When Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Josh Seery returned from Afghanistan in July 2013, he knew he wasn’t ready to drive a car on the streets of Wichita, Kansas. So he asked his wife, Jennifer Roth, to be the primary driver.
“I was coming back from my third deployment, but it was the first deployment where I’d done a lot of driving outside camp,” Seery said.
He knew that readjusting to stateside driving “would be an issue.” But even in the passenger seat, there were heated moments when he tried to take control, and questioned his wife’s driving.
“I said I had gotten along fine before because my GPS doesn’t yell at me,” she said.
Seery tried to drive in the city a few times, but traffic agitated him.
“I was impressed he was aware he was not ready to drive and needed to take time to work on it,” Roth said.
Not everyone is so self-aware, which is why USAA developed a simple online assessment tool to help troops think about the risks of unsafe driving behaviors, while offering tips to help them deal with those behaviors.
It’s available to USAA members and their families only; family members can take a separate assessment based on their observations of the service member.
For example, experts note that some troops have a habit of swerving to avoid road debris for fear it masks explosives, or suddenly change lanes when driving under overpasses where attackers could be hiding.
A 2012 USAA study found a higher risk of at-fault accidents among troops after deployments, and a separate survey said more than one-third of USAA’s military members were concerned about driving after deployment.
One of the questions in the new tool is: Since returning home, have you been told you drive dangerously? Family members are very important in this education process, said USAA spokesman Roger Wildermuth.
USAA does not use the information from the assessment, or information about a service member’s deployment status, to determine rates or insurability of any service member, said Roger Wildermuth, the company’s president. All the assessments are evaluated on a large scale, but details are not associated with individuals.
Roth and Seery, who have since taken the assessment, said the tool would have helped in their initial post-deployment adjustment period, when they didn’t discuss why he didn’t want to drive.
“The tips would’ve helped me understand what was going on, and why he was being hypersensitive,” Roth said. “They would have helped me be calmer even when he was in the passenger seat.”
The personal stories from service members and spouses included in the tools helped her understand her husband’s actions, and would have put her more at ease, she said.
“By offering this online assessment, we are arming our returning members with a greater understanding of the risks of coming back to civilian roadways and giving them tips to help avoid those risks,” said retired Vice Adm. John Bird, senior vice president of USAA Military Affairs, in a statement announcing the tool.
“Their safety is so important to us that we’ll pay them to take it,” Bird said. USAA will pay $25 to eligible members who take the assessment at usaa.com within six months after returning from deployment, though it still may be taken after that.
That’s a bonus for doing something that could save your life and the lives of your loved ones.