LAST YEAR, SEVEN OUT of the top ten selling vehicles in Australia were SUVs. It’s a trend that’s been getting stronger year on year. So much so, in fact, that the best-selling single vehicle in Australia last year was the Toyota HiLux.
One of the reasons people give for choosing an SUV (sports utility vehicle) is the higher seating position. Respected long-term defensive driver trainer Ian Luff agrees that being able to see further is good for driver safety.
In a recent interview on the ABC, Luffy said, “Vision is better in an SUV and there is initially some push-back (with drivers) because they sit in and they’re higher, but it’s adaptability. You put them in (an SUV) for a few days and then it’s hard to get people out of them into smaller types of cars.”
Ian suggests the fundamentals of driving skills haven’t changed, but the number one piece of advice he could give to avoid crashes was to improve vision.
“The eyes tell the hands where to go, so if the hands are on the steering wheel and the eyes are checking out what’s happening on the footpath, you’re not a cognitively aware driver,” he explained. It’s a truism he constantly reiterates in his training: the car will go where you are looking. He often tells drivers, if you’re looking at the power pole on the side of the road, you will instinctively drive towards it. It’s a mantra: look where you want to go.
“Most people look at the end of their bonnet, but people should lift their vision as far ahead as possible, which gives you more time to anticipate the actions (of other drivers) and see brake lights coming down the road.”
He adds another suggestion, particularly relevant to over-50s drivers: “To avoid a collision, improve vision, and that comes back to people having eyesight tests too.”
As usual, we can only endorse what Ian Luff says.