The UK now has roughly 33 million registered vehicles on its roads, and this figure is ever increasing. Correlating with this is the number of road related deaths, which two years ago was roughly 258,000. With congested roads filled with frantic motorists its imperative that you are clued up on basic road tips both for your sake and that of others.
First and foremost, never, ever drive while under the influence of alcohol or any other intoxicating substance. Even though this is against the law in every established country, with heavy penalty’s being imposed on those found guilty – it is still a wide-spread problem. Not only does alcohol give you a false sense of ability, but it slows vital reaction times down considerably.
Tailgating, or following the car in front too closely, is another major contributor to road accidents in the UK. When tailgating you are essentially cutting off the view of any activity ahead of the car in front of you and reducing the amount of time you have to react to any sudden changes the car ahead makes. The space in between you and the car ahead should be considered as a sort of “buffer”, as a rule of thumb leave a two second gap, four seconds when wet and 10 when icy.
Following on from the above point, many motorists fail to adjust their driving speed based on the condition of the road. When the road is wet or icy, braking times are increased considerably – your speed should therefore be adjusted accordingly. Minimising the number of distractions you have while driving also helps a tremendous amount, common distractions include, hand-held phones, loud music, eating food etc.
Having a good idea of what is going on around your vehicle at all times is imperative, relying solely on your mirrors is not enough – its important that you check your “blind spots” before slowing down or changing lanes etc.
Needless to say the roads are only as safe as the motorists using them, and you can exercise all the caution in the world but if someone else slips up then you too could end up paying the price.
For this reason it’s vital that you have adequate
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