{"id":935,"date":"2011-05-25T15:27:42","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T05:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=935"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:55:25","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:55:25","slug":"extreme-weather-driving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/home\/extreme-weather-driving\/","title":{"rendered":"Extreme weather driving"},"content":{"rendered":"

The colder, darker days are now upon us, with the winter solstice (the shortest day) less than a month away.\u00a0 For those in the hotter bits of our country, this will come as a bit of a relief.\u00a0 However, for those of us who are tucked down in the more temperate parts, winter can bring some motoring challenges.<\/p>\n

Whether we do our driving on the open road or around town or a mixture of both, the cops and other experts tell us that we should drive to the conditions and that the speeds and driving styles that suit fine sunny days with no wind aren\u2019t quite what\u2019s appropriate when things are darker, wetter, windier, frostier, etc.\u00a0 The civil engineers and traffic analysts who study crash patterns so they can make roads safer always record whether an accident took place in rainy weather or something other than fine days.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t already had some advice on how to drive in the curlier weather conditions that winter can throw at us (and other seasons \u2013 let\u2019s admit it), then here\u2019s some tips to follow.<\/p>\n

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Rain: Slow down.\u00a0 Water reduces friction, and the road surface is covered with it.\u00a0 The slicker the road surface and the slicker your tyres, the more likely you are to get into a skid.\u00a0 Allow extra distance for braking on corners or in when following.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have the rain-sensing window wipers, then make sure that you use your wipers and get them at the right speed.\u00a0 It\u2019s usually wise to check your wiper blades at the start of the wetter weather and make sure that they\u2019re in good nick \u2013 replace them if necessary.\u00a0 Try to avoid going near or crossing rivers that are likely to flood.<\/p>\n

Hail: Hail is like rain but more so.\u00a0 Ice is even more slippery than water and hail can sit around on the road for longer until it melts. If hail is particularly heavy, pull over and wait until it eases.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t happen often, but you do hear of hailstones that are big enough to smash windows, and you don\u2019t want to be travelling at speed if one of these falls and collects your windscreen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Strong wind:\u00a0 Very strong winds can make taller vehicles unstable, especially vans and trucks.\u00a0 On other vehicles, cross-winds and headwinds can exert quite a lot of pressure on your car.\u00a0 Watch out for places where you go from sheltered spots to exposed spots so the wind doesn\u2019t take you by surprise.\u00a0 Always watch out for whoever\u2019s in front of you.\u00a0 Motorbikes and bikes may be overbalanced by sudden gusts, so be prepared to stop or swerve to avoid them.\u00a0 Also watch your load if you are towing a trailer \u2013 stuff is more likely to be blown out in a high wind, so make sure your load is covered properly.\u00a0 Watch out for debris when driving in a high wind.\u00a0 Normally, an old newspaper isn\u2019t much of a driving hazard, but if it lands on your windscreen and gets caught in the wipers, it will be. Also watch out for trees and power lines coming down.\u00a0 If you do get a power line coming down and the wires fall on your car, turn your engine off, stay in your car and don\u2019t touch anything metal.\u00a0 You\u2019ll have to wait until the experts come and get you out, so find some way of amusing yourself.<\/p>\n

Fog:\u00a0 Slow down and put your lights on dip, unless you have fog lights.\u00a0 If you do have fog lights, turn them on!\u00a0 Depending on how thick the fog is, you may need to slow to an absolute crawl to make sure you can stop or turn in time when something looms out of the fog. In our neck of the woods, a mother and her daughter were travelling home at night and ploughed into a mob of cows while driving in foggy conditions. Thankfully they were ok, but the late model Commodore was a complete right off!<\/p>\n

Frost:\u00a0 Be careful on corners, as you will have next to no traction.\u00a0 Slow down, and brake gently well in advance.\u00a0 Be especially careful on bridges during light frosts, as bridges don\u2019t have the insulating effect of earth underneath the middle and can be frosty when other bits of the road aren\u2019t \u2013 I\u2019ve had a close call with these conditions.\u00a0 If you are going over the Tasman for the winter, you may find that some New Zealand roads have loose grit put down on them do increase the surface area of roads in frosty conditions \u2013 drive these like a regular gravel road.<\/p>\n

Snow: We\u2019re unlikely to get the sort of snow that blocks the roads for days over here, but it\u2019s always best not to drive in snow if you can avoid it.\u00a0 If you do have to drive in the snow or if you want to have fun in the snow \u2013 for example, if you\u2019re a ski bunny \u2013 carry chains and a shovel, and slow down.\u00a0 You\u2019re handling ice, so watch out when cornering.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thunder and lightning: Treat this like you would rain and hail, and be prepared to pull over and stop if things get really hairy.\u00a0 Your car is pretty well insulated, so it can take being struck by lightning, so stay in your car during a thunderstorm, even if you break down.<\/p>\n

Tornadoes: These are unlikely, but you never know \u2013 they had a fatal tornado across the Tasman, so we might get a nasty one here.\u00a0 Advice from the US suggests that you shouldn\u2019t try to out-drive a tornado but you should get out of your car and get into a building as soon as possible. http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/offers-zaim\/vashi-dengi-zaim.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The colder, darker days are now upon us, with the winter solstice (the shortest day) less than a month away.\u00a0 For those in the hotter bits of our country, this will come as a bit of a relief.\u00a0 However, for those of us who are tucked down in the more temperate parts, winter can bring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12465,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions\/12465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}