Driving in the snow can be a thrilling experience for adrenaline junkies but it can be risky if you aren’t rightfully prepared for it. No matter how good a driver you are, you need to be extra cautious when it comes to getting behind the wheel during the snowfall season. To make things easier for you, we have come up with a list of winter driving safety tips that’ll effectively help you in keeping yourself and your loved ones safe on the road.
Let’s begin!
Road Safety Tips for Driving In the Snow
Let’s list down and discuss some highly effective and easy-to-follow safety precautions you should take while driving in the snowfall season
- Checklist of Things to Do Before Hitting the Road
- Tips for Short-Distance Winter Trips
- Tips for Long-Distance Winter Trips
- Things to Do If You Get Stuck In The Snow
Checklist of Things to Do Before Hitting the Road
Make sure you and your car are ready to hit the road by going through the following checklist:
- Has your car got a bundle of cold-weather gear? This bundle should contain extra food and water, a torch, warm clothing, a scraper to clear off snow from your windscreen, blankets and medications.
- Check if the tyres of your vehicle are properly inflated and don’t forget to carry an extra tyre as well as the essential tools needed to change a tyre.
- Drain and replace the fluid in the wipers of your vehicle with a winter fluid that doesn’t freeze in extremely cold weather. It’s one of the most important winter driving safety precautions.
- Make sure your vehicle is running on half a tank of fuel all the time as you don’t want to run out of fuel in the middle of the road with freezing temperatures outside.
- Check whether the headlamps of your vehicle are properly working or not. If not, then get them fixed on a priority basis.
- Do not even think of using cruise control while driving on a slippery road covered with ice and snow, otherwise it can be disastrous. Your vehicle needs to be in your full control all the time.
Tips for Short-Distance Winter Trip
Commuting to work or going to another neighbourhood in the city during the snowy weather, you need to take a look at the following winter driving safety tips:
- Prefer staying home and only go out if it’s really necessary. No matter if you are an expert in driving in bad weather, it’s always a good idea to avoid taking unnecessary risks by heading out in extreme weather conditions.
- Always be a slow driver. Bring your speed down for better traction when driving on a slippery surface covered in snow or ice. It will also help you to control the steering wheel in a better way and avoid skids.
- Don’t rush on a traffic light. Since low visibility is another big challenge, take your time and slow down for a red light. Take it one of the most important winter driving safety precautions.
Note: It usually takes longer for a vehicle to come to a complete halt on icy roads because of lower traction.
- Maintain a safe following distance from the vehicle in front of you. A distance of about five to six seconds. Since it usually takes longer than usual for your vehicle to stop on a slippery surface, keep a safe distance between your car and the car so you have time to apply breaks and avoid a collision.
- Don’t bring your car to a full stop unless you have to. It has been noticed that tyres start to skid once you try accelerating your car again after bringing it to a complete stop. If there is a possibility that you can keep your tyres rolling at an extremely slow speed until the traffic turns green, then go for it. Make sure you have everything in control to keep yourself and others safe on the road.
Tips for Long-Distance Winter Trip
If you are planning for intercity travel during the cold weather, you need to take a look at these road safety tips for driving in the snowfall season.
- Have your vehicle thoroughly checked by a well-known auto-repairing facility before hitting the road.
- Check for the weather forecast along your route and prepare accordingly. You can always delay your trip if bad weather conditions have been predicted.
- Before you hit the road, inform your family members and people in your social circle about your route, so that they would know about your whereabouts in case of any emergency.
- Avoid driving at night on high-speed lanes during, especially when it’s snowing as visibility is very low during such weather conditions.
Thing To Do If You Get Stuck In the Snow
Let’s take a look at a few things to do if you get stuck in the snow:
- Make sure to stay with your vehicle as it can be your temporary shelter and helps rescuers to easily locate you. Try not to walk even a few steps away from your vehicle. If you are stuck in severe storm conditions, you can lose sight of your vehicle because of blow slow and might become.
- Stay warm by insulating your body from the cold with whatever is available. Things like floor mats, paper maps, newspaper or any type of clothing item can be used for this purpose. Try to pre-pack warm clothes and blankets that can be used in case of an emergency.
- Try not to lose energy and keep your body warm. If you are digging your vehicle out of snow, don’t exert yourself, stop immediately if you feel tired.
- Make use of brightly coloured cloth and tie it to the antenna of your car to be visible to the rescuers, which will make it easier for them to locate you. You can even place a piece of cloth on the rolled-up windows of your vehicle to signal distress.
- When night falls, don’t keep the headlamps on, instead, turn on your interior cabin light if possible as it uses a small amount of electricity and lets your car’s battery last longer. and will make it easier for rescuers to find you.
- Before getting back on the road, check whether the exhaust pipe of your vehicle is clear or has been clogged with snow, ice or mud. In the worst case scenario, a clogged exhaust pipe may result in the gas leak of deadly carbon monoxide into the passenger compartment if the engine is running.
- One of the best ways to conserve fuel in such a situation is to only keep the heater and engine running long enough to maintain bearable temperatures.
This brings us to the end of our blog about road safety tips for driving in snow. If you know something useful that can be added here, please feel free to share it with us at blog@zameen.com. Your valuable suggestions mean a lot to us and help us in making our pieces more informative for our readers.
Fog is another big challenge for people driving in winter, especially in the regions of Punjab. However, to reach safely to your destination in such a weather condition, you can make use of these road safety tips for driving in fog.
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