1993 Chevrolet Corvette Owner's Manual - Page 169

Your Driving and the Road Defensive Driving The best advice anyone can give about driving is: Drive defensively. Please start with a very important safety device in your Corvette: Buckle up. (Seethe Index under SafetyBelts,) Defensive drivingr e d y means "be ready foranything."On city streets, rural roads, or freeways, it 'means "always expectthe unexpected."' Assume that pedestrians orother drivers are going to be, careless and make mistakes. Anticipate what they might do. Be ready for their mistakes. Expect childrento dash out from behind parked cars, often followedby other children. Expect occupants in parked cars to open doors into traffic. Watch for movement i parked carsn someone maybe about to open a door. 1 1 1 Expect other drivers to run stop signs when you are on a through street. Be ready to brake if necessary as you gd through intersections. You may not have to use the brake, but if you do, you will be ready. If you're drivingthrough a shopping center parking lot where there are wellmarked lanes,dectional arrows, and designated parking areas, expect some drivers to ignore all these makings and dash straight toward part of the ,lot. one Pedestrians canbe careless. Watch for them. In general, you must give wayto pedestrians even if you lmow you have the right of way. Rear-end collisionsare about the most preventable of accidents. Yetthey are common. Allow enough following distance. It'sthe best defensive driving maneuver, in both.city-andrural driving. You never kmw.when the vehicle in front of you is going to brake or turn suddenly. Here's a final bit of information about defensive driving.The most dangerous time for driving in the U.S . is very early on Sunday morning,In fact, GM Research studiesshow that the most and the least dangerous times for driving, every week, fall the same on day. That day is Sunday. The most dangerous time is Sundayfrom 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. The safest time is Sunday &om 10 a.m. to 11a.m. Driving the same distance on a Sundayat 3 a.m. isn'tjust a littlemore dangerousthan it is at 10 am. It's about 134 times more dangerous! That leadsto the next section. I68