If you have a driving license and auto insurance coverage, you can benefit from the New Jersey defensive driving course. However, its importance doesn’t lie only in the benefits.
Through the defensive driving course, you will learn how to drive in a way that reduces driving risks.
What is defensive driving?
To understand what a defensive driving course can do for you, you first have to understand what defensive driving is.
Defensive driving is a manner of driving that reduces driving risks. If you can use it every time you sit behind a wheel, you will considerably reduce the risk of collisions or traffic law violations. Through the course, you will learn how to anticipate a threatening situation and how to quickly react to it in the least dangerous way.
You will learn how to protect yourself and others using special driving techniques that take into consideration road and environmental conditions as well as the upcoming situation.
How Can You Benefit From a New Jersey Defensive Driving Course
The primary beneficial reason behind a defensive driving course, and the reason it was created, is a smaller chance for an accident. As stated in the New Jersey driving manual, most road accidents are caused by motorist error. Therefore, a course was created to reduce the amount of those errors.
Other than your safety and the safety of everyone else on the road or your driveway, there are two more benefits to taking a New Jersey defensive driving course:
- New Jersey MVC will remove two points from your driving record which can help you avoid penalties, or even worse, higher insurance rates. It will also prevent driving license suspension. Suspension happens if you get twelve or more points on your current driving record.
- You can also lower your auto insurance premium. In the state of New Jersey, all auto insurance providers are required to offer a discount to you if you complete a defensive driving course. The discount is usually between 5% and 10%, and it lasts for three years. You can also renew the discount after it has passed by taking another course.
How to Start a New Jersey Defensive Driving Course
New Jersey has some very simple rules to determine if you are eligible for the course. What is important is the reason why you are taking the course. If you take it to reduce points on your driving record, you can do so once every five years, and once every three years for a reduced insurance premium.
Other than the time, there are no other rules. The idea is that everyone has access to a defensive driving course, and the more people take it the better.
The cool thing about a New Jersey defensive driving course is that you can find it online. The online course is easy to start. It takes just a minute to register, and you can go through it at your own pace and from the comfort of your home.
Once you have successfully completed the course the school notifies the MVC and you get two points removed from your driving record. Or you can take the certificate to your auto insurance provider to get that discount.
What to Expect From a Defensive Driving Course
The online course keeps in line with the regulations provided by the MVC. Essentially, you will learn everything you need, to become a better and safer driver.
You will learn about aggressive driving and road rage. Also how to handle both when they are coming from the outside.
Also, you will cover common distractions like smartphones, outside distractions, and distractions coming from your fellow passengers. You have to learn how to not let the road out of your sight,
Then, you will study practical knowledge that will make your driving safer. Once you understand what to do in bad road and weather conditions you will already feel more confident. But it is only after you learn how to prevent collisions, and learn other defensive driving techniques, that you can say you became a better driver.
That is what it is truly about. You need to learn about pedestrian and bicycle safety, about safety equipment, and DUI or drunk driving. The purpose behind all of these lessons is for you to learn more about your safety and the safety of everyone else on the road.
Because driving is a privilege, it comes with a responsibility. Responsibility to yourself, to come back home in one piece, and responsibility towards others, so that they can do the same.
