Safety On The Road

Defensive Driving Tips

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(NAPSI)—These five tips can help you be prepared for the perils of the road.

1. Know Your Car. Like people, each car has a unique personality. Some features work better than others, and conditions can cause a vehicle to react a certain way. Knowing your car’s limits and behavior patterns can help you predict how it will respond in certain situations. How long does it take you to stop and how much pressure is required on the brake pedal? What’s your turn radius? Does your vehicle lean when you round a corner? Does it quake when you hit a certain speed? Knowing the answers can help you avoid accidents.

2. Use Extreme Caution During a Lane Change. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that one of the most common causes of two-lane auto accidents is unsafe lane changes.

3. Know Your Blind Spots. Most cars have at least one line of vision that’s not clearly evident in the rearview or side mirrors. Even carefully placed mirrors often cannot cover every possible angle. Move the side mirrors far outward so that the angle of view barely overlaps the view of the rearview mirror.

4. Keep Your Hands on the Wheel. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration now advocates keeping your hands at the 9 and 3 o’clock positions instead of 10 and 2 because of air bags.

5. Keep Up on Maintenance. Routine work on your auto, like oil changes, fluid refills and tire rotations, can make all the difference in your car’s drivability.

Learn More

For further facts and tips about good driving from the experts at Driving-Tests, founded on the universal belief that everyone can be a safe driver, go to https://driving-tests.org. There, budding drivers can also learn how to pass the written test the first time.

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