e-Gurukul.com

When we first take our driver’s education classes and go on to take our road tests, we are at the height of our book knowledge when it comes to knowing what the various rules of the road are. However, it doesn’t seem to take us long at all to unlearn all of the good driving habits that we have acquired during our classes and instead, develop a few driving habits of our own.

When I was in high school, I vividly remember being seated in our driver’s education vehicle. The instructor was sitting in the front right passenger seat (which was also equipped with a gas and brake pedal), there were three of us sitting in the back seat; and then finally, there was a young man sitting in the driver’s seat driving. Up until this point in our driver’s education class, we were supposed to be following a certain set of rules for safety, and one of these rules included keeping both of your hands on the wheel.

As my classmate was in the driver’s seat driving calmly down the empty road in a residential neighborhood, he started to relax and in doing so, he took his right hand off of the wheel and casually draped his arm behind the front passenger seat. After about two seconds elapsed, suddenly, the car lurched to an abrupt stop, and boy were we glad that we all had our seat belts on. Without saying a word, the driving instructor looked at the young man behind the wheel. For the remainder of the driving class, this young man never took his hands off of the steering wheel while driving again.