Preventing overtaking accidents

In an ideal world, overtaking accidents would be prevented by better road design; however, one of the problems is that many of our roads were first built sixty or more years ago.

Safety on these roads can be improved by road markings designed to deter overtaking. Markings include solid white lines along the edge of the carriageway (these encourage drivers to keep to the centre of their lane rather than positioning to the left); hatching along the centre of two-way roads, solid centre lines, etc., but there is only so much that can be done to change existing roads.

Ultimately, a change in driver behaviour is essential for continuing improvements in overtaking safety.

A good starting point for overtaking safety might be to always make your decisions based on the following two questions:

• “Do I need to overtake?”
• “Do I need to overtake?

A lot of the frustration that is experienced by drivers is brought about by their seeming inability to consider their journey as whole as opposed to simply concentrating on the next 100 metres of road space.

In order to answer the question “Do I need to overtake?” a driver must take account of the whole journey and expected arrival time. Unless the journey is part of a life and death emergency, there is probably no real ‘need’ to overtake at all.

Overtaking a few cars is unlikely to get you there any quicker!

“Do I need to overtake now?”

When following a long queue of traffic, or approaching a built up area, overtaking one or two vehicles is unlikely to affect your overall journey time, but will definitely increase your risk of an accident. If you feel that overtaking is worthwhile, consider waiting for the right opportunity.

There is a simple rule which says ... ‘Good driving starts in bed’...

This rule makes absolute sense when reducing the need to overtake – get up earlier and allow more time for your journey. This fits neatly with my own ‘Ten minute rule’ – allow an extra ten minutes journey time for every hour you expect to travel.

However, there may still be occasions where drivers want to overtake; when this situation arises they must be well equipped with an overtaking plan.

Click the forward arrow to check out the plan ...