Stop signs are everywhere. Their 8-sided shape is unique among road signs and so recognizable that every driver recognizes them. Their meaning is simple: stop your car.

#7 Stop Signs

So how is it that a stop sign was a factor
in more than 23,000 car collisions in 2008?

Enough crashes to make a stop sign factor #7 on the list of Top 10 Contributing Factors in auto collisions in Texas.

The reason for this is that either drivers don’t really know what to do when they come to a stop sign. Or they know what to do, but they aren’t doing it.

KNOWING WHAT TO DO
Because we’re basically teachers at Comedy Guys Defensive Driving, let’s start with that first possible explanation and discuss exactly what to do when you pull up to a stop sign.

Come to a complete stop. Not a pause. Not a “rolling stop.” Not a slight hesitation before going about your business. Your car needs to stop moving and stay put for at least two full seconds. And if you’re so rushed that you think a two-second delay will eat away at your precious time, how much time will it cost you if you get pulled over? Or crashed into?

Stop with your bumper behind the sign or behind the line on the pavement, if there is one. That lane marks the edge of the intersection, and if you cross it before stopping, you’ve stopped with your car in the intersection, which can be dangerous to you, inconvenient to others, or both. Even if there’s a crosswalk, stop behind the line and leave the crosswalk clear for pedestrians.

Stopping behind the line sometimes means that you’re too far back to see down the cross street. To deal with this, after you’ve come to a full stop you can move slowly forward far enough to see, provided the front end of your car is not in the way of traffic.

RIGHT OF WAY
The question of who gets to go first is often a problem at stop signs. Here are the basics:

• First come, first served. The car that arrives first gets to go on first.
• If two cars arrive at the intersection at the same time and one is turning, the car that is not turning gets to go first.
• If two cars arrive together and neither is turning, whichever driver has a car to his left should let that car go first.

Remember always that drivers should not take right-of-way. The other drivers have to yield it, and it’s not really safe to keep going if the other drivers aren’t going to yield to you. Even if you’re sure that it’s your turn, make sure the way is clear before you drive on.

ACTUALLY DOING IT
We mentioned above that people may not know what to do, or that they may know and just aren’t doing it.

There’s not much we can do about that second possibility. Like Comedy Guys teaches in our defensive driving classes, the only driver you can control is yourself. And if some other driver is determined to take stupid risks and treat stop signs like inconvenient suggestions, there’s really no way to make them do otherwise. To keep yourself safe, look out for drivers like this and stay out of their way if you encounter them.

If you’re one of those drivers who take chances at stop signs — pausing without really stopping, stopping in the intersection, or ignoring them altogether — you really need to rethink your habits. Those red 8-sided signs are not just time-wasting devices put there just to inconvenience you. Like other road signs, that stop sign wouldn’t be there if there wasn’t a real need. Traffic is expected to stop there because it’s not safe to do otherwise. Respect the danger and keep yourself safe.

Changing lanes is something most of us do every day, so it’s easy to get blasé about the dangers. We’ve done it so many times that we think nothing about moving from one lane to another.

#8 Changing Lanes When Unsafe

But the dangers are very real and need to be taken seriously. If it weren’t dangerous, it wouldn’t be the 8th most common factor contributing to auto collisions, a factor involved in almost 23,000 car crashes in Texas in 2008.

Let’s look at the process from beginning to end and see how to make changing lanes safer.

FIRST, DECIDING TO CHANGE LANES
This is a bigger deal than you might realize. When behind the wheel of a car, you shouldn’t do anything without a good reason, and that includes moving from one lane of traffic to another.

So why do you want to change lanes?

If you need to get over to exit, make sure that you decide well ahead of time so that can change lanes safely. If you know your exit is coming but you don’t know exactly when, stay in or next to the exit lane so you won’t have to make a mad dash at the last second.

And don’t let yourself get surprised at the last second. Pay attention to where you are and what exits are coming up. If that means putting down the cell phone or asking your passengers to hold the conversation for a bit, do it: no conversation is worth your safety, and your passengers should understand. After all they’re only as safe as your driving.

If you’re changing lanes to pass someone, why do you want to do that? Are they really going that much slower than everyone else, or are you just being impatient?

One of the most dangerous aspects of changing lanes is when you move into a lane where traffic is going the opposite direction, such as passing someone on a two-lane road. This is where many of these lane-change collisions take place. You really need to know the road ahead is clear for a safe enough distance. If there’s even a small chance that you don’t have enough clear space, don’t try it.

When it comes to passing, remember what Comedy Guys teaches in our defensive driving classes: you should only try to pass someone if it is safe, legal, and necessary. Don’t take foolish risks; don’t break the law, and don’t do it unless the car you’re passing is going at least 10mph under the limit. Any less than that, and you won’t be able to pass them without breaking the speed limit yourself.

You need to know your vehicle, too. How fast can it accelerate? Can it get around that other car in plenty of time? Is it running smoothly? When you in the other lane with a truck headed toward you is definitely not the time for your engine to stall.

SECOND, SIGNALING YOUR INTENTIONS
This isn’t just for politeness, though that is important. It’s for safety. We’re safest when we know what the other drivers around us are going to do, and until we get vehicular telepathy worked out, turn signals are the best things we’ve got to work with.

And – as if we needed it – here’s another reason to not drive with a cell phone pressed to your head: with one hand on the wheel, you’ll need the other hand to work the turn signal. How many times have you been surprised by another driver who couldn’t signal because they were yacking away on their cell phone? Well, don’t be that person to someone else.

Put the signal on at least 100 feet before you change lanes. If you’re on a highway, just count the number of painted stripes on the road: four stripes and the spaces between them is safely more than 100 feet.

Here in Dallas (and probably in other big cities, too), there are many drivers who treat driving like a competitive sport. As soon as they know someone is trying to pull in front of them, their petty little egos get offended and they’re determined to shut that car out. To drivers like these, a turn signal is just an invitation to be a jerk.

But you can’t stop other drivers from being jerks, so don’t even bother. Signal your intentions anyway because it is safest for you and courteous to others. If one driver sees it and speeds up, you’re probably better off not driving in front of someone like that anyway. And for every ego-case who deliberately cuts you off, there’s another generous driver who’ll let you in.

(By the way, this is a good time to remind you to be one of the generous drivers. When you see someone signaling a lane change, give them some room and let them in. It’ll cost you maybe a second or two on your drive time and may prevent a lot of trouble for them and you if you contribute to a crash.)

THIRD, CHECKING ALL AROUND YOU

• Look forward, backward, and all around.
• Check your car’s blind spots. Don’t just glance in your side mirrors: physically turn your head for a split second.
• Check out other drivers. Are they maybe planning to pull into the same opening you want? Is anyone signaling? Does anyone look like they’re about to move without signaling?
• Check your car’s blind spots again. Seriously. They’re called “blind spots” because the danger is hard to see. It’s worth looking again.

And if you have passengers, ask them to help you look. People in the back seat can see spots you can’t and they have more freedom to take their eyes off of the road ahead than you do.

THEN
sure that changing lanes is necessary and safe, and having signaled clearly to the other cars, and having checked and re-checked that the way is clear, change lanes.

And make sure to turn your signal off, ’cause that’s just annoying.

#9 UNSAFE SPEED UNDER THE LIMIT

#9 on TxDOT’s list of the most common factors contributing to a collision is an unsafe speed that is under the posted speed limit.

No, that’s not a typo.

It is possible to be driving under the posted speed limit and still be going at an unsafe speed.

First, remember an important but too-often-forgotten detail of driving that Comedy Guys brings up in all of our classes:

The speed limit is the speed limit
only when conditions allow.

If the sign says 45 mph, that means it is safe to drive at that speed only when the driving conditions are good: during daylight hours when when the weather and road conditions are good and when traffic is fairly light.

When driving conditions are not this perfect, the safer driver will go under the posted speed limit.

Drive under the posted speed limit when

• it’s dark,
• weather conditions are making the road wet or slick,
• the road surface is in bad condition, or
  
• the traffic is fairly heavy.

Too many of us don’t drive that way, of course, and that’s what makes unsafe speed under the limit rank so highly on the list of contributing factors.

In 2008, more than 18,000 collisions were caused by Texas drivers who were driving faster than conditions allowed. Don’t be one of them.

Remember: it’s better to get there slowly than not to get there at all.

As we explained last week, the Texas DoT statistics don’t talk about the causes of collisons. Instead they monitor the “contributing factors” involved in collisions. And in our examination of the ten most common, tenth place goes to a common problem for drivers: failure to yield right-of-way.

(Okay, actually this was in 11th place on the most current list of contributing factors, but we bumped it up one spot by eliminating the ubiquitous “other” that sat in spot #9.)

#10 FAILURE TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY

This problem actually has two components. Sometimes the problem is one of ego: a driver knows he should yield, but he’s not about to for deep, often psychological reasons of his own. Sometimes it’s a problem of ignorance: a driver may be confused about who does and does not have the right-of-way in a situation.

Before we discuss both kinds of problems, here’s an important point: a driver can yield right-of-way but cannot actually take it. Semantics, of course, but significant. You can let a driver go ahead of you, but you can’t actually force someone to let you go ahead of them. Try it, but there will always be a chance that they won’t yield and will instead crash into you.

As for who gets the right-of-way, it’s not that hard.

First, anyone facing a Yield sign or a flashing yellow light does not have the right-of-way. They are supposed to stop and let other traffic go ahead of them.

If there’s no distinct sign or flashing light, it’s still pretty clear: the traffic on the larger road gets to go ahead. Traffic on two-lane service roads yield to interstate off-ramps because interstate highways are bigger. Traffic on one-lane roads yield to two-lane roads. Traffic on dirt roads yield to paved roads. Traffic emerging from a driveway or parking lot yields to the roadway.

In a situation where two roads of the same size meet, there should be a sign or light regulating who gets to go first.

Dealing with the ego problems is more complicated.

Too many of us bring our egos with us when we drive, like some kind of deranged co-pilot making us take dangerous risks for childish reasons. We turn driving into a competion. “No way are you pulling in ahead of me, you jerk” the animal part of our brains screams as we deliberately cut someone off in traffic.

Not only is this dangerous, it is unnecessary. Letting another car in ahead of you in no way makes you less of a person than that other driver. Yielding the right-of-way to another car or letting someone merge doesn’t diminish you in the least. Logically, you know this. Emotionally, you may be seething at the unfairness of yielding to someone in who doesn’t deserve to be ahead of you, but driving based on your emotions is only useful if your goal is crashing into someone. And if you’re worried about losing a few seconds, remind yourself how much time you’ll lose if you’re involved in a collision.

If another driver has the right-of-way let them go ahead. If they think they have the right-of-way, let them go ahead. After all, you want the bad drivers in front of you, so you can better keep an eye on them.

We are most likely to respond emotionally when we’re stressed, so reducing your stress level will help eliminate this kind of driving. A simple way to do this is to give yourself extra time. If you know you need to leave at 8:30 to get somewhere on time, purposely leave at 8:15. That extra fifteen minutes won’t rearrange your day significantly, but that extra time to get where you’re going will make the drive more pleasant and much safer.

The Texas Department of Transportation doesn’t talk about “causes of collisions” anymore. Instead, they talk about – and keep track of – “contributing factors.” These are the various factors that contribute to building a collision.

Sometimes, one factor alone is enough to cause a collision.

Many times, it’s the cumulative effect of multiple factors that cause a collision. If a sleepy driver in a car with bald tires on a rainy night veers into the wrong lane, slams on the brakes but still hits someone, that one crash raises the count on at least three separate contributing factors: driver fatigued or asleep, defective or slick tires, and failure to drive in a single lane.

Drivers are able to control many of these factors, so Comedy Guys Defensive Driving teaches our classes what factors are the most dangerous, so that our students can eliminate them if they are personal habits or can be better prepared for them if they’re not.

Over the next few weeks, check back to the Comedy Guys blog as we focus on the ten most common factors contributing to auto collisions. Think of it as a top 10 list of things that driver’s shouldn’t do.