By Dave Millhouser

It was nearly dawn and the driver of a bus that was being deadheaded home was exhausted. After pulling into a truck stop parking area, the driver, Leon, shut off the engine.

Too tired even to sprawl across a pair of passenger seats, he slumped over the steering wheel and fell asleep.

An hour later a tow truck pulled into the lot, hauling a big-rig tractor. The big truck was facing backwards and it was parked in front of the coach -- truck snout facing bus windshield.

Leon awoke from his slumber and saw a truck apparently about to hit him head-on. There was screaming, cursing, stomping air brakes and blaring the horn before Leon realized neither vehicle was moving.

That all occurred during the second it took his brain to interpret what his eyes recorded.

A trucking industry study points out that 90 percent of accidents caused by "delayed recognition" of hazardous situations could have been prevented if the driver had reacted one second sooner.

It appears we can save a ton of heartache and money if we can help drivers gain and use that second. Even U.S. Airways Captain Sullenberger had well over a minute to sort out the Miracle on the Hudson, and he wasnt surrounded by malevolent motorists.

There seem to be a couple of ways to help drivers make better use of that "golden second." The most obvious is experience. The more you drive, the quicker youre able to interpret visual cues, and use the second to make appropriate moves. We old guys LOVE experience because it makes sure you whippersnappers never catch us.

There are a couple problems though.

First, experience, by definition, takes time to accumulate. Second, some folks cant grasp the difference between 20 years experience, and one year repeated 20 times.

A developing trend is the addition of sophisticated safety systems to buses and trucks. Anticollision radar, antilock brakes, adaptive cruise control and electronic stability control, in some ways, are mechanical efforts to enforce collective experience on the driver.

The software in these safety gizmos is a distillation of whats known about vehicle handling. And, their lightning quick electronic brains resist allowing drivers to do things that will wreck a coach. The driver can just flail away, and expect good things.

Nifty, when theyre correctly designed, programmed and maintained.

Finally (you KNEW wed get here), there is training. Even the automated systems require driver understanding. Do we really want to replace a coach, in the midst of a charter, when the adaptive cruise control goes down, if a savvy driver can safely work around it?

Several safety experts I talked to pointed out that for their first five years, drivers experience steady improvement in safety, but then performance begins to taper off. Experience alone doesnt get the job done.

Commercial drivers surveyed about job satisfaction respond, almost universally, theyd like more training.

It appears that ongoing classroom work is a factor in improving performance in drivers across the whole range of experience. Training is "packaged experience," a way of accelerating learning for new drivers, and identifying and eliminating bad habits for old timers.

Research supports the view that every driver benefits from consistent training, and that there is a correlation between "academic" learning and a drivers ability to take advantage of the "golden second."

Simulators have advanced and a number of enlightened companies are using them to meld the academic and the physical. Theres a wide range of size and realism available but, at this point, there are virtually no definitive studies that measure how valuable they are (perhaps because they are evolving so rapidly).

A mountain of data supports the concept that regular continuing education is as critical as experience in safely driving a coach. Experts I spoke with pointed out that there have been huge improvements in what and how drivers are taught and that trend will likely accelerate.

There are a variety of ways to work training into your operation. The Bus & Motorcoach Academy offers web-based courses that can be invaluable. Many insurance companies offer a variety of resources, from seminars to on-site lectures. They love it when you ask for help BEFORE theres a problem.

The experts (who I shamelessly stole from for this column) are available to help train drivers or trainers.

In light of continuing improvements in the field, its not enough to read a book every couple of years. Airlines understand this, and universally require regular training and testing.

Leon had plenty of time to sort things out. Your drivers only have that "second," and its important to help them use it wisely.

Tragically for Leon, and fortunately for us, there was another driver sleeping on the bus, awakened by the commotion, who was able to rat him out.

Dave Millhouser is a bus industry marketing consultant and freelance writer. Contact him at: dave_millhouser@hotmail.com.