Tips to be safe on the road
With car accidents being on the rise in South Africa, practising safe driving is important.
In fact, safety should always be your first concern when you are behind the wheel.
With that being said, we have provided you with safety tips to make sure you increase your chances of staying safe on the road.
As a driver, you should always be vigilant, know your surroundings and make sure you never drive tired. Arrivealive.co.za states that you’re twice as likely to cause a road accident if you are tired or sleep-deprived.
It is advisable that you rest before heading to your destination, or if you are already on the road and you start feeling tired, pull over and take a nap. Do not try to fight your fatigue, you might end up hurting yourself and others.
Also, try to eat as healthily as you can, avoid fast food because it contains fat, sugar and salt and all these contribute to fatigue. Taking vitamins is also helpful because certain vitamins give you energy. Take them with your healthy meal, or your body won’t absorb them and you won’t realise their full benefits.
Lastly, make sure that you keep hydrated because dehydration causes exhaustion.
Obey the road rules
Road signs are placed to ensure that both drivers and pedestrians are safe on the road. The fact that you are a legal driver means you have an understanding of what these signs mean, therefore, it is important that you pay attention to them.
Not being attentive to road signs can cause a crash and many people could be injured and even killed. It doesn’t matter how long you have been driving, you should still obey the rules.
Here are a few tips on how to improve your daily driving and ensure that you’re safe and protected on the road:
1. Buckle up
The first step to promoting safety when behind the wheel is to wear a seatbelt. Should anything happen while your car is in motion, a seatbelt will prevent you from hitting the windshield and being thrown from your vehicle.
Most importantly, wearing a seatbelt is the law, the National Road Traffic Act states that no adult shall occupy a seat in a motor vehicle operated on a public road unless such person wears a seatbelt.
2. Do not drink and drive
According to Dailymail.co.uk, a driver with alcohol consumption is seven times more likely to be involved in a vehicle crash than a sober driver.
Basically, the more you drink, the more likely you are to be in a fatal accident.
Alcohol affects your driving in a negative way. It makes you struggle to concentrate properly, see, hear and stay awake.
You also find it difficult to react appropriately to things going around you such as the distance and speed between your car and other vehicles, traffic lights, pedestrians and other hazards.
3. Hijacking and car theft still exists
Although vehicle theft numbers have decreased in recent years, it is still big business in South Africa, every nine minutes a car is stolen.
Wheels24 recently reported that the South African Police Service released statistics stating that between April and December 2016, a total of 12 743 vehicles were hijacked in S.A.
It is also said that the most targeted cars are Volkswagen, Toyota and Ford. However, not driving any of the mentioned brands does not mean that you are not at risk.
Even if you are driving a second-hand car, for instance, a used Audi, you should be careful because you don’t want to lose your precious hard-earned car.
4. Install a car tracking device
For those who are not sure what a vehicle tracking system is, it is an electronic device that is installed in a vehicle to enable the owner to track the vehicle’s location.
There are a lot of benefits of having a car tracker and here are some of them:
With a vehicle tracker, you can locate your lost or stolen car, some advanced trackers even have features such as engine temperature and fuel level indicators which makes it easier to predict fuel costs.
It also helps you identify the quickest routes and that will save both time and money, you can find your destination quicker with the help of GPS and you also eliminate unnecessary fuel expenses.
Trackers also help with speed detection, this is important because over speeding is one of the major causes of accidents.
Drivers should drive at a particular speed. A GPS tracking device will calculate your speed and help you drive at the required pace.