Spencer mcdonald thinking driver

It was My career in road safety started with teaching people to ride motorcycles, part-time, thanks to Ted. But this story isn't about me, it's about him. Early one morning in , the rang and I got the news. Ted had been killed in a car crash the night before. Also killed were two of his kids; Jason and Jennifer.

His wife, Dorothy was in intensive care and Ben, his youngest son was in hospital too. Later that day, Dorothy died. Eight year old Ben was the only one left and he went home from the hospital with his aunt and uncle to live with them. The four-way stop intersection where it all happened is in South Surrey, BC, where a drunk driver ran the side street stop sign.

Ted took the full hit right in the driver door. Good drivers always check intersections before entering; looking left and right and back left again because that's where the first danger will come from. Ted was not only an expert driver, he was an instructor trainer; the guy who trained the teachers! If anyone would check intersections, he would. So what happened?

Your eyes are your first line of defence. Did Ted screw up? Did he forget to check and clear that intersection? Were the sight lines just really bad and he couldn't see? We will never know. What is certain is that if he had seen her coming, he would have sat still, foot on the brake and watched her blast through that intersection.

He would have arrived home safe that night with his family and an exciting story to tell about a crazy driver running a stop sign. The funeral was surreal: there were friends, family, business associates; more people than the church would possibly hold. And four caskets. Two of them very small. The young lady that hit them had no previous serious traffic violations and certainly no previous history of impaired driving. She intended no harm. She was only 19 and had had a fight with her boyfriend at a party.

She was angry and upset and had left the party drunk and high. Her friends let her drive. She made a fatefully stupid decision, while impaired and angry. She walked away from the crash, but will live with the memory and consequences forever. Without a doubt, the crash was the girl's fault and yet, 22 years later I keep asking myself; why didn't Ted see her? Here's my question to you: do you always check left, right and back to left before taking your foot off the brake at an intersection, like Ted would have taught you?

When I was 7 years old we came home one day from the grocery store and unloaded everything into the house while the car sate in the driveway. I stayed in the house with Mom and my sister while Dad put the car away. It was a Chevrolet Bel Air Sport sedan. Back then it was just a nice car; a couple more decades would pass before it became a classic.

So Dad backed the car into the garage and in the process tore off the back door that I had left open in my rush to get in the house. Clearly my fault - at least according to Dad. Now in , what do you think happened to children that left car doors open to be torn off by garages? Today it would draw attention from child services but back then I was just being taught a lesson. But I digress. Whose fault was this really? Or is fault even worth discussing? Whose fault was it when Mom backed over my sister's bicycle with the Rambler?

Things just seemed to go wrong in our family when vehicles backed up. Or perhaps I'm a backing up jinx? As a teenager, I cut the front end of my Dodge Super Bee into a power pole backing out of a service station and once even backed up in a left turn lane don't ask with Dad's pick up truck right into the grille of the compact car hiding behind the tailgate.

I was real close when my buddy, Terry, backed his Toyota into a stump at Long Beach he spent quite a while convincing us that it had been his wife's fault Is it just me or does this backing up stuff seem to be just a little more complicated than we all think?

Backing incidents are a big deal. They absorb huge dollars in property damage and not infrequently result in serious injury. In our courses, we highlight 7 fundamental ideas to prevent backing incidents. Maybe they will help you avoid some problems that I have seen and on occasion caused.

Avoid Backing! It's easier than you might think. Before you park your vehicle or get into any tight area, think about how you will get out. Can this be done without backing up? Most of us already scope out the spots, in the mall parking lots, that let us drive though an unoccupied spot to the next one, leaving us facing out for a quick getaway.

That's thinking! Now apply that same logic at work. If you have to go somewhere to park or for other reasons, back up first, when you can see that the area is clear, and make your first move forward when you leave. Circle Check - If you are moving your vehicle from a place where it has been parked or has not moved for a long enough that things may have changed, walk around and make sure that it's safe before you move it.

Look Back - In a pick up or utility vehicle, set up your mirrors properly and use them! If you can't see what's back there, stop and get out to look! In a passenger car, look out the centre of the rear window, over the back seat. If you twist around and hike yourself up on your right butt cheek, it's easier. Looking out the driver window, over your left should doesn't tell you much and creates a huge blind spot everywhere except the narrow view down the driver's side.

Use a Guide - If someone else is around to help of if you have a passenger, have them get out and direct you. Back Slowly - Your vehicle handles differently in reverse and can get difficult to control with too much speed.

A walking pace is all the speed you will likely ever need. Avoid Distractions - Don't try to multitask and use your cell phone or other hand-held device. If you are distracted by strong emotions or in a conversation, stop for a second before you back up and focus on your driving.

Practise - We back up so little that most of us never really get very good at it. So get out and practise backing up into parking spots in a deserted parking lot. Take a couple of traffic cones, if you have them, or small cardboard boxes and make up a little course for yourself. As you get better, your confidence will increase and you will soon be backing up safely, like a pro. All of the backing incidents that I described above were off the job, and this is where I want to take extra care.

Every year hundreds yes hundreds of young children are injured or killed when one of their parents, relatives or friends backs over them in the driveway at home. The 7 principles that you just read can save the life of a child. Go back now and read them again. Maybe as a kid, my family was pretty lucky after all.

We only lost a bicycle or two - and that stupid Chevy door. I lie sometimes when I'm in a social situation and my line of work is questioned. If I know I'll never see these folks again, I might just tell them that I'm a painter. But, sometimes, when asked what I do, I claim to be a house painter. Not that I think painting houses is a more worthy line of work than mine or that I'm ashamed of my profession, it's just that few people have strong opinions about house painting; how it should be done or not done or wants to start a debate to prove that the YOU paint isn't really right.

If I say "I'm a house painter", my conversational partner will reply in a rather disinterested tone with eyes glazed over "oh, how interesting" and look desperately for someone whom they judge to actually BE interesting.

I lie because if I say I'm a driver safety training professional and have to explain just what that is, the next question or comment directed at me is usually about the accident that someone was in or ticket that someone got that ' clearly ' was not their fault. They want to tell me the whole story of how the weather that day was particularly nasty, how the road has that strange dip, how the car in front "just stopped" for no reason making them run into the back of him.

They want to tell me why the policeman who wrote them a ticket was wrong to do so. I have listened while otherwise seemingly intelligent people argue that they should not have received that speeding ticket because everyone else was speeding too!

I have learned to engage in these conversations at my peril. You see, as soon as I offer even the slightest of professional opinion about the apparent circumstances of the crash that they were in, mention the concept of preventability or point out that indeed, if they were speeding, the fact that everyone else was too isn't a very good excuse. Mom always asked me if everyone else jumped off the bridge would I jump too?

As soon as I disagree at all with the rightness of their position, or offer a different perspective, any credibility that I may have had with them initially, is gone. I become, in their eyes, an idiot. And I wish that I had said, "I'm a painter". Funny thing about driving, EVERYONE thinks that they are an expert when in fact most people are woefully uninformed about some of the most basic of rules and regulations, defensive driving principles and tactics.

Moreover, most people have an overinflated opinion of their own driving ability. A dangerous combination, I believe. This condition, I think, points to one of the most fundamental reasons why we continue to have so many crashes. If we all believe that there is nothing wrong with our driving, that we know all that there is to know about driving, that we are all superbly skilled, expert drivers and everyone else is the problem, then we are unlikely to expend any energy to make improvements or to even learn from our mistakes.

So next time when you climb behind the wheel, ask yourself, "How's my driving? Really analyse how you are doing instead of noting everyone else's mistakes and complaining about how bad everyone else is. Ask yourself if there are any bad habits that have crept in over the years that you could work on.

Just don't assume that you couldn't possibility get any better. When life sends you feedback on your driving by way of a close call or a ticket, don't be so fast to blame someone else, there may be a valuable lesson that you are missing? I'm still banking on never meeting someone who actually needs a house painter at one of those gatherings! So far so good Fleet Safety Driving Programs. Packages and Individual Courses. Online and in-person.

Join the Thinking Driver community, help us create better drivers, and learn the knowledge and skills, including years of developmental training. The Thinking Driver Program was created by Spencer McDonald, driver psychology and counseling specialist to improve driver attitudes and reduce aggressive driving and fleet incident rates.

Name Please let us know your name. Learn More. Login Register. Subscribe to this RSS feed. Monday, 25 February Good driving is a combination of Skills, Knowledge and Attitudes. Continue Reading. Tuesday, 26 February Friday, 01 March Tuesday, 19 March One driving attitude that can get us into trouble and stress out is an obsession with getting around the guy in front of us. Do you need to be at the front of the line? Don't you hate when that happens?

Spencer McDonald, President,. Wednesday, 20 March Come visit us! Friday, 22 March Monday, 22 April Crossroads of Life and Death I never made a conscious decision to take up this line of work.

In fact, it all happened by chance and coincidence as so many of life's bigger decisions do; you reach a crossroad, a path opens up and you think; why not? It was pretty amazing to watch the transformation in the drivers and their attitudes At Thinking Driver our mission is to make the world safer by eliminating work related vehicle incidents.

We are dedicated to reducing vehicle accidents and incidents and the human as well as financial costs associated with them. Changing driver behavior is the secret to eliminating vehicle incidents and we do this more effectively than any other driver training provider. We are the only fleet safety provider that will GUARANTEE to reduce accident rates in fleets of vehicles from small to large using our three step process for organizations that want to save money on vehicle incident and accident costs.

We do this by effectively addressing driver attitudes in a way that is certain to reduce accident rates in your fleet by reducing risk taking behavior by your employees. Thinking Driver is different from the rest. Our eLearing courses employ accelerated learning management technology that will stimulate and engage your employees and faciitate dramatic attitudinal shifts. When you choose face to face training, either in classroom or in vehicle, you know that you will be getting the very best Instructors in the world.

Most Thinking Driver instructors are retired police officers with decades of on road enforcement and training experience. Vehicle incidents are the leading cause of death and lost time accidents in the workplace outpacing any other single factor. Become a part of our community of experienced and knowledgeable driver training specialists. Subscribe to Tailgate Topics and Tips for your monthly safety meeting planner and agenda on vehicle safety.

The Thinking Driver Program was created by Spencer McDonald, driver psychology and counseling specialist to improve driver attitudes and reduce aggressive driving and fleet incident rates. Name Please let us know your name. Learn More. Login Register.

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