Happy Holidays! Just remember these Five Safe Driving Tips

For many in the Culpeper and Warrenton area, the holidays are a wonderful time of year, full of merriment, family and celebration.  However, it is also a time to exercise extra caution on the road.  Because the time period that includes Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s always results in more accidents, injuries and fatalities than other times of the year it is important to remain vigilant while enjoying the holidays.

 

Our five holiday driving tips for Virginia residents:

1. Plan ahead – map out your route and allow for extra time to get to your destination – and time for breaks.  You don’t want to be stressed out and distracted because you are lost or late.
2. Make sure everyone in the vehicle is wearing a seat belt, even your second cousin in the back seat who claims she never wears seat belts.  Seat belts save lives – and save your back seat passengers from becoming a projectile in a crash.
3. Don’t tailgate.  This is an easy rule to let slide, especially on long, boring highway trips.  You must make sure that no matter what you maintain one car length for every ten miles per hour between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you.
4. Don’t exceed the posted speed limit, and slow down if weather conditions or traffic worsen.  It can be tempting to speed on long trips to make time pass by faster, but don’t – speed only makes car wrecks that much worse.
5. Service your car ahead of time, and plan for breakdowns by packing a spare tire, lug wrench, jack, emergency kit, flares, blankets for cold weather.

 

For more information about safe driving, what to do after an accident, and other tips, please visit our online Virginia auto accident library.