The reality is that the roads in South Africa are a minefield of preventable accidents. The kind of accidents that are caused by poor driving (and poor road conditions). While we can’t do anything about potholes the size of SUVs, we can help you drive better and stay safer on the road by pointing out the most common errors that you’re making along with advanced driving tips that are easy to follow.
Here’s how you’re doing it wrong (and how to do it right):
You’re focusing on what’s right in front of you
Who knew that what you’re looking at is the first place that you’re getting it wrong… Not us, that’s for sure. But it seems that most of us tend to focus on what’s right in front of us when in fact we should be looking at the farthest bit of road that the eye can spy. It’s the ‘keep your eye far out’ method (catchy, right?). What this method does is sharpen up your line of vision and allow you to see everything from right to left and beyond.
You’re sitting badly
Turns out, we’re not only using our eyes in the wrong way to see ahead but we’re also sitting incorrectly. What you want to do is sit not too far away from the pedals, but not have your legs fully extended. A balance between those 2 should give your legs the freedom to enjoy a gentle bend of the knees. This gives you more space to respond to sudden stops, starts, and turns, and could even protect you against potential hip injuries if you crash.
You’re automatically slamming on brakes
When there’s a tricky or unexpected situation on the road, the temptation or even automatic reaction is to quickly hit the brakes. A lot of the time, this can be the right response. Except for when it’s not, like when you have a tyre blowout. In this scenario, you could fishtail or flip your car by braking hard. Instead of automatically hitting the brakes, stay calm and decide if it’s the right response. If you’ve blown a tyre, keep your foot well away from the brake pedal and lightly touch the accelerator so that you can drive straight in your lane before removing your foot from the accelerator and allowing your car to slow down on its own. Then pull over onto the side of the road so you can safely call for help.
Don’t skimp on cover
These simple errors are easy to fix so that you can make sure that you’re safer on the road. But so many other drivers are still sitting too close to the steering wheel, not looking where they’re driving, and braking too hard and too fast. It just makes sense that you make sure you’ve got affordable car insurance so that you’re not responsible for all the costs if there’s an incident involving your car.
There are a bunch of options on the market, but if you’re interested in skipping all the Googling, then click here for a quote for super cheap car insurance where your premiums will decrease monthly to correspond with the depreciating value of your car. Yes, that’s a real thing (your premiums will literally decrease every month).
Posted in partnership with King Price Insurance
