Running off the Road - Online Texas Adult Driving Course Video Lecture | Drivers Education of America: Overview - Personal Skills

every once in a while a driver can run
off the road and this should be
considered an emergency because of the
loss of control you will experience
unfortunately I can say I've run off the
road before and it was to avoid a car
that had pulled right in front of me and
my ability to slow the car down changed
greatly because I was driving on grass
this grass surface meant less traction
so my braking and steering became far
less responsive therefore control of the
car decreased running off the road
really has two causes one is simply
distractions like changing the radio
eating drinking you spill something
texting looking at driving directions
etc all of the things that would cause
the driver to take either their hands
off the wheel or their eyes off the road
or both the other cause of drivers
running off the road would be an
emergency of some type like something
suddenly interrupting or blocking the
drivers intended path or car failure
examples of these emergencies might be
your brakes failing or the car in front
of you screeches to a stop in either
event you might be better off swerving
to the right and having a collision with
cars in front of you side note here in
an emergency swerve in America always
swerve to the right if you were to
swerve to the left it would leave you in
the lane of oncoming traffic so swerving
to the left is an ever do action always
go to the right in this picture we see
the cars run off the road one of the key
issues here is the edge if this edge
were three to four inches tall we would
have a real problem because once we run
off the road
that edge would act like a barrier and
keep us from getting back on the road
easily now imagine if you will
driving down the road and you do run off
the road your natural instinct will be
to quickly steer back onto the road this
decision can change your life what
happens is that when your tire runs into
that edge it will block it and can
ultimately flip the car end over end
let's watch this video to get an idea as
to what happens
now here is the solution if you run off
the road that has an edge burst do not
hit the brakes suddenly and hard slowing
down should happen by taking your foot
off of the accelerator and softly
applying the brakes secondly grip the
steering wheel firmly and hold it
straight expect the steering wheel to
want to move around because your car is
now off the road on an uneven surface
now by steering straight and slowing
down before you try to re-enter the road
you should be under control once under
control take your car to the right and
then try to get back over that edge so
that the tread of the tire meets the
edge not your tire sidewall the other
factor that makes running off the road
so dangerous is the Lawson traction some
road surfaces have great traction so
they respond quickly and efficiently to
your tires when you're trying to brake
steer or accelerate these surfaces would
be dry concrete and asphalt in that
order lower traction surfaces would be
gravel dirt or grass like pictured here
it is this difference that makes running
off the road so dangerous because if
only the right side tires run off the
road then the left side tires would be
left on a high traction surface and the
right side tires would be on a low
traction surface therefore the way each
side of the car responds to braking
steering and acceleration will be
different sort of giving a twisting
effect this twisting will make keeping
the car under control harder therefore
braking softly and holding the steering
wheel firmly are the only ways to combat
this situation different road surfaces
are not the only thing that affect
traction the weather can play a huge
role whenever weather is affecting the
road
slow down and increase your following
distance just strongly embrace the idea
that when it is raining snowing or in
Texas icing slowing down is the best
solution if you still decide you must
drive somewhere
you