How To
Avoid an Accident
My friend Mark has had nothing but trouble with his
Cadillac. It has nothing to do with his driving but more the driving of
other people as his Cadillac has been hit three times while it was parked.
It doesn't surprise me, for the first 11 months of 2006 there
have been over 33 million automobile accidents, and the year isn’t even over
yet. Do you have any idea the number of people who are annually killed in
these car accidents? Close to 50,000 people have died in these accidents,
another 5.4 million people received injuries.
That is a lot of people hurt or killed every year. The
chances of being involved in an automobile accident, at least once in your
life, is highly realistic; however, there area few things that you can do to
make it less likely.
- Always be alert for dangerous situations like ice or
snow
- Adapt to slippery road conditions
- Know when and how to use your breaks effectively
Some of the safety tips below will help you to become
alert to potentially dangerous situations. They will also tell you how to
improve the probability of you being able to walk away from the crash, and
what to do if you are involved in one. Make sure that you have a
safety/medical kit aboard your vehicle in case of an emergency. You can get
Safety and Accident Products from our friends at Drivewerks.com. It is also a good idea to keep a
Car Fire extinguisher in your car. You never know when you might pull up to a car on fire or your
car catches fire.
Being alert to dangerous conditions can improve
your driving skills
Spotting a dangerous situation is not rocket science.
But what you do is the key to preventing injuries or death. Here is some
useful advice to follow:
·
Be expectant - If you are expecting something to happen
you are at an advantage. Keep your eyes on the road ahead of you and be
prepared to take evasive action at any time. At city driving speeds, scan
about a block ahead of you. For highway speeds, scan about 400-500 meters in
front of you. That should be plenty of time for you to stop your car and
avoid being involved in the accident.
·
Don’t tailgate - Stay far enough away from the vehicle
in front of you so that if they suddenly stop you’ll have time to react and
stop as well. Most driving experts advise using the below as a guide to
judge your following distance:
·
Observe the car in front of you pass a stationary reference
point such as a tree or shadow on the highway and use that as a guide to
actual distance.
·
Count “one-thousand-one, one-thousand-and-two.” If your car
passes the same spot before you finish counting then you’re following too
closely. Slow down and give yourself some more reaction room.
·
Avoid tailgaters - If someone is following you too
closely, slow down and allow them to pass you. Try not to irritate them by
slamming on your breaks or consistently speeding-up. The tailgating
personality is a very aggressive personality and they will pass you no
matter how fast you speed-up. Road rage also kills and you don’t know the
state of mind of the other driver.
·
Looking for distracted drivers - Keep and eye out for
drivers talking on their cell phones, or putting CD’s into their car radio,
petting their dogs or looking from side to side as if they are lost of
looking for an address or worse off site seeing. These drivers often make
sudden movements that lead to an accident.
·
Crazy drivers - If you see a car on the road being
driven erratically try to keep your distance from them. You don’t know if
the driver is drunk, if the car is malfunctioning, or a number of other
potential dangerous variables.
Making
sure you are paying attention to road conditions is also a good idea.
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