Five Facts worth Knowing About Defensive Driving Courses

Defensive driving courses are designed to enhance your knowledge amount traffic rules, norms and on-road practices. The objective is simple – You learn the ways to drive in a defensive matter.

Here are some of the important facts about defensive driving courses.

  1. The contents and most things depend on your state. Every state has different traffic laws, rules and norms, which largely determine what you will learn in the duration of the course. However, in most cases, you will have contents like traffic crash statistics, the dynamics of a crash, laws related to DUI, and so on.

  1. The requirements for taking up defensive driving courses also depend on your state, but typically, you need to have a valid and noncommercial license. Also, you can take up one course in a certain time. If you are taking the course to get insurance premium benefits, you need to have a decent driving record too, as long as the insurance provider and policy allows for such deductions.
  1. There are many reasons why people take up such courses. More often than not, they want to reduce the points on their license owing to a violation. In some states, as mentioned earlier, it is possible to get reduced insurance rates by completing such courses.

  1. Depending on the state rules, it is possible to complete defensive driving course online. There are online course providers, who offer state and court approved courses, which can be completed at your time and pace in installments. You can print the certificate later. The prices, however, many vary from one provider to another, although you may get some discounts.
  1. The duration of the course also depends on the state requirements, although 6 to 8 hours are common. In some cases, the course duration can be short around four hours. Online courses, if available and allowed, are better because you can learn things at your pace. With classroom settings, it is often necessary to complete the course in one go.

Please note that such courses will reduce the points from your license and driving records, but it won’t remove the ticket, at least in most states. Also, the defensive driving course can be taken every few months, depending on the rules of the state. For example, if you are in Texas, you can take the course after every 12 months, while in New York, the time gap is 36 months.