My "Check Engine" light has come on twice while my girlfriend was driving!

[JayRolla]

Don't let her drive it anymore. Problem solved. :thumb3:

I only let my girlfriend drive my rig when it's absolutely necessary which is very rare.

I was the same way. But backfired. She won't let me drive her new 2012 tacoma. Lol

 

[mtbtim]

EVOC stands for Emergency Vehicle Operations Course. It's a standard course for all fire, police and EMS personal to take. It relies heavily on eye lead times and situational awareness. Most drivers use a "safe following distance" but don't really look more than a few seconds down the road. One of EVOC's main principles is a 12-15 second eye lead time. Meaning your looking 12 -15 seconds ahead of where the vehicle is. There's a lot more to it than that but the eye lead time is the most important part of it IMO. That allows you to see the situation and adjust to it, rather than be part of it. I haven't been in the Fire Dept. in 15 years now but I still use that training every time I drive.

Experience is also something that plays a role. Remember though:

One of the calls that's affected me the most was an accident on Hwy 101 where a big rig carrying a load of wine rear-ended a small compact car carrying 4 people. Traffic came to a quick stop and the semi truck driver wasn't paying attention and plowed the car in front of him. The car had a family of 4 coming back from visiting Hearst Castle and they were driving through Salinas on their way back to Oakland. A young women was driving and she had her sister in the front passenger seat, and her mother and step dad in the rear. The rear was filled with luggage because the sister, mother and step dad were visiting from the East Coast. The impact completely crushed the rear cargo area and pushed all the luggage into the people in the rear seat. The mother was still alive when we got there but she died as soon as we got her out of the car. The step dad was sent in a helicopter to a trauma center in San Jose and I later found out he has permanent brain damage. The sister in the front seat faired the best and only had a fracture pelvis. The driver had no feeling from the waist down and was also sent in a helicopter to Valley Medical Center which is a couple miles away from where I live in San Jose.

This is the only time I've done this but I felt compelled to visit the driver at the hospital to find out if she was truly paralyzed. She got bad news that her spinal cord was ripped apart from the impact and she would never walk again. She is in her mid 20's.

Now, getting to the point I'm trying to make here. One of things I always do when coming to a hard stop is immediately glance in my rear view mirror to see if anyone following me too close is going to be able to stop in time and not smash into me. At the same time, I'm looking for an out that I can steer into like the shoulder in case somebody is bearing down on me. This is all instantaneous - braking, glancing in the rear view mirror and starting to steer to the out. This can make the difference between avoiding an accident or the tragedy I explained above. I felt compelled to ask this girl that when she was coming to that hard stop in traffic if she happened to look in her rear view mirror to see if anyone was bearing down on her. She didn't. If she would have, she possibly could have avoided the tragedy by steering out of the path of the semi truck. This girl was probably a very safe driver but not necessarily a skilled driver. You have to be aware of what's going on all sides of you when driving. One day it could save your life.

 

[SpidermanGeek]

I only let my girlfriend drive my rig when it's absolutely necessary which is very rare.

Jeez.. I keep trying to get my wife to drive mine and she refuses, lol. She's not even a fan of riding in it.. for the following reasons:

• She despises Leather Seats
• She hates Tan colored Interiors
• She hates that there are no running boards because she's 5'3"
• The ride is too rough
• It's too loud
• It attracts attention