This is why tailgating is most definitely a moving violation. With the rise of speed limits, the current following distance is now 3 seconds in dry weather. This is to be doubled to a 6 second rule in wet weather. And it is to be tripled to a 9 second rule in icy/snowy weather.

I believe that most driver education instructors teach drivers the following way. Once the car ahead of you has passed a stationary object, you should be able to count the appropriate number of seconds before your car passes the same object.

So, good luck there my friend! It may take you twice as long to get to your destination if you practice this method, but at least you will arrive (undead).

Until next week…

Daun Thompson
Writer / Comedienne / Artist

FOLLOWING DISTANCE – Comedy Defensive Driving School

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• Driving record
• Credit history
• Make and model of your vehicle, as well as the mileage
• City and state you live in
• Age and gender

Accidents and traffic tickets are one of the biggest contributors for rate increases.  Each year when your policy renews the insurance company will look at your driving record to see if you have had any accidents or traffic violations.

One year I had a “no fault” accident (someone hit my car in an ice storm while it was parked on the street) and my insurance company said I was high risk and dropped me.  Ouch.  It took a few years to get rid of that and get my rate back down.  Sometimes insurance agents will help you by offering as many discounts as possible.  I of course took a defensive driving course and was able to get a 10% discount for 3 years, this really helped offset the high cost.

There are so many items that affect your insurance rates. Here are some more of those items:
• Your age (under 21/25 and over 62)
• Gender (boys under 25…yikes!)
• Full coverage or bare-bones liability
• Married or single
• Own or rent your home
• Longevity/Loyalty (how long you had coverage with your last insurance company)

I remember the good old days when my full-coverage insurance rate was $61 a month. And it even included roadside assistance and towing. When I added my 16 year old daughter to my insurance plan, my insurance more than quadrupled. I thought “Thank God she’s a girl and not a boy. How much would my insurance rates have increased if she had been born a son?” And I did the math. It would have been cheaper to fly her to Sweden to get a sex change.

If you review the items above with your insurance agent, perhaps a few of those items can be addressed and may help to lower your insurance rates. Good driver discounts and good student discounts can also be addressed. Most insurance companies still give a discount for taking a state-approved defensive driving class. It just makes sense that they would prefer that you take a “refresher course” to help make you a better driver. And some reward you for doing so. The discount is typically 10% off your liability insurance for three years (but can be anywhere between 5% and 25% off). Ask your insurance agent about this and all discounts.

Until next week…

Daun Thompson
Writer / Comedienne / Artist

Insurance Rates Increased – Comedy Defensive Driving

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Rest assured, with Comedy Defensive Driving at the wheel; your online driving school will help you reduce points, keep your insurance costs down, satisfy a judge, and keep a smile on your dial while you study. And what’s more, you’ll get same-day certification on completion of your course.

How It Works

Assuming you are in the wrong and have pleaded guilty to a traffic violation, this is the universe’s way of telling you to get your act together and the state’s way of helping you by way of a punishment that isn’t all that severe. On the contrary, a defensive driving course is a great way to brush up your understanding of the rules of the road – meaning that you’ll be a safer, smarter driver as a result.

Taking a defensive driving course can be optional. People often do it for insurance reasons as a way to keep their premiums down. Others do it to get points squashed on their driver’s license. But, when you’re dealing with a court-ordered driving course, you’re probably guilty of one of the following infringements:

• Reckless driving
• Running a red light
• Passed a stopped school bus
• Two crashes in a two-year period, which resulted in property damage greater than $500
• You were a driver in a crash and are found at fault, and someone was transported to the hospital
• Highway racing (including being a spectator)

If you’re taking a court-ordered driver improvement course, then it’s time to let Comedy Defensive Driving get behind the wheel.

How We Can Help

Depending on your state (we currently operate in Florida, Texas, and New Jersey), you’ll sign up for our registration process. Here we will request information such as name, email address, phone number, gender, address, date of birth, driver’s license number, and license plate number, which will be used to process the Certificate of Completion. 

Inputting your Facebook account details will also ensure that this process is quick and painless. You will also need a credit or debit card to pay for the class after registering. Call us on 1-866-540-0584 at any stage of the process if you get stuck.

Our courses were created to breathe a little bit of life and humor into the hard work of learning. We’ve also made them so that you can finish in the fastest possible time. You can take Comedy Defensive Driving® at any of our classroom locations or take the course online.

So while it seems as though we’re the ones behind the wheel, you’re actually the one driving the process. You just need your own device (desktop PC, mobile, or tablet), and you’re good to go with the 100% online option. You can start and stop as you like. You can study in your underwear.

Things get a little more serious when you’ve completed the course and downloaded your certificate. You are responsible for presenting the completion certificate to the clerk’s office in the county where the citation was issued. Please consult with the traffic division in the clerk’s office in the county where the citation was issued for their exact requirements.

Submitting your certification correctly is the final step in ensuring that you get back behind the wheel after a court-ordered driving course.

Comedy Defensive Driving will have you laughing in class and then laughing behind the wheel as you drive away from your traffic worries in no time!

The post Why a Court Requires You to Take a Driver Improvement Course appeared first on Comedy Defensive Driving®.

This isn’t the NBA or the NFL. It’s just your state trying to keep its roads safe (loyal to its law-abiding citizens!) with a ‘points’ demerit system. And while it sounds friendlier than it is, getting points on your driver’s license isn’t as bad as it seems either.

Thankfully, Comedy Defensive Driving is here as your preferred online driving school to help with your license point reduction.

How Driver’s License Points Work

Depending on the state where you’ve got your driver’s license in, you’ll get around 12 virtual demerit points assigned to your license. These are valid for a year normally, and technically you lose those points if you do something like drive over the speed limit or get caught driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). So ‘getting points’ is actually losing the points you already have – if you get the point!

The severity of your infringement will determine the number of points you get. If you get too many points, you can have your license suspended, your insurance premiums can skyrocket, and you’ll soon find that life is far more of a hassle with lots of points on your license. Just try applying for a job that requires driving and see how that goes.

Keeping points off your driver’s license is like keeping a clean bill of health with your doctor and going for regular check-ups. And in this scenario, Comedy Defensive Driving is your online driving school ‘doctor,’ and our defensive driving course is the check-up.

Each state is slightly different, but let’s look at Texas, the Lonestar State, to get an idea of what you get points for. If you choose to pay the civil penalty for your infringement or are adjudicated guilty by a judge, your driving record will be assessed as follows:

• Moving Violations: 3 points
• Speeding 15 mph or less over posted speed: 3 points
• Speeding more than 15 mph over posted speeds: 4 points
• Passing stopped school bus: 4 points
• Moving violation (non-speeding) resulting in a crash: 4 points
• Unlawful speed resulting in a crash: 6 points
• Reckless driving (criminal traffic violation): 4 points
• Leaving the scene of a crash with damage: 6 points
• Littering: 3 points
• Violation of child restraint laws: 3 points

If you accumulate:

• 12 points in 12 months, your license will be suspended for 30 days
• 18 points in 18 months, your license will be suspended for 3 months
• 24 points within 36 months, your license will be suspended for 12 months

License Point Reduction

Suppose you receive a ticket for a non-criminal moving violation, and you do not hold a commercial driver’s license. In that case, you may elect to attend a basic driver improvement course in lieu of points on your driving record.

What this means is that if you plead guilty to a minor traffic violation (let’s say speeding slightly over the limit), a judge might grant you the option of attending online driving school. This is so that the points you would have been awarded for the infringement don’t reflect on your driver’s license.

So here’s another technicality that can be confusing: when attending online driving school to reduce the points on your license, you’re just preventing the points from the fine you incurred from being awarded to your license. There are no additional points to be squashed or reduced for other infringements. It’s simply a case of attending driving school to cancel out the ‘my bad’ that you just caused on the roads.

Comedy Defensive Driving to the Rescue

Of course, there are other reasons for attending online driving school, but at Comedy Defensive Driving we wanted to focus on the points reduction element as a way to maintain a clean bill of health on your driver’s license.

Whatever your reason for needing to attend online driving school – be it to squash points, get better insurance premiums, or because you were caught drag racing and just need to keep your license – Comedy Defensive Driving is here to help.

With our 100% online class that is taught to you by professional comedians at the top of their game, you will learn how to control your speed, how to look ahead and be ready for something unexpected to happen at any moment, and how to remain alert and free from distraction.

Comedy Defensive Driving will have you laughing while you learn. We have taught over 3 million students so far countrywide, and we are confident that this is the best way to get points off your license in a fun and painless way.

The post Take a Driver’s Online Improvement Course to Reduce Points on Your License appeared first on Comedy Defensive Driving®.

VINTAGE ALCOHOL LAWS IN TEXAS

When I moved to Texas in the late 1970’s, everyone in the car could possess an open container, even the driver. I thought you’d get a ticket if you didn’t drink and drive in Texas. The open container law evolved to where everyone in the car could possess an open container, except the driver. Thus, if being pulled over, the driver could just hand their drink over to a passenger. Then, later, it was okay as long as the open container wasn’t within reach of the driver. Heck, the drinking age then was 18 as well! Then it was raised to 19 for a few years, and eventually went back to 21 to purchase or drink alcohol.

CURRENT OPEN CONTAINER LAW IN TEXAS

If you do find yourself at that party and you are asked to bring that open container home with you, it is imperative that you put it in the trunk of your car (with a really long straw). If you happen to have a truck, it must be kept in the bed of the truck, preferably secured within a cooler or tool box. You may have an SUV or mini-van that does not have a trunk. Then you must keep it secured behind the last seat. I suppose, so it doesn’t roll around and break, hence, a cracked open container!

Until next week…

Daun Thompson

Writer / Comedienne / Artist

OPEN CONTAINER LAW – Comedy Defensive Driving

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WHY TIRE PRESSURE CHANGES WITH TEMPERATURE

Just as cold weather causes psi to drop, excessive heat can cause your tire pressure to increase. The Goodyear Tire Company says that checking tire pressure in cold weather is the same as in the heat, but is increasingly important, as inflation tends to drop with temperatures. And for every 10 degrees of temperature drop, tires will drop 1-2 lbs of pressure. It’s just the opposite during hot weather. When temperature drops, molecules in the air move slower and huddle together. When temperature increases, molecules move faster and farther away from one another. (Don’t be impressed, I’m not that smart, I read it on the Firestone Tire website). I have witnessed this, although, when my yoga ball ended up in the back yard all last winter and shrunk to the size of a basketball.

WHAT SHOULD TIRE PRESSURE BE IN COLD WEATHER

It should always be whatever your car manufacturer specifies. Typically tire pressure recommendations are between 30 and 35 psi. Although your low tires will recover when weather warms up, it is still important to not drive with low tire pressure to maintain traction, handling and durability. Low tire pressure can lead to increased stopping time, poor fuel economy and a decreased tire lifespan. And we all know how big of a pain it is to buy new tires during the holidays when we have more important things to be buying (Jack Daniels).

Until next week…

Daun Thompson
Writer / Comedienne / Artist

WINTER TIRE PRESSURE – Comedy Defensive Driving

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WRONG INFORMATION BEING BROADCAST

I had just spent a rake of time discussing this topic in my class. After class, I heard a public service announcement on the radio warning drivers to stop even if you are driving on the other side of the road, going the opposite direction. This was as I was pulling out of the parking lot. Of course, I almost wrecked the car (which would really look bad). I usually try to only do that away from a class location. I was totally taken aback at how wrong this information was. And the ad was coming from a local high school radio broadcast! Then, I realized that they are likely referring to a situation where there is only a painted line dividing direction of traffic lanes. But, would drivers listening to that announcement understand that you do not stop if your side of the road is separated by a median without a split or divide? Perhaps this ad only had a set amount of air time and they had to edit it down. But, public awareness is the key. And the rule is just not as simple as they’ve stated.

WHAT THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY SAYS

On TX DPS Website, the school bus article from fall 2019 says exactly this:

According to state law, if a school bus has alternating flashing red signals visible from the front or rear, drivers must stop before reaching the bus. Drivers can only proceed if the flashing lights are no longer activated; the driver signals you to proceed; or the bus has resumed driving. Approaching drivers do not have to stop for a school bus that is operating a visual signal if the roadway is separated by a physical barrier or an intervening space.

If a highway is divided only by a left-turning lane, the roadways are not considered separated, and drivers must stop.

HOW MISINFORMATION HAS DEVASTATING RESULTS

Three quarters of the year has passed and in the first 9 months, school bus drivers have reported more than 95,000 cars passing illegally in a single day. That would average 17 million violations across the school year.

Until next week…

Daun Thompson

Writer / Comedienne / Artist

STOPPING FOR A SCHOOL BUS – Comedy Defensive Driving

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ALWAYS STAY OUT OF A TRUCK’S NO ZONE

There are four blind spot areas (so, every side of the vehicle)

• The front of the truck – Always leave at least 4 car lengths between the back of your car and the truck.
• The truck’s driver side, anywhere past 1/3 of the trailer.
• The truck’s passenger side.
• The truck’s rear – That’s why you’ll usually see a sign posted on the back of the trailer “If you can’t see my side mirrors, I can’t see YOU.” Leave 20-25 car lengths between your car and the back of the truck. They don’t have impact absorbing bumpers like a car and it’s likely that the bumper will line up with your windshield. Plus, leaving more space will allow you to better see what’s up ahead.

ALWAYS ANTICIPATE WIDE TURNS

This is another sign you may see on a commercial vehicle. Buses and trucks need extra room to turn. If you are in a lane next to them, you should just hang back a bit until they’ve completed their turn so you don’t get cut off or pinned between them and the curb.

In addition, the weight of a commercial vehicle puts tremendous stress on its tires. So, their tires are like ticking time bombs, ready to go off any minute! If you’re near a truck and a tire blows, the steel belts in their tire can take your windshield out and do a “Jane Mansfield” on you. Another good reason to not linger near a truck, because “headless” isn’t a good look (well, maybe for some).

Having an accident with an 18 wheeler almost always leads to injuries. So, again, share the road, give truckers space and don’t linger around them. Insurance companies say accidents with 18 wheelers are usually the fault of the other vehicles.

Until next week…

Daun Thompson

Writer / Comedienne / Artist

SAFE DRIVING AROUND TRUCKS – Comedy Defensive Driving

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Until next week…

Daun Thompson
Writer / Artist / Commedienne

Hit And Run – Comedy Defensive Driving School

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• L.E.D. Automotive lighting: Running lights and tail lights and sometimes headlights.
• Proximity-Based Power Folding, Illuminated Side Mirrors: Great when parking on a busy, tight street or pulling into your cramped garage. In some cars, the side mirrors have a light below them to shine light on the door lock and the ground below.
• Heated Head Lights: Great in winter to keep the snow and ice from covering your lights.
• Back Up Cameras and Surround View Cameras: Back up cameras are now standard in most new cars, while surround view cameras may be an add-on.
• Surround Sensors: Great for letting you know you’re getting too close to the curb or another object. The persistent nagging can be annoying at times, like a back-seat driver.
• Parking Assist: Parallel parking (or what I call Parallel “Chicken”), for most drivers, is the hardest maneuver.
• Keyless Entry: Not in all cars, but not only in luxury cars like it used to be.
• Airbag Sensors: Weight distribution on the passenger seats will turn airbags to “on” mode.
• In-Seat Storage: Not standard in all cars, but what a convenience this would be.
• Self-Dimming Headlights: Again, not standard in all cars.
• Heated Seats: I had these in my 1989 Volvo and man, were they great in the wintertime.
• A Full-Sized Spare Tire: Not just a doughnut tire.

Disc Brakes are also standard in all cars manufactured today. Oh, yes, and Air Conditioning. Although the above mentioned safety features may save your life, you certainly could not live without air conditioning!

Until next week…

Daun Thompson
Writer / Comedienne / Artist

Standard Safety Features – Comedy Defensive Driving School

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