Smart Tips For Improved Winter Driving

Winter weather brings both beauty and the hazards of bad driving conditions. Fog, rain, snow, sleet and ice each present different challenges for motorists. It's best to stay off the roads when severe conditions occur. However, often you have no choice but to brave the elements. To help you along your journeys, read these seven guidelines to staying safe and secure this winter season.

1. Prepare your car. Before the storms approach, make sure your automobile is winter-worthy. Besides the standard item checks like tune-ups, oil levels, and brakes, it’s important to look at your heater, anti-freeze level, battery and hazard lights. Even a seemingly unimportant thing like windshield washer fluid level can become critical.

2. Watch out for danger zones. Truthfully, dangers lurk everywhere when the roads are slippery, but there are three areas that require special attention:

• Intersections: You and the driver going the other way may have trouble stopping. Even accelerating as the light changes can lead to loss of control.
• Hills: Here, you must seek the path that gives you the most traction. Try not to stop at the bottom of a hill; you might not have enough momentum to get going again.
• Curves: These are, potentially, the biggest source of skids. Reduce speeds entering curves and try not to accelerate or decelerate while turning.

3. Give yourself some space. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration always recommends that drivers keep a safe distance between themselves and the car they are following -- usually one to two car-lengths. Those recommendations increase significantly during the winter because quick stops on icy roads require even more room for error. In fact, the safe distance to keep is nearly double the suggested margin in dry conditions.

4. Know how to react to a skid. It seems almost inevitable that every driver will encounter a skid during the winter. Try to shift into neutral, avoid braking, look where you want to go and turn the wheel in that direction.

5. Keep your gas tank full. Besides the obvious caution against running out of fuel in bad weather, it’s also important to consider what might happen if you get stuck somewhere. As you wait for help to arrive, you need to keep the motor and the car’s heater running. And, the extra weight in the car from the additional gallons of gas helps better stabilize your vehicle in icy conditions.

6. Slow down. This refers to everything you do during tricky winter weather conditions. Brake and accelerate slowly, as quick starts lead to skidding and “fishtailing,” where your rear end spins toward the front.  Give yourself plenty of time to stop as well, as slamming on the brakes might cause you to skid.

7. Prepare an emergency kit. Hopefully, you’ll never need it, but just in case you do, an emergency kit can be a real lifesaver. Load your kit with an ice scraper, jumper cables, heavy work gloves, a small shovel, bottled water, a tow line, de-icer, flares and a flashlight. Some people also keep a bag of kitty litter or gravel in the trunk to use as traction if their car is stuck in the snow.

Winter driving can test even the most experienced driver's nerves. Make sure your auto insurance policy is up to date and will cover you in the event of a fender bender or worse. Check out NetQuote today to compare car insurance quotes from several companies so you can find the one that best fits your needs and saves you the most money.

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