Attitude > Knowledge > Skills

In the Overview section we ended by discussing the fact that in the final three seconds before a crash, all of the driver’s actions are pre-determined by the driver’s internal software, e.g. programming. That is, things are happening so rapidly that there is no time to make considered decisions. Drivers either react immediately and successfully or they do not. Those reactions, which are chemically driven responses to visual inputs, are based in a set of “files” in the medulla oblongata where much motor muscle memory is stored or in the muscles themselves.

How did they get there? Well in the case of athletes, they got there through a process called coaching whereby (in stick and ball sports) the coach instructs the hitter as to the proper stance, body position, grip on the bat, the proper response to a pitch and then puts the student in a batters box and throws pitches. The batter absorbs as much of this as he/she can and swings the bat. Success is hitting the ball. This currently begins in some families at the age of 2-3. As time passes the batter’s competence grows with body growth and strength and the development of hand-eye coordination. And the coaching continues. And the practice. All sports have some version of this process. Eventually the player’s skills begin to plateau until they have reached their ultimate skill level and progress no further. But the early stages of growth are rapid and dramatic.

Successful management of an automobile in crisis has a similar curve. Few of us will ever have the skill (or desire and determination) required to drive at Daytona or the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But virtually all of us can learn the basics of crash avoidance.