FRIENDS may accept criticism of their lifestyle or dress sense but unfavourable comments about their driving will likely be less well received.

According to road safety organisation GEM Motoring Assist, most of us consider we are ‘above average’ drivers.

GEM is urging motorists to reflect upon near misses they have experienced that could have had serious consequences.

Road safety adviser James Luckhurst said: “By definition a near miss means no collision occurred and no one was hurt. But a near miss is only a near miss thanks to luck interrupting a chain of events that could have been catastrophic.

“Think of a time when you found yourself braking at the last second. Or when someone sounded their horn at you. Or when you found yourself dropping off on a long, dull journey and ‘woke up’ with a start.

“It’s widely reported that most of us see ourselves as ‘above average’ drivers, yet up to 94 per cent of collisions are a result of driver error. So we can’t all be as good as we think we are.

“Giving ourselves time to reflect on our own particular close encounters means we can learn from what happened and work out how to be safer in future.

“But rather than dwelling on the danger there and then, it’s better to wait until the end of a journey and set aside a few moments to think about why it happened.

“That short period of reflection may be all that’s needed to identify the reason, and to adapt techniques of observation or concentration in order to prevent s similar situation happening again.”

GEM suggests drivers should think about the risks on a journey, expect the unexpected even on familiar stretches of road, eliminate the word ‘suddenly’ from their vocabulary, and learn from every journey – did you misjudge distance or speed or gamble with a changing traffic light?