Hazard Awareness and Defensive Driving
Seeing hazards early
Defensive driving means anticipating what other road users might do before they do it. Scan 12–15 seconds ahead in town and further on open roads, and keep your eyes moving: mirrors, instruments, side roads, driveways, parked cars and pedestrian gathering points. A hazard is anything that may force you to change speed or direction; a developing hazard is one that is already moving or likely to affect you.
Common hazard patterns
- Parked cars: a door may open, or a child may step out between them.
- Junctions: a driver may pull out without looking.
- Motorcyclists: narrow profile, easily hidden, often filtering.
- Pedestrians: children, elderly people and people on phones behave unpredictably.
- Animals and debris: common on rural roads, especially at dawn and dusk.
The IPSGA habit
Use Information, Position, Speed, Gear, Acceleration as a mental checklist for every hazard. Gather information, position for the best view, adjust speed, select the right gear, then accelerate only when clear. Cover the brake when a hazard is close but not yet certain, and sound the horn only to warn, never to rebuke.
Traps in questions
Questions often reward the earliest safe action, not the most dramatic. If a ball rolls into the road, the correct response is to slow and prepare to stop for a child, not to swerve. Swerving into oncoming traffic is almost always the wrong answer. Another trap: assuming a driver who has signalled will actually turn - wait for the movement to confirm it.
Worked example
You approach a row of parked cars and see a brake light flicker on one. Treat it as a developing hazard: ease off, cover the brake, check your mirrors and leave a door's width of clearance. If a person steps out, you are already slow enough to stop. If nothing happens, you have lost only a second and gained a safe margin.