Stage 2: Emergency Acceleration

You may be thinking to yourself, “What on earth is emergency acceleration? And why would I ever want to teach this to a new driver?!” The reason is that there are instances in which accelerating quickly is the safest way out of a dangerous situation. Although these occurrences are rare, they do happen. And as you know by now, safe driving demands being prepared for all those “what ifs”.Before I tell my little story, please understand that you should always pull over and give way to emergency vehicles. Remember, we’re talking about rare circumstances here.

A few weeks ago, I was making a run to Home Depot. I needed a new toilet seat cover, but let’s not delve too far into that. So, I’m almost at the store and I’ve just exited the highway. I’m sitting at a red light and waiting to make a left turn. The green arrow illuminates and I begin to enter the intersection. As soon as I’m in the middle of the intersection, I hear one of the loudest car horns I’ve ever heard. I quickly look around to figure out what’s going on. As I glance to the left, I see an ambulance barreling down upon me.

We’re all taught to give way to emergency vehicles. But, I was in the middle of an intersection and if I slammed on the brakes, I would have blocked the ambulance. Of course, I doubt it would have slowed down before crashing into me. So, I did the opposite of my first instinct and accelerated quickly through the intersection to get out of the way of the ambulance.

My heart was pounding and I wondered how I didn’t hear the ambulance before I made my turn. Was my music too loud? Did I not look in both directions before I started my turn? What I eventually came to realize is that the ambulance had turned onto the road just as my light had turned green. I should have been more vigilant and spotted it earlier.

There are two important lessons here. The first is that sometimes you need to accelerate to get out of a dangerous situation. The second is that it’s important to learn from your driving mistakes.

Don’t make a habit out of emergency accelerating

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, braking is what makes you safer, not accelerating.

Continue on to Parallel Parking

All information and advice contained within this website is to be taken at your own risk. Nothing contained within this website should be misconstrued as professional driving instruction.