how to handle their vehicle in emergency situations.”
Confident Drivers = Safer, Better Drivers
Driving can be stressful for both new and experienced drivers, and it’s hard to learn when you’re nervous or frightened. Simulator-based training removes those learning barriers and provides a risk-free, low-stress environment where drivers of all levels receive expert training, valuable practice, and the opportunity to build their experience and confidence. This training emphasizes crucial emergency driving tips for teens, ensuring they are prepared for any situation.
By following these emergency driving tips for teens, you can help your teen avoid common mistakes and become a confident, safe driver. Remember, practice and patience are key. Good luck on this exciting journey!
