Defensive Driving Safety Tips

At Comedy Driving, we want to ensure the safety of you, your passengers, and other drivers on the road. Here are a few Defensive Driving Safety Tips to follow to prevent unwanted tickets and road accidents.

Texas Driving Safety on Highways

The daytime speed limit on most interstate and state highways in Texas is between 60 and 70 miles per hour. The exception is just west of San Antonio where I-10 becomes an 80 miles per hour zone all the way to the west Texas border. At night, the maximum speed limit is between 55 and 65 miles per hour. In some areas, the speed limit is higher because of fewer people traveling on certain roads.

Observing speed limits means more than driving faster or slower than the posted speed: it means driving as conditions permit. When it's nighttime when there's bad weather when traffic is heavy, or when road construction is ahead, adjust your speed accordingly. Adjusting your speed accordingly means lowering it. Don't punch the accelerator to get through those bad conditions as fast as possible.

Take advantage of Rest Areas and Travel Information Centers in Texas. At many stops, you can get current information on road conditions, learn about local attractions, and other accommodations.

Texas Driving Safety Against Aggressive Driving

Aggressive drivers in Texas often commit acts of passing on the wrong side, tailgating, cutting people off, or even hemming other vehicles. Aggression begets aggression so those same drivers also become the victims of those they're aggressive against. That's usually when you see some jerk standing next to a car at a four-way intersection yelling at the person inside of the car and shaking his fists like a crazed gorilla. Either of those drivers could actually be fined up to $200 for each moving violation associated with aggressive driving and could spend time in jail.

To avoid such a fine and jail time, you only need to avoid being an aggressive driver. To do that, there are a few things to remember: keep your emotions in check so you don't take your frustrations out on other drivers, plan ahead and allow enough time for delays, and focus on your own driving rather than yelling, pounding on the steering wheel and honking your horn because that won't make traffic move any faster.

Texas Driving Safety And Collisions

Most crashes in Texas result from speeding, failure to yield, driving under the influence of alcohol, following too closely, or running red lights and stop signs. To avoid a collision, slow down, drive defensively, and use your best judgment to adjust your driving to the surrounding conditions. Also, drive friendly by yielding to other drivers when appropriate and be courteous, maintain a safe following distance, look both ways and even look to the left a second time before you enter an intersection, signal every turn and lane change, stop at red lights and stop signs and don't drive if you've been drinking. A lot of that may seem like what people like to call “common sense”, but if you've ever driven within a 100-mile radius of Houston then you know common sense isn't all that common.

In spite of all these safe-driving strategies you still may have a collision. Whenever you have a collision you should first check yourself and others involved for injuries. If people are hurt then help them as best you can. That could mean simply moving them away from debris or traffic or as much as performing CPR. Also, move your car out of the roadway to a safer place where you can exchange names, addresses, phone numbers, vehicle identification numbers, vehicle license plate numbers, insurance information, and driver license information. Note the location of the crash and get the names, addresses, and phone numbers of any witnesses. If the vehicles cannot be moved, protect the scene by setting up flares, raising your hood, or using other safe signs that will inform other drivers that there is a dangerous situation nearby. One good collision doesn't deserve another.

Texas Driving Safety And D.W.I.'s

About every 20 minutes in Texas, someone is hurt or killed in a crash involving alcohol. While it's also against the law, Texans are always strongly urged to not drink and drive through various Public Service Announcements and awareness campaigns like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or M.A.D.D.

Impairment begins with the very first drink. Your body's ability to handle alcohol is based on your gender, body weight, the number of drinks you’ve consumed, the time between the drinks you've consumed, and the amount of food you’ve eaten. Two or three 12-oz. beers in an hour can make some people legally intoxicated while younger people and smaller people generally become impaired with less alcohol.

In Texas, if a person is driving while legally intoxicated, with a .08 Blood Alcohol Concentration, or B.A.C, they may be arrested and charged for DWI. However, a person is also intoxicated if impaired due to alcohol or other drugs regardless of B.A.C. Whether you’re the driver or the passenger, you can be fined up to $500 for having an open alcoholic beverage container in a vehicle even if the container has been closed after being opened previously. You may also be charged surcharges from the Texas Department of Safety for driving while intoxicated. When trying to be safe when you've been drinking, you should, first of all, not drive. You can instead designate a driver, call a cab, or spend the night where you were drinking, if possible.

Road Signs And Safety

When traveling along a Texas street or highway, you'll see all sorts of road signs. Each sign's color and shape tell you something different about what lies on the path ahead of you. Color-blind people may have a hard time getting the message; luckily, every sign also has information in the form of text, sign shape, or picture as well.

Warning signs, which are yellow and usually shaped like a diamond, indicate unexpected conditions or changes such as ice on a bridge or loose gravel. There couldn't be a more unexpected condition on a bridge in Texas than ice unless a truck transporting ice just flipped over and spilled it, but even then it will become a wet bridge fairly quickly.

Regulatory signs, which are white and black rectangles, display traffic laws that each driver must obey or be subject to a punishment of anywhere from a citation and fine to confinement depending on the severity of the violation. The fines are about as black and white as the signs they stem from.

Guidance signs, which are green horizontal rectangles, provide helpful or interesting information about the surrounding area and how to get to specific places in the surrounding area.

By knowing the shapes and signs on the road you’ll be a more defensive driver. That knowledge can help you with directions, regulations, and warnings ahead.

If you get a ticket in Texas, our Online Texas Driving Safety Course can help you get that ticket dismissed!