Pit & Quarry, December 2011

SPONSORED BY The instruction was When a car comes from the left and indicates an intention to turn right dont think you can pull out Wait until the vehicle slows down for the turn and be sure the front tires show that the turn has started motel Nobody showed up for the training session anyway Anyone with good sense would not have been driving at all The training was not that important These are two easily learned clear practical applicable and sound injury prevention practices There is no doubt that both came out of hits misses and thinking Someone did some abstract thinking to reduce some physics for development of the twosecond rule Not all that has been passed down has merit Try the following for what has misled thousands for years 1 Safety first 2 Eighty eight percent of injuries are caused by unsafe acts 3 Human psychology is the basis for unsafe acts 4 The five factor domino sequence of accident causation and control is a sound explanation 5 The Heinrich 1 29 300 ratio of accidents that cause serious injury minor injury and no injury has validity 6 The foreman is the key man in accident prevention PQ Carl R Metzgar CSP has more than 30 years of safety and health experience in the aggregates industry He provides consulting services with a specialization in program evaluation training compliance and loss control and can be reached at 336 766 8264 cmetz46840@ aol com BY CARL METZGAR Reliable so far B ack in the dark ages when I learned to drive electric turn signals were uncommon Truly I dont remember if even the high priced luxury cars had them In any case hand and arm signals were a big feature in the Pennsylvania student driver handbook At least when and where I took the driving test on a closed course with no other vehicles moving and not a pedestrian in sight I was expected to dutifully do the hand signals Now Jake my father after he died and daddy before he died taught an addition to the procedure The instruction was Never depend on the hand signal it only proves that the window is open When a car comes from the left and indicates an intention to turn right dont think you can pull out Wait until the vehicle slows way down for the turn and be sure the front tires show that the turn has started That proved to be good advice From some never explained experience Jake developed his expanded rule Who knows the real history but the rule reduced the hazard of the other vehicles speed and prevented collisions With the advent of ubiquitous electric turn signals the advice is still relevant A blinking light only proves the switch is flipped Reaction time Recently on the Web there have been references to a three second rule Check it out Years ago back in about 1970 it was taught in Defensive Driving as the two second rule The rule stated that to establish following distance while driving on dry highway you picked a mark on the highway a post on the side of the road or a tree or bush As the vehicle in front passed the mark you counted one thousand one one thousand two If your vehicle passed the mark before the count of two you were tailgating It then became imperative to slow down and increase the distance between the vehicle ahead and your own vehicle My instructor was emphatic that if the weather was bad it was incumbent on the driver to extend the time and therefore the distance even more However the instructor never got more specific than add more time TO ESTABLISH FOLLOWING DISTANCE WHILE DRIVING ON DRY HIGHWAY YOU PICKED A MARK ON THE HIGHWAY A POST ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD OR A TREE OR BUSH AS THE VEHICLE IN FRONT PASSED THE MARK YOU COUNTED ONE THOUSAND ONE ONE THOUSAND TWO That brings us to the current chatter about the three second rule In bad weather the two second rule becomes the three second rule For the literal minded this very specific statement is necessary But wrong Bad weather is descriptive without being explicit In bad weather it could easily be necessary to extend the rule to four or even five seconds From a personal near hit a 3 ft miss of some years ago on an iced over 5 or 6 percent grade on a curved hill three four or five seconds were not enough Truth is I should have stayed in the 72 PIT QUARRY December 2011 www pitandquarry com