Road safety is an extremely important issue, but we often push it to the back of our minds. This is especially true when we have been driving for most of our lives. However, staying aware of the importance of road safety can protect not only you, but everyone else on the road along with you. Below, we have assembled a list of ways to improve road safety that you can start thinking about today.
1. Stay Informed and Educated
After getting our drivers licenses as teenagers, we often think that there’s no reason to keep studying the rules of the road. However, refreshing our memories with road safety information can be beneficial throughout our entire driving lives.
By taking defensive driving courses and staying up to date with driving laws and regulations, we can responsibly take our safety and the safety of other drivers into our own hands.
2. Wear Your Seat Belt at All Times
We all know that we should be wearing our seat belts at all times while in the car, but sometimes we forget just how important this one little thing is for our safety. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, seat belts saved a total of 14,955 lives in 2017. This is an incredibly significant amount of lives saved from doing one simple task when you get into a vehicle.
Even if you are only traveling a short distance, stay in the habit of putting your seat belt on each and every time you get in the car. While it may seem unnecessary now, it just might save your life when you least expect it.
3. Closely Follow the Speed Limit
It can be tempting to speed while driving when we have somewhere, we want to get quickly or when we are simply going along with the flow of traffic on the highway. However, speed limits are in place for a reason, and they are a very important part of maintaining road safety.
If you are driving over the speed limit, then you are at a greater risk for crashing your car in that specific area. Worse yet, the faster you are going over the speed limit, the more severe the crash will be. This affects not only you, but anyone else on the road you may hit while speeding. Keep yourself and others on the road safe by following speed regulations at all times.
4. Always Remember to Use Your Headlights
Visibility is an extremely important issue for drivers when it comes to road safety. If you aren’t able to see the lines on the road or signs along the road, then you are far more likely to have an accident or drive off the road completely. Additionally, drivers who aren’t able to see your vehicle from a distance may not stop in time before crashing into you.
Always remember to use your headlights at night or in other low visibility situations, like heavy rain, fog, dirty roads, or cloudy weather.
5. Never, Ever Drink and Drive
Drinking and driving is one of the worst things you could do when it comes to road safety. The decision affects not only you, but everyone else driving on the road at the same time as you. According to the CDC, 29 people are killed each and every day in the United States by a drunk driver.
To keep you and everyone else safe, don’t ever drive after drinking or allow anyone else you are with drive drunk, either. Rely on a designated sober driver or public transportation to improve road safety in these situations.
6. Pay Attention
This may seem like a simple and straightforward tip to improve road safety, but it is still important. Paying attention to everything going on around is a crucial part of driving safely that we often get lazy about the longer we drive.
For your safety and the safety of others, always pay attention to your mirrors, passing or nearby cars, road signs, pedestrians, and driving conditions at all times. Getting distracted is an easy way for accidents to happen that could have been prevented otherwise.
