Auto Safety Tips & Advice
What Car Is the Safest?
When shopping for a new car, the question frequently arises about how safe a vehicle is rated. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently released their annual safety picks for the 2010 models.
For auto safety ratings, please visit the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's page that has the list of their 2010 trial results. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Top Safety Picks 2010
Getting There Safely – Tips for Accident-Free Driving
Of course you have auto insurance to help pay the costs of accidental damage to property or personal injuries resulting from use of your motor vehicle! But no insurance can cover the frustrating loss of time and the emotional damages you may suffer. One of the best ways to protect yourself and your family is to observe precautions that will help minimize or eliminate auto-related accidents.
Keep your car in top mechanical condition.
Observing manufacturer-recommended maintenance procedures will not only help keep your car running better and more fuel-efficiently longer, but will also help avoid unexpected and dangerous breakdowns.
Check tires regularly and rotate or replace as needed.
Excessively worn or damaged tires can result in dangerous blow-outs. Also, tires that are not properly inflated or have insufficient tread require longer stopping distances and give drivers less effective vehicle handling, thus resulting in higher incidence of vehicle accidents.
Observe posted speed limits.
Speed limits are regulated by the risk factors of driving in the area’s prevailing conditions. So in addition to avoiding the legal consequences of driving at excessive speed, drivers are less likely to be involved in vehicle accidents when driving at safe speeds.
Avoid distractions – be vigilant.
Cell phone conversations, children demanding attention, the distractions of a busy lifestyle – all are factors contributing to careless driving practices and, ultimately, vehicle accidents. Try to avoid situations that distract you from your responsibility to drive safely, and when avoidance is impossible, pull off the road to deal with the situation before traveling on. You’ll possibly spend a little more time getting to your destination, but you’ll save yourself stress and damages and injuries in the end.
Avoid following too close to the vehicle ahead of you.
In busy, bumper-to-bumper traffic, it’s often tempting to follow closely behind the vehicle ahead of you – it feels like you’ll get there faster, maybe they’ll speed up – whatever the reason. However, this is one unsafe driving practice that often leads to vehicle damage and possibly personal injury. It’s hard to predict the road conditions ahead and when you might need to stop fast, so allow yourself sufficient space to react and to stop if necessary.
Park in a well-lit, safe place.
For your own personal safety and for the protection of your vehicle, avoid parking in remote areas or places where it would be difficult to see someone who might try to attack you or to break into your vehicle.
Always lock your car & take the keys with you.
It takes only seconds for someone to strip your car’s audio system or grab personal items from the interior of your vehicle – even as it sits in your own driveway. And in only seconds, a determined thief can start your vehicle and drive it away – to joy-ride or even to be stripped at a “chop shop” and resold as vehicle parts. When these thieves encounter a locked vehicle, very often they will move on to find another target more easily accessed. So the little effort you take to secure your vehicle may result in that much less stress and loss to you in the future.
