A lot of people get very nervous and worried when having to drive in the snow or even rain for that matter. We have a lot of experience driving in these situations and decided to share our insights with everyone. Odds are you have seen someone driving down the road at a high rate of speed. You are thinking to yourself, ” they are going to end up crashing driving like that.” You very well be right, but you do not want to follow in their footsteps. It is better to be safe than sorry. Wouldn’t you rather be a few minutes late than to get in an accident? Most people would choose the few minutes late route. Below we will be outlining the steps to take when driving in winter weather.
1. Drive smooth
When you are driving in the snow, you do not want to be jerking the steering wheel all over the place. The more you move the wheel the better the chance of something bad happening. If you move the wheel very frantically, your vehicle will get our of control. You will start swerving back and forth and end up crashing. Smooth motions when turning and if you need to move quickly, be careful and try not to jerk the wheel. This same concept applies to accelerating and braking. When starting off, you want to ease on the gas pedal. If you just stomp on the gas pedal you will just spin your tires, while going nowhere. Your goal is to not make your tires spin. When braking, lightly apply pressure to the pedal. If you hit the pedal too hard, your brakes will lock up. When the brakes lock up, you will begin to slide and have no control of the car. That is usually how accidents happen in the snow or rain. Driver not paying attention to the road, they look up at the last second, slam on their brakes and they lock up, then sliding into the other car.
2. Look Far Down the Road
Being aware of what is in the road ahead is vital to staying safe on the roads during a winter storm. If you are only looking right in front of you, you will not be prepared for what is coming up. The worse the conditions are, the farther out you should be looking. If you are looking ahead, you will be ready for whatever comes up. In the snow, you have to slow down when going around turns. If you don’t you will end of crashing into something. The rule is that when it is raining, you should allow double the stopping distance, triple for snow, and even more for when there is ice on the roads.
3. Watch your dashboard
Keep an eye on your dashboard. There are lights that will pop up when something is going wrong. A light will pop up on the dash board if you begin to lose traction. It will look like a car with tire tracks. If this light is on, you do not currently have total control of the car. This feature is there to let you know something isn’t right and you need to correct it to get back to full traction. If you begin to lose traction, your first reaction should NOT be to slam on the brakes. That is most people’s first reaction. Start sliding and slam on the brakes. That’s the exact opposite of what you should do.
4. Look where you want to go
If you start to slide or skid, look to where you want to go. Most people look to where they are headed. You need to be looking where you want to go. It’s like the saying, ” Keep your eyes on the prize.” The prize in this situation is being in the correct place on the road. This is what you are taught when you are learning to be a race car driver. They have to know how to correct anything that happens during the race.
5. Get winter tires
This could be the most important thing on this list. Winter tires are exactly what they sound like. They are tires that are meant for the winter. Most people buy all season tires which are good too. You just want to make sure that you do not have summer tires on your vehicle. Summer tires do not have near as much tread as a winter tire. You will have significantly more traction with winter or all season tires than you will with summer tires. If you need to find the right tire for you, click this link to use our Tire Finder. You will be able to search by make and model to find the exact tire your vehicle needs. All brand are available within our Tire Finder.
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