By Mashum Mollah
If you drive on a regular basis, you’ve likely found yourself in some pretty scary road conditions at one point or another. And while you might feel safe from the wind and rain when you’re warm and toasty in your car, if the weather happens to get the best of you, you could find yourself in some real trouble.
So when you have to be out on the roads despite the fact that the weather isn’t ideal, it’s good to know what you can and should do to keep yourself and others as safe as possible. To help you with this, here are three tips for adjusting your driving during inclement weather.
3 Tips For Adjusting Your Driving During Inclement Weather:
1. Always Reduce Your Speed
While you might be someone who normally likes to drive at or above the speed limit, it should be noted that the speed limit is meant for ideal weather conditions, not when there’s bad weather taking place. At times when the weather isn’t good, the very first thing you should do is to reduce your speed.
According to Alex Deborgorski, a contributor to Real Simple, you should reduce your speed by at least 10 miles per hour when the road conditions are getting sketchy. In some situations, reducing your speed by 10 miles per hour still won’t be enough. So when you’re on the road and worried about being safe while behind the wheel, try to stick to a speed that you’re comfortable with, even if it’s well below the typical speed limit.
2. Know Where To Look:
One of the biggest problems with inclement weather is how it can impact visibility. When you can’t see exactly where you’re going or what’s going on ahead of you, it’s good to know where you should be looking on the road in order to keep yourself safe from running off the road or getting into a head-on collision with another car.
To avoid these situations, Kurt E. Gray, a contributor to KidsHealth.org, advises that you look toward the edge of the road in the lane you’re driving on. Especially during fog or heavy rain and snow, looking down to this area will help you stay in your lane and avoid running off the road.
3. Drastically Increase Your Following Distance:
In addition to slowing down, another adjustment you should make when driving during inclement weather is to drastically increase your following distance.
Drive-Safely.net shares that while the typical following distance you should keep is about three seconds between you and the car in front of you, bad weather should have you increasing your following distance to about nine seconds between you and the car in front of you. While this might seem excessive, when you’re having trouble seeing and handling your car, you’re going to need all the time you can get to stop in the event of an emergency.
To help you and your loved ones stay safe while on the road, consider using the tips mentioned above the next time you find yourself driving in inclement weather.
Read Also:
