If you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who live in an area of the country where the winter weather can turn extreme, then you may be dreading yet another season of driving in the snow, ice, and sleet while hoping you avoid an auto accident. On an average year, close to 1,000 people die and another 76,000 people are injured in auto accidents that occur on snowy or icy roads. While these statistics may sound alarming, it is important to know that you can take many steps to avoid becoming another auto accident statistic.
Read on to learn two unique ways to avoid an auto accident this snowy winter.
1. Take a Defensive Driving Course
Even if you pride yourself on your great driving skills, even in snowy winter weather, you likely know that all it takes is one bad driver on the road in the winter to cause a potentially deadly auto accident. While you cannot prevent all auto accidents in the winter, you can learn skills for avoiding collisions with those "bad" winter drivers by taking a defensive driving course.
During one of these courses, you will also learn extra steps you can take to stay safe on snowy and icy roads that you may not already know.
There are many of these courses available online today, so you don't have to trek out in the winter weather to sit in a classroom for hours to learn how to keep you and your family safer on the road this season.
2. Forget Cruise Control Exists This Winter
If you have a long commute to and from work each day, then you may automatically push that cruise control button after you reach a comfortable speed to avoid having to press the gas pedal during the entire drive. While you likely set cruise control right at the speed limit when roads are clear, you may set it at a slower speed when roads are bad to avoid getting in an auto accident.
While it is important to slow down when winter roads are bad, it is best to operate the gas pedal manually while you do it and forget that your cruise control button even exists at all during the winter.
Not only can having cruise control activated lead to you paying a little less attention to the road, but having it activated when you're driving on wet or icy roads can even lead to you losing control of your automobile. Many drivers have learned this lesson the hard way; the extra reaction time needed to respond to the vehicle hydroplaning when cruise control is activated can lead to a driver losing control of a vehicle when they would't have if they were simply operating the gas pedal manually.
If you live in an area of the country where the winter weather can be extreme, then you likely take all the steps you can to avoid auto accidents while driving on snowy and icy roads. Remember these two unique ways to avoid auto accidents this winter, and keep the phone number of a good car accident attorney in your automobile at all times in case an auto accident does occur.
Share6 October 2017
