Road safety should be at the top of just about everybody’s list of priorities. Road accidents are a leading cause of injuries around the world and many of them are preventable. The Kaufman & McPherson law office in West Virginia is often very busy representing victims of car accidents and can attest to the seriousness of the problem.
If you don’t want to end up as a statistic then you need to do everything you can to avoid an accident. Defensive driving is the best way to stay safe on the road by preventing accidents from happening even if they wouldn’t be your fault. In this article, we will go over some of these techniques so you can use them while driving.
1 – Don’t be distracted
Distracted driving is one of the leading causes of road accidents as it seems that everybody is doing something while they drive. Chief among the activities people choose to do while driving is to text and drive at the same time. This is catching up with drunk driving in terms of the seriousness of the situation. Taking your eyes off the road to text opens the possibility of a catastrophe happening when you’re not paying attention.
Even eating and drinking while driving is a problem. If you don’t have a hand on the wheel when something happens ahead of you, then you don’t have the time to react and end up in an accident.
The best thing to do is to pull over to read and respond to a text or to make a phone call if it is urgent. Otherwise, wait until you reach your destination. Eat and drink before or after you’re in the car so you aren’t trying to multitask while driving.
2 – Give some space
Driving too closely behind the car in front of you is a recipe for disaster. If that car were to stop suddenly it would leave you little time to react and stop in time. If you rear-end that car then you are at fault. By giving the car ahead of you some space, you can react in time and make sure that you have plenty of room to come to a stop.
On the highways, try to avoid driving next to big trucks as they may not see you in their blind spot. If they try to change lanes then this will cause an accident. Staying far behind a truck or passing quickly is the best idea.
3 – Look ahead
Try to anticipate what could happen by making sure to be looking ahead all the time. If you see a car approaching an intersection quickly then assume they are not going to stop. If you see a car trying to take a left in front of traffic then assume they will cut you off.
This is so you are ready to react to any situation because you were ready for it. Always pay attention to what other drivers are doing.