Ford Driving Skills for Life – A Safe Driving Solution
Established in 2003 by the Ford Motor Company Fund, the Governors Highway Safety Association, and a panel of safety experts created the Ford Driving Skills for Life program (Ford DSFL)
which teaches drivers of all ages the necessary skills for safe driving beyond what they learn in standard driving school program.
The program is international in scope touching not only South Africa but many areas around the world. The basic premise behind Ford Driving Skills for Life is to provide a step in the learning
process, providing new skills and information not currently shared with newly licensed drivers in the basic driver education courses.
Training is conducted in a hands-on curriculum and the entire program is available free of charge. Training conducted under the Ford Driving Skills for Life program addresses the inexperience
factor as well as issues surrounding distracted driving and fuel efficient driving tips. Results over the past ten years of this effort have been outstanding.
Ford DSFL helps drivers improve their skills in four key areas that are critical factors in more than 60% of vehicle crashes including:
- Hazard Recognition
- The point of no return
- How to scan for trouble
- Minimizing distractions
- Safety zones
- Minimum vision lead time
- Approaching and turning left at intersection
- Vehicle Handling
- Contact road patches
- How acceleration, deceleration, braking and turns affect vehicle balance
- Adjusting to a vehicle’s size and weight
- How to recover from skids in front- and rear-wheel drive vehicles
- Space Management
- Maintaining space around, ahead of and behind your vehicle
- Learning how to adjust speed
- Maintaining a safe distance between vehicles
- How to avoid being rear-ended and avoiding a head-on crash
- Speed Management
- Driving at a speed that doesn’t endanger or impede others
- Using proper signals and covering the brake
- Conventional braking systems versus anti-lock braking (ABS) systems
- Emergency braking techniques
- Distracted and Impaired Driving
- Ford DSFL also addresses distracted driving and impaired driving in the hands-on curriculum.
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