The Guide To A Safe Drive

Being a safe driver is about far more than keeping your speed below the limit or obeying the law. It’s about being ever-observant of potential hazards on the road, clear about your intentions to fellow drivers and calm even in tense or infuriating situations. We’re all only human, at the end of the day, but racing emotions or a simply lack of attention behind the wheel becomes a far more serious problem than it might be in the comfort of your own home or if you were embroiled in a heated debate outside of an environment full of heavy, metal machinery. If you’re wondering whether you’re as safe on the road as you might think, then here’s a guide to being the best driver you can possibly be.

Communication.
Whilst driving demands focus from the person behind the wheel, which means there should be no distractions in the form of phone calls or heated conversations with passengers, socialising with fellow drivers on the road is a key aspect of road safety. Again, this doesn’t mean heated or aggressive hand gestures, but small indications of your intentions. Whilst indicators may signal our desire to turn at a specific junction, which is obvious an important requirement for road safety, sometimes we might find ourselves in the midst of a tricky manoeuvre or we might see a pedestrian wishing to cross a busy main road and nobody is letting them through. In such situations, we need to also pay attention to drivers and people around us, so as to let them know what we’re doing or, in the latter case, if we plan to let them cross the road.

If you have an accident.
Even after an accident, you still have a duty to keep yourself and other drivers on the road as safe as possible. Depending on the severity of the accident, you either need to work with the other driver involved with the accident to move your vehicles out of the road or call the police to ask for assistance with clearing the scene. If you’re curious, this page shows the benefits of towing your car from the scene of an accident immediately. Thinking about other people on the road when you’ve had an accident is the key to preventing further accidents, as hard as it may be to focus on anything other than the traumatic incident you’ve just endured first-hand.

Always be on the defensive, rather than the offensive.
This is a great piece of advice for those of us who may find ourselves growing impatient or frustrated with less experienced drivers on the road. Ironically, losing your temper can lead you to become an equally dangerous driver. The best way to avoid a road accident is to compensate for the bad driving of others by always remaining on the defensive. If you see a car swerving or a driver on their mobile whilst behind the wheel, give them a wide birth and perhaps even try to signal for them to pull over.