What is hazard identification? A form of protection for you and your car. I you'll be able to identify hazards you'll be prepared for any situation might appear on the road. Actully this is what defensive driving is all about: be aware and alert.

How can you identify hazard? Simple, it is any situation that cause or alert you to speed up, or change your direction of travel.

The best example is an intersection. Think like this how many situation might be indentify as hazard? A ciclyst (may be riding along fine until you are just about to drive past him and he loses his balance and falls in front of your vehicle), another car, everything in here might become a potential hazard.

There are two categories of hazard: actual -something or someone or a situation that you definitely have to deal with, like the guy on the bike- and potential -like a dog sniffing around the roadside.

An alert hazard might cause to alter your speed, to change your direction of travel or maybe to stop, but this is an situation when you are ready for the actions might happen. In the other case, the one with the dog, you have to remember that animals are very unpredicteble and it is likely to dart out onto the street and into the traffic at any time.

Knowing the difference betwen your actuals and potentials hazard will give you a little more time to react.