Stress and Driving Tactics

by Ray Johansen
Assistant Instructor ADSI
RJ@1adsi.com

Have you given any thought on how to improve your chances to prevent a car accident? Have you wondered what happens to your body and its natural reactions when you are driving at your limits in a dangerous situation? Have you prepared for it?

Many articles have been written, training curriculums enhanced and preparations have been made to manage the stresses of a self defense situation when the human body is in a “fight or flight” mode. However, precious few resources have been devoted to or utilized to manage the stresses of high risk driving. Of all the body’s reactions that can happen to an operator in a gun battle, they can happen to a driver in situations all too common on the roadways.

Under extreme stress, the human body has wonderful mechanisms to react to a threatening situation. During that time, the operator must work off instinct and muscle memory to make the most of the tools at their disposal. If these tools have not been practiced or bad habits are maintained, the chances of surviving are going to less than that of an operator who reacts instinctively and use their training to escape, evade or neutralize the threat. One of the most common tools used by Protection Professionals is not the radio, martial arts or firearms; it is the motor vehicle. The motor vehicle is probably the most important tool to be proficient in, as the threats encountered are more than likely going to be on the roadway, while the vehicle is on motion.

How many drivers out there have had a moment when driving where they briefly lost control? Maybe a slick roadway during a snowstorm or after a summer rain caught you out and you slid a bit further than you had hoped? This is a very common situation where most people will drive or walk away without damage or injury. Think back and remember the feeling you had shortly after the encounter. An adrenalin release in your body probably resulted elevated heart rate, shortness of breath or a shaky feeling in your extremities. Now, take that same situation; add in shots fired and the threat of grave physical injury to the mix. That same physical reaction is multiplied many times over. You now have a dangerous situation where the operator must rely on training and instinct to escape.

As mentioned above, the human body has wonderful tools to help deal with threats and help minimize injury. Some of these physical reactions can both help and hurt the situation where driving is integral. The human body was not designed to travel faster than a running pace and driving a vehicle changes the dynamic of “fight or flight” reactions and these reactions must be dealt with appropriately. A great example I am sure many of you have seen first hand, especially if you have been first responders to motor vehicle accidents, is the single vehicle vs. stationary object accident. Most typically, the driver lost control and had focused on the object that is the most serious threat, the stationary object, and impacted it. Our natural tendency in a threatening situation is to focus on the object that poses the most immediate threat. Unfortunately, focusing on the threat, while driving, may not be the appropriate response for escaping an accident. Humans have very well developed hand-eye coordination , where we look is where we will go. The same can be said about many of the vehicle vs. object accidents. Drivers in these cases are doing a great job of focusing on the threat, but the end result was hitting what they were staring at. How does a driver overcome the natural instinct of focusing on the immediate threat? Well, let’s review the changes the body under stress and how an operator can overcome the stress to escape the threat.

Loss of visual acuity: One of the most common changes can be simply described as tunnel vision. As illustrated above, a stressed operator will focus on the immediate threat and using the body’s hand-eye coordination will end up putting the vehicle they are driving to that point. As shown in the training materials, a driver loses a very large percentage of their peripheral vision at speed. This field of vision will tighten even further under stress. Surrounding objects, potential threats or escape routes will become very blurry or even invisible. Finding yourself in a situation where your vehicle has lost grip coming around a slippery corner, the best course of action will be to look away from the threat and to focus where you want to place the vehicle. Not to sound cliché, but easier said than done. A driver must practice putting their focus on the desired path of their vehicle. Not only is a good idea to focus farther ahead up the roadway to identify potential threats, but also keep your eyes from focusing on a specific point for a long period of time. Overcome the tendency to focus on that tree on the outside of the slick corner and use the body’s hand-eye coordination to put you back on your intended, safe path of travel by focusing on the safe exit.

Auditory exclusion: As a self defense mechanism, the human body can “tune out” auditory cues to prevent injury or to allow the processing of more critical information. Hearing may not be a critical sense during casual, day to day driving, but can be a critical sense when driving under stress in a protection detail or high speed chase. Details and instructions spoken or delivered via a radio can be missed as an operator tunes out sounds when focusing on the task of driving. The vehicle’s communication to the driver via engine or tire noise could be missed. Multi-tasking can be very difficult under stress, but details delivered to an operator via sounds can very important and could change the outcome of a situation if they heard and understood them. One of the easiest ways to overcome auditory exclusion is to train with your teammates and making reactions when driving part of muscle memory and a natural reaction. Making the actions behind the wheel a habit can allocate more of your body’s resources to listening and comprehending spoken details much easier and you can still react appropriately to a given threat.

Loss of fine motor skills: Think about the number of small corrections you perform when driving day to day. Very rarely, under normal conditions, does a driver apply full braking to the point of locking the brakes; apply the throttle to the floor or use very large steering corrections. Most of these actions are performed with fine muscle groups in the hands and feet. Under stress, the body will lose a very large percentage of its fine motor skills and will rely on the large muscle groups to assist in escaping or neutralizing a threat. Unfortunately, the loss of these motor skills seriously hinders a driver’s ability to make the most out the tool they are driving to escape a threat. A perfect example is trying to escape a kill zone. Consider this: As you are driving down a roadway, a van pulls into the road blocking your intended path and two people jump out, presenting weapons. To escape the kill zone, you must brake to a full stop, check your mirror, perform a gear change and apply throttle to reverse. Doing all this without locking the brakes, missing a shift or performing a smoky burnout, while relying on your gross motor skills, can very difficult if not practiced to the point where it becomes habit. Too many times, students will lock up the brakes and slide into the other vehicle (rendering their own vehicle inoperative), select the incorrect gear or will spin the drive wheels in reverse. All these mistakes will slow your progress and severely limit your chance to escape the kill zone. These mistakes can be corrected very easily in a training environment, where the threat of harm is very low. However, add gunmen to the mix, it can become very difficult to effectively maneuver the vehicle unless it has been practiced and the skill becomes habit.

In review, the Protection Professional has many tools at their disposal to ensure the safety of their principal, themselves and their teammates. It is important to train and be proficient with all the tools at their disposal, including the vehicles they will be driving during a detail or going to get a cup of coffee on a morning off. Time spent at the shooting range, self defense dojo and driver-training track will condition the operator to react appropriately if a threatening situation presents itself. Studies have shown that training like we fight increases the chances of coming out of an engagement alive. Time spent developing an operant response to a threat of force will certainly put a Protection Specialist at an advantage over an aggressor; this same training concept can be applied to High Risk and Protective Driving.