Defensive driving — Florida Permit Test

Defensive driving is using safe driving strategies to prevent crashes, altering your driving to fit the weather, the way you feel, and what other road users are doing.

It is the difference between reacting to what happens and deciding it will not.

Defensive driving is using safe driving strategies to prevent crashes.

Look for possible danger: seeing a school zone sign means planning what you will do if a child runs or rides into the street.

Planning the response before it happens is what turns two seconds into enough time.

Look for possible danger. For example, if you see school zone signs, plan what you will do if a child runs or rides into the street.

Use extra caution approaching an intersection, because crashes happen at intersections more than anywhere else.

It is the one place where the paths of two vehicles are meant to cross.

Use extra caution when approaching an intersection. Crashes happen at intersections more than any other place.

Where a crash is unavoidable, it is better to swerve off the road than into oncoming traffic, and better to drive off the road than to skid off it.

Oncoming traffic is the worst thing you can steer into, whatever is at the roadside.

It's better to swerve off the road than into oncoming traffic.

It is better to hit something that is not moving than a vehicle moving toward you, and better to hit a vehicle moving the same way as you than to hit one head-on.

The speeds add up in a head-on crash, and they cancel out in one from behind.

It is better to hit something that is not moving instead of a vehicle moving toward you.

Hitting a soft object such as a garden hedge is better than hitting a solid object such as a tree or a post.

A hedge takes some of the speed out of the crash. A tree takes none of it.

Hitting a “soft object” like a garden hedge is better than hitting a solid object like a tree or post.

Anticipate what another driver might do and adjust: a driver changing lanes aggressively behind you will probably pass and cut in, so slow down and be ready to brake.

Predicting the bad move gives you the second you would otherwise spend being surprised.

You should anticipate that they will probably pass you and cut you off—slow down and be ready to brake, if necessary.

What is defensive driving?

Using any strategy that prevents a crash. It is the difference between reacting to what happens and deciding it will not. Official Florida Driver License Handbook, p.75: “Defensive driving is using safe driving strategies to prevent crashes.”