Good evening everyone, and I hope all is well and enjoying the day.
Me and Dad always get caught into a heated debate while discussing mistakes behind the wheels.
I’m the kind to point out errors in my driving behavior and to seek improvement. Whereas for Dad he’s blinded by others mistakes and unable to see his own.
Dad isn’t the only kind I’ve stumbled across who is totally clueless to his mistakes behind the wheels; I’ve ran into many others in real life and on online forums.
When driving, individuals tend to focus on their own actions and intentions, making it easier to spot the mistakes of others while overlooking their own.
I personally don’t see a problem with identifying one own’s weakness and discussing it with others to get some insight and valuable opinions on the matter.
However, when discussing a mistake behind the wheels, people will focus mainly on your mistakes rather than to share their own and teach you how they learned from them.
“ So Dad, have you ever made a mistake behind the wheels?”
“ None I can think of,” he answered. “ I’m always aware of my surrounding.”
“ I see, but how come you had a head-on collision with another car while I was in the back seat and your car was on the other person’s side of the road ?”
“ It was raining and the car slid, “ he answered.
What about you CarTalk folks ? Have you made mistakes behind the wheels and what did you learn from them ?
First mistake, new driver, turning left on 2 lane road, could not see cars coming up in far lane due to traffic, guy waves me on from backed up southbound lane, so I went through the space and hit a guy going north.
One of my most memorable mistakes being behind the wheels was when I sank the clutch of a Ford pickup truck ( see photo example below) before turning the ignition on and took the gear out from 1s to neutral and then the truck started rolling backward down a slight slope. Interestingly, the truck had power steering and power brake for its age but since I failed to turn the ignition on, those features weren’t powered, and so a friend had to chase down the truck on “ legs “ while I was in it trying to stop the vehicle. The friend was fortunate to climb into the truck and he slammed the brake while my foot was already on the brake and sprained my ankle.
My legs were too weak to stop the truck without the truck was on.
Had he failed to climb into the truck, I would be severely injured as the truck was heading towards a more steep gully.
