It’s Memorial Day Weekend, the traditional start of the summer driving season. With gas prices trending downwards, the annual family road-trip vacation could be making a comeback this year. But before you hit the highways, you will want to think about a few things to make your journey safer and more enjoyable.
Be Safe on the Road
Planning a road trip this holiday season or beyond? From where you’ll stay each night to which sights you’ll visit along the way, you’ll have lots of decisions to make. If you’ll be traveling with your spouse, other family members, or friends, you can count on making lots of compromises too. After all, everyone has a slightly different idea of what makes for the perfect vacation.
But there’s one thing you and all your travel companions can agree on: Getting to your destination and back safely is priority number one. So take a few minutes now to focus on what matters most. By simply following the 3 steps outlined below, you can map out a strategy to avoid road trouble and ensure your entire trip is as safe and worry-free as possible.
For tons more information about safety on the road, visit NHTSA.
1. BEFORE YOU LEAVE
Regular maintenance such as tune-ups, oil changes, battery checks, tire rotations, and so forth go a long way toward preventing breakdowns before they happen. If your vehicle has been serviced according to the manufacturer’s recommendations, it should be in good shape and nearly ready to travel. If not — or you don’t know the service history of the vehicle you plan to drive — schedule a preventive maintenance check-up with your mechanic now.
Providing your vehicle is well maintained, getting it ready for a road trip is relatively quick and easy. However, it’s important to perform the following basic safety checks before you go:
Vehicle Safety Checklist
Tires — Air pressure, tread wear, spare
Check the air pressure in all your tires, especially the neglected spare. To get an accurate reading, check pressure when tires are cold, meaning they haven’t been driven on for at least three hours. It’s a good idea to keep a tire pressure gauge on hand in your vehicle for this purpose. You can find the correct pressure for your tires listed on a label inside the driver’s doorframe or in the vehicle’s owner’s manual — the correct pressure is not the number listed on the tire itself.
Also, take five minutes to inspect your tires for signs of excessive or irregular wear. If the tread is worn down to 1/16 of an inch, it’s time to replace your tires. If you find irregular tread wear patterns, it means your tires need rotation and/or your wheels need to be realigned before you leave. For more information on tire safety and pressure, visit the “Tires” section of www.safercar.gov, a vehicle safety resource of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Belts and Hoses — Condition and fittings
Look under the hood and inspect all belts and hoses to make sure they are in good shape with no signs of blisters, cracks, or cuts in the rubber. High summer temperatures accelerate the rate at which rubber belts and hoses degrade, so it’s best to replace them now if they show signs of obvious wear. While you’re at it, check all hose connections to make sure they’re secure.
Wiper Blades — Wear and tear on both sides
After the heavy duty imposed by winter storms and spring rains, it’s likely that your windshield wipers are ragged from use and ready to be replaced. Moreover, like rubber belts and hoses, wiper blades are susceptible to the summer heat. Examine your blades for signs of wear and tear. If they aren’t in tip-top condition, invest in new ones before you go.
Cooling System — Needed servicing and coolant level
Carefully check your coolant level to make sure it’s adequate. In addition, if it’s time to have your cooling system flushed and refilled (or even nearly time), have it done now. On a long road trip in summer heat, you’ll want your cooling system functioning at peak performance to avoid the possibility of your engine overheating.
Fluid Levels — Oil, brake, transmission, power steering, coolant, and windshield
Obviously, you’ll want to check your vehicle’s oil level. And as with coolant, if it’s time or even nearly time to have the oil changed, now would be a good time to do it. In addition, check the following fluid levels: brake, automatic transmission, power steering, windshield washer, and coolant. Make sure each reservoir is full and if you see any sign of fluid leakage, take your vehicle in to be serviced.
Lights — Headlights, brake lights, turn signals, emergency flashers, interior lights, and trailer lights
See and be seen! Ensure all the lights on your vehicle are in working order. Check your headlights, brake lights, turn signals, emergency flashers and interior lights. Towing a trailer? Be sure to check your trailer lights too. Failure of trailer light connections is a common problem and a serious safety hazard.
Air Conditioning — Sensitive to heat? Check AC performance before traveling
If you’re traveling with someone sensitive to heat, you may also want to ensure that your air conditioning system is functioning properly. Lack of air conditioning on a hot summer day can adversely affect people who are in poor health or are sensitive to heat, such as children and seniors. If the air is not blowing cold, it’s a good idea to have the system repaired before you go, especially since emergency, on-the-road repairs can be more costly than those you plan in advance.
2. WHAT TO TAKE
Child Safety Seats
If you’ll be traveling with children, you’ll need to make room in your back seat for appropriate child safety and/or booster seats. NHTSA guidelines for proper child safety and booster seat use can be found at www.boosterseat.gov under “Which seat is right for my child?”
Emergency Roadside Kit
Even a well-maintained vehicle can break down, so it’s advisable to put together an Emergency Roadside Kit to carry with you. A cell phone tops the list of suggested emergency kit contents since it allows you to call for help when and where you need it. Suggested Emergency Roadside Kit contents include:
• Cell phone
• First aid kit
• Flashlight
• Flares and a white flag
• Jumper cables
• Jack (and ground mat) for changing a tire
• Work gloves and a change of clothes
• Basic repair tools and some duct tape (for temporarily repairing a hose leak!)
• A jug of water and paper towels for cleaning up
• Nonperishable food, drinking water, and medicines
• Extra windshield washer fluid
• Maps
3. ON THE ROAD
Getting there is half the fun of a road trip vacation. It’s also half the hassle. Plenty of distractions both inside and outside your vehicle can take your attention from the road. Cranky fellow travelers, traffic congestion, road construction and detours, ringing cell phones, unfamiliar roads, and loud music are just a few you might encounter. While you can expect some distractions, you can also counter them with safe driving techniques to help you keep your focus.
Tips for Staying Focused
The best way to stay focused while driving is to avoid fatigue. So schedule your trip to allow for frequent breaks. Stopping for food or beverages, taking time to pull over at a rest stop just to stretch your legs, staying overnight at a motel or local bed and breakfast, and sharing the driving are all good strategies for avoiding fatigue and staying alert behind the wheel.
Traveling with Children
Remember that long trips can be especially tough on children. Stopping along the way makes the trip easier and less tiring for them as well — and more of an adventure too! Also, bring along a few favorite books or soft toys to keep the little ones content and occupied. The trip will seem to go faster for them, perhaps lessen the number of times they ask, “Are we there yet?”, and better enable you to keep your attention on driving.
Buckle Up America. Every Trip. Every Time.
Along with staying focused, make sure everyone in your vehicle is buckled up properly at all times. In fact, buckling up is the single most effective thing you can do to keep yourself and your passengers safe while on the road.
AAA reports that last Thanksgiving weekend, an estimated 33.8 million people traveled over the Thanksgiving long weekend, with more than 75 percent of those people driving. Estimates project an even higher number of travelers this year, causing our nation’s highways to be more congested than ever, in potentially bad weather. Follow these tips, get prepared, and stay safe during those long hours behind the wheel on Thanksgiving weekend or later this holiday season.
Prepare your vehicle. Make sure it is maintained and in good shape. Check your tire pressure, oil, and coolant.
Be prepared for winter driving. In some areas of the country, Thanksgiving weekend is not only one of the busiest weekends of the year but also sometimes the first winter-driving weekend. Carry a snow scraper and brush, a flashlight, blankets, booster cables, and a shovel, and make sure you have flares or emergency triangles.
Check on road conditions and weather in advance. First check TCC for our own real-time traffic reports. You may also want to try the Federal Highway Administration’s site, at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/trafficinfo/index.htm, for traffic information and links to other traffic sites. Check the weather forecast before you go, and try http://www.drivecast.com for the weather along major interstate highways.
Bring a cell phone for emergencies, but don’t ever use hand-held cell phones while driving, and even if you have a hands-free cell phone, use it only when absolutely necessary. Leave the calling to passengers, or better yet, when you’ve pulled over somewhere off the highway.
Wear a seatbelt. Make sure that every occupant of your vehicle is properly wearing seatbelts, even if you are in a van or RV.
Take regular breaks. Stop at least once every two hours-more frequently if it’s snowing, as falling snow can have a hypnotic effect.
Don’t speed. Speeding to try to cut trip time is especially risky when highways are packed with holiday traffic. Police will be out in full force to enforce posted limits.
Don’t drink and drive! Watch out for other drunks on the road, and report any suspects to the police before they cause an accident. According to NHTSA data, more people are killed in accidents on Thanksgiving weekend than in the New Year’s Day weekend, and nearly half of the accidents involve drunk drivers.
Don’t binge. Drinking or eating too much over the weekend will leave you tired for the drive back. Safely stow food in the trunk, rather than in the car where it’s a distraction. Keep in mind that turkey contains a natural sedative, called L-tryptophan.
Cut distractions. Supply the kids with distractions so they don’t distract you. Traditional games like travel bingo tend to be a lot less annoying on a long trip than the sounds of a Buzz Lightyear doll and a Game Boy.
Finally, read TCC’s tips on Night Driving for more information. And get a sense of humor-if you’re driving more than six hours, you’re going to need it!
Rules for Safe Driving
Beyond acquiring basic car control skills — and exercising good judgment behind the wheel — there are a few basic rules for safe driving that everyone should know — and follow:
Don’t tailgate: Crowding the car ahead of you makes it more likely you’ll smash into it if the driver should suddenly brake. Modern safety devices such as anti-lock brakes and traction control don’t trump physics.
Obey the three second rule: Every driver should know and heed the three second rule: When the vehicle ahead of you passes a fixed object (such as a tree or telephone pole) slowly count “one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand.” If you reach the object before completing the count, you’re following too closely. Double your following distance (to six seconds) in poor weather.
Use turn signals: Failing to signal your intentions to other motorists is always dangerous — as well as discourteous. Other motorists are not psychic; they can’t guess that you are planning on making a right turn — or about to move into the next lane. Signaling is especially important for the safety of motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians, too. If they are in your blind spot and you just assume no one’s there and execute a maneuver without signaling first, these folks will get no advance warning — and will suffer the most if you strike them.
Don’t impede the flow of traffic: Driving too slowly can be more dangerous than driving a little faster than the posted limit. In a high-density situation, with many others vehicles sharing the road, a dawdler creates what amounts to a rolling roadblock. Traffic snarls; motorists jockey for position — the smooth flow of cars is interrupted. Try to drive with the flow of traffic — and if the car behind you clearly wishes to go faster, the best thing to do is let it get by, whether you are “doing the limit” already or not. The other driver may have an emergency you are unaware of — and in any event, it is simply safer and more courteous to yield to faster-moving traffic. Leave enforcement of speed limits to the police.
Maintain appropriate speed: Speed, as such, doesn’t kill. If it did, airliners traveling at 500 mph would have the highest accident/fatality rates of any form of transportation. But air travel is in fact much safer than driving — and few cars travel at 500 mph. The problem is inappropriate speed. For example, while it may be perfectly legal to drive 65 mph on the highway, if you don’t slow down when it’s raining heavily (or snowing) and your visibility as well as your car’s stopping ability are reduced — you increase your chances of having an accident. Similarly, if you are driving an unfamiliar road, especially a country road with many blind curves, you may not be able to negotiate the road at the same speed a local might with equal safety. Use your judgment — and adjust speed to match conditions and your comfort level.
Plan ahead/use your mirrors: Anticipate the need to brake or make lane changes, etc. by constantly scanning your driving environment and watching the actions of other drivers, pedestrians and so on. This way, it’s less likely you’ll need to jam on the brakes — or make sudden steering changes — to avoid problems. The best drivers always maintain “situational awareness” — where other cars are in relation to their vehicle, what’s coming up ahead — and what’s happening on either side of them and behind them. Use your mirrors — frequently.
Drive within your limits, the limits set by conditions and the limits of your vehicle: SUVs are not as equipped as sporty cars to travel safely at higher speeds — and sporty cars tend to get skittish much more readily when it snows. Older vehicles lacking modern tires or traction/stability enhancers don’t have the same built-in edge as late model cars with those features. You’ll need more time to slow down safely; the older car will also go into a skid with less provocation than a newer car equipped with an electronic stability aid. Don’t drive faster than you — or your vehicle — can drive safely, with ample “cushion” of time and space to make corrections and react to changing conditions and other motorists.
If you have the desire to become an even better driver — and learn how to handle emergency situations such as panic braking and loss of vehicle control — you may want to attend a driving school where you’ll learn about vehicle handling dynamics on a closed course track under expert supervision. Many of these classes are taught by former race car drivers such as Bob Bondurant — and while not inexpensive, they pay in heightened ability behind the wheel that could save your life down the road.
Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving: (1-800-842-7223) Phoenix, AZ. Advanced Teenage Driving (3 days, $3,095), Highway Survival Training (1 day, $1,175), High Performance Driving (2 days, $2,195).
Skip Barber Driving School: (1-800-221-1131) CA and CT. One or two-day programs, $995-$1,295.
Master Drive Driver Training School: (1-719-260-0999) Denver, CO. Teen, senior and high-performance courses (call for prices, dates and availability).