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Defensive Driving Class, 2017 edition
Oct. 21st, 2017 06:12 pmWell, this class was a weird one.
Oddities
The instructor promoted his side business as a Pampered Chef rep. (He gave away some Pampered Chef door prizes--I got a little cookbook--and gave us brownies he made using one of their recipes.) And his side business as a photographer.
And he recommended several other products:
* Rain-X
* small stick-on parabolic mirrors (usually the right side mirror is parabolic, which is why things are closer than they appear, but the left one is not, and he recommends sticking an added parabolic mirror to the bottom right corner of your left mirror to help you see your blind spot
* deer warnings - you mount these at the ends of your front bumper, and when you go past 30 mph, it makes a sound that makes deer freeze (instead of jumping in front of your car)
* Legal Shield - a company that takes care of simple legal matters for you; it costs $20/month. For example, if you get a ticket, they will check it for clerical errors that can lead to dismissal; they will also write simple wills, write threatening lawyer letters, review contracts, deal with civil law suits, and help fight identity theft
And he asked if any of us were spies to make sure that he followed the rules; spies were usually insurance-only people. The teenager with a ticket admitted to being this spy, which was fun.
And he showed us pictures of his favorite fast cars (some kind of Studebaker and a Ferrari Testerosa). And he had us draw pictures of pigs as a psychology test.
It also bugged me that he couldn't understand that you can't say that 17% of traffic deaths involve 16- to 19-year-olds, 25% occur at intersections, and some percent as a result of driving under the influence, and then add up those numbers to find that X deaths involved one of those. Even after I explained that one accident could involve more than one of these scenarios. He just went on about statistical errors and standard deviations and said it was basically true. No. Also, he referred to the ditches next to the road as grassy knolls. So bad math and bad vocabulary.
New Information
But I did also learned a few things.
First and most importantly, he said that if you take defensive driving for insurance purposes and then immediately get the sort of ticket that is normally dismissable with defensive driving, you can take the class again to dismiss it. That's because it's not on your police record, so you don't have to wait a year. Interesting.
He said that in the olden days you could generally go up to ten miles an hour over the speed limit without getting a ticket, but these days it's only five miles an hour, though in some places they will nab you for any overage.
he said Texas highways are cleaner than those of other states because of the Don't Mess With Texas program. (I have not noticed this myself.) And he gave these decomposition times:
* organic matter - 6 months
* cigarette butts - 12 years
* paper - 2-5 years
* soda and beer cans - 80-100 years
* thin plastic bags - 10-20 years
* plastic milk bottles - 50-80 years
* styrofoam - never
It only takes six inches of water to throw your car into the creek.
We also watched a not-at-all heartwarming video called "The Last Text." And he reminded us that we would probably not agree to close our eyes for 6 - 10 seconds while driving, so we should keep that in mind when considering looking at something inside the car for this long.
On the back of Texas driver's licenses, there's a number for free roadside assistance (not towing); in town you can just call 311 to access this.
When a lane appears with an entrance ramp and disappears with the exit ramp, that's called a "weave lane."
He told a story about a Dane visiting Texas who ran over what she thought was the last baby dinosaur in the world. Can you guess what this was? It was an armadillo.
Also, avoid the "black alligators" (trucker tire treads).
He said there were three kinds of speeders. There was no time for me to try to guess what they were before he blurted out the answer, but I don't think I would have guessed:
* compulsive speeders - speeding is a way of life; they specialize in the quick escape
* always-late speeders
* daydreamers - the car doesn't feel like it was going that fast
I'm #3, and also the lemming kind (keeping up with traffic)
And he said when you drink, you lose good judgment, coordination, and vision, in that order. And he told an interesting story about one time when he was driving while sleepy and he was weaving around so much that three truckers surrounded him, slowed to a halt, and called the police on him. Cool.
An organ donor can help way, way more than one person. Possibly even hundreds. I never knew that--and I still don't know how common it is to help so many. How hard is it to get good matches?
The Food
The class was held at the Salt Grass Steakhouse. I got the cheeseburger sliders and fries. The fries and cheese were really good. The bun was pretty good (special but white). The meat tasted partly fake.
The instructor recommended the chicken sandwich with fries, and that looked good.
You could also get soup and salad--the salad looked good, but I didn't see any soup.
Oddities
The instructor promoted his side business as a Pampered Chef rep. (He gave away some Pampered Chef door prizes--I got a little cookbook--and gave us brownies he made using one of their recipes.) And his side business as a photographer.
And he recommended several other products:
* Rain-X
* small stick-on parabolic mirrors (usually the right side mirror is parabolic, which is why things are closer than they appear, but the left one is not, and he recommends sticking an added parabolic mirror to the bottom right corner of your left mirror to help you see your blind spot
* deer warnings - you mount these at the ends of your front bumper, and when you go past 30 mph, it makes a sound that makes deer freeze (instead of jumping in front of your car)
* Legal Shield - a company that takes care of simple legal matters for you; it costs $20/month. For example, if you get a ticket, they will check it for clerical errors that can lead to dismissal; they will also write simple wills, write threatening lawyer letters, review contracts, deal with civil law suits, and help fight identity theft
And he asked if any of us were spies to make sure that he followed the rules; spies were usually insurance-only people. The teenager with a ticket admitted to being this spy, which was fun.
And he showed us pictures of his favorite fast cars (some kind of Studebaker and a Ferrari Testerosa). And he had us draw pictures of pigs as a psychology test.
It also bugged me that he couldn't understand that you can't say that 17% of traffic deaths involve 16- to 19-year-olds, 25% occur at intersections, and some percent as a result of driving under the influence, and then add up those numbers to find that X deaths involved one of those. Even after I explained that one accident could involve more than one of these scenarios. He just went on about statistical errors and standard deviations and said it was basically true. No. Also, he referred to the ditches next to the road as grassy knolls. So bad math and bad vocabulary.
New Information
But I did also learned a few things.
First and most importantly, he said that if you take defensive driving for insurance purposes and then immediately get the sort of ticket that is normally dismissable with defensive driving, you can take the class again to dismiss it. That's because it's not on your police record, so you don't have to wait a year. Interesting.
He said that in the olden days you could generally go up to ten miles an hour over the speed limit without getting a ticket, but these days it's only five miles an hour, though in some places they will nab you for any overage.
he said Texas highways are cleaner than those of other states because of the Don't Mess With Texas program. (I have not noticed this myself.) And he gave these decomposition times:
* organic matter - 6 months
* cigarette butts - 12 years
* paper - 2-5 years
* soda and beer cans - 80-100 years
* thin plastic bags - 10-20 years
* plastic milk bottles - 50-80 years
* styrofoam - never
It only takes six inches of water to throw your car into the creek.
We also watched a not-at-all heartwarming video called "The Last Text." And he reminded us that we would probably not agree to close our eyes for 6 - 10 seconds while driving, so we should keep that in mind when considering looking at something inside the car for this long.
On the back of Texas driver's licenses, there's a number for free roadside assistance (not towing); in town you can just call 311 to access this.
When a lane appears with an entrance ramp and disappears with the exit ramp, that's called a "weave lane."
He told a story about a Dane visiting Texas who ran over what she thought was the last baby dinosaur in the world. Can you guess what this was? It was an armadillo.
Also, avoid the "black alligators" (trucker tire treads).
He said there were three kinds of speeders. There was no time for me to try to guess what they were before he blurted out the answer, but I don't think I would have guessed:
* compulsive speeders - speeding is a way of life; they specialize in the quick escape
* always-late speeders
* daydreamers - the car doesn't feel like it was going that fast
I'm #3, and also the lemming kind (keeping up with traffic)
And he said when you drink, you lose good judgment, coordination, and vision, in that order. And he told an interesting story about one time when he was driving while sleepy and he was weaving around so much that three truckers surrounded him, slowed to a halt, and called the police on him. Cool.
An organ donor can help way, way more than one person. Possibly even hundreds. I never knew that--and I still don't know how common it is to help so many. How hard is it to get good matches?
The Food
The class was held at the Salt Grass Steakhouse. I got the cheeseburger sliders and fries. The fries and cheese were really good. The bun was pretty good (special but white). The meat tasted partly fake.
The instructor recommended the chicken sandwich with fries, and that looked good.
You could also get soup and salad--the salad looked good, but I didn't see any soup.