Advance Yourself - With Your DrivingNO matter who you are or what you drive, signing up for a course in advanced driving improves your survivor skills on the road. One of the things the course emphasises is efficient use of your eyes. According to Durban’s Mr Danie Hoffman, who runs the course in South Africa and outside its borders, his training is based on three things: correctly searching situations while driving; predicting the possible developments of the situations; and reacting in the safest possible way to those developments. "Vehicles around us are so powerful these days," says Mr Hoffman. "You can never relax your concentration while driving. You must remain alert at all times if you want to be safe in traffic."
"You need be really seeing things all around you. After all, if you see it be it a person or object only then can you do something about it. Ask any policeman who attends accidents. They often hear drivers tell them that they did not see the person or object they knocked into." The course involves theory and practice and is primarily aimed at teaching drivers how to read the happenings on roads correctly; how to avoid accidents; proper use of mirrors; being constantly aware of the blind spots; freeway driving and night driving. "After a driver gets to know the potential dangers that constantly threaten us on roads, he or she is asked to return in three weeks to do a test. During the three weeks, the driver is expected to notice all the developments on the road while driving in relation to what he has been taught. He is urged to talk to himself to tell himself what he sees unfold around him. "If a driver passes the test, I award him a certificate. I charge R450 for the advanced driving course. It does not include skid control. For this, there is an additional charge," Mr Hoffman says.
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