6 million people are involved in car accidents on an annual basis. Many of those 6 million crashes end fatally.
What those statistics tell us is that driving is incredibly dangerous. What they don’t tell us is that the vast majority of those accidents could have been fully prevented if the people involved in the accident had been minding the road more closely.
The more we drive, the more numb we become to doing the things that ensure our safety behind the wheel. This article hopes to help reverse that trend.
Below, we remind you of seven road safety tips that you’ve probably heard at some point but could likely benefit from hearing again. We hope that you’ll take these tips to heart and tell your friends about them. You never know, they just might help to keep you and your loved ones safe.
1. Silence Your Cellphone
Accidents involving cellphones are on the rise given how prolific smartphone usage is. It may seem easy enough to check a text message or answer a call while you’re driving, but all it takes is a moment of distraction to get into a life-altering accident.
Do yourself a favor and turn off your phone while you’re driving. Whatever it is that you need to tell somebody can almost always wait until you get to your destination.
If something is so important that it needs to be communicated immediately, pull over.
2. Don’t Partake in “Harmless Distractions”
We all know that we shouldn’t be messing with our phones while driving. Some other distractions though aren’t so universally campaigned against.
For example, something as harmless as playing a game of “I-Spy” could distract a driver for long enough jeopardize their safety.
Bottom line, as a driver, your attention should be solely on the road. Not on telling stories, not on playing games or on doing anything else.
Light conversion is permissible behind the wheel but anytime you’re doing something that you feel is causing your driving to take a back-seat in your brain, you need stop partaking in that activity.
3. Adjust Your Mirrors Before Backing Out
Here’s a road safety tips classic that is probably one of the first things that you learn when you take your driving test. Before you back your vehicle out of its parking space, you should check and adjust your mirrors.
This is particularly important if you have multiple drivers operating the same car.
Not having your review mirrors set up properly could leave you blind when making lane changes. If you try to make adjustments to your mirrors while driving, that distraction may prove to be enough to get you into an accident.
4. Check Your Oil
You don’t have to be a car aficionado to check your engine oil every now and again. In most cases, all you have to do is pop your hood, find the little handle that reads oil, pull it out and make sure that your oil levels are within the marked safe zone.
Ensure that your car has been off for at least 30 minutes before doing this to prevent the oil from getting too hot.
Driving long distances on low oil can cause engine fires.
5. Check Your Tires
If your tires are in bad condition, you’re not going to be able to go very far.
There are two core things that you’ll want to make sure are in good shape with your tires. Their tread and their tire pressure.
Your tire’s tread are those grooves that you see on your wheel which meet the pavement. Those grooves keep tires fixed to the road.
Your tire’s pressure is the amount of air inside of its inner tube. If your pressure is too low or too high, you may not be able to adequately control your vehicle.
If you’re not sure how to check for these things, go into Calgary Tire or another shop that can help you out. Many will check your tire pressure at no charge.
6. Obey Traffic Laws
We’ve all been late for something before. When we’re running behind schedule and we’re behind the wheel of a car, we’re often tempted to start playing loose with the law.
Breaking the speed limit, doing an illegal U-turn, blowing stops… These things might seem harmless until somebody gets seriously hurt or worse.
Therefore, one of the most basic road safety tips that we can give you is to follow the rules of the road that you already know. Believe us when we say that saving a second of your time is not worth the possibility of losing your life in a second.
7. Be a Defensive Driver
One of the best things that you can be behind the wheel is a defensive driver. Defensive drivers are people that are never trying to get somewhere quickly, they’re never trying to get ahead of somebody or see if they can beat a train across the tracks.
Being defensive means assuming that a mistake will cause you serious harm and it also means assuming that everyone around you is going to make mistakes.
Given those realities, defensive drivers always keep themselves in check and keep an eye on their fellow drivers to avoid being a victim to errors that others make.
Wrapping Up Our Road Safety Tips
The road safety tips that we’ve just shared with you are simple and yet millions of drivers today will choose to forgo at least one of them.
Don’t be that driver.
Always drive like you’ve got something to lose and keep getting educated on how to continue improving your positive driving habits by consuming more of the content on our blog.