Articles Posted in Automobile Accidents

With the temperatures dropping and some places having wind chills well below freezing, you need to be careful. A blizzard is going to hit much of the northeast of the U.S. including PA. We may not see too much snow from the storm, but there are other dangers you need to be careful of.

Such low temperatures mean that water can freeze almost instantly. Black ice will be on roadways and sidewalks and even if you are careful it is easy to be injured from slipping in your car or on foot. Remember if you are driving and hit a patch of ice, do not hit your brakes, you want to maintain you current speed so you keep going straight.

If you see ice on sidewalks or in parking lots, do your best to avoid it. Remember the slower you are going the better off you will be.

PennDOT is kicking of their Winter Driving Awareness Week by reminding drivers that extra preparation and care needs to be taken while driving during the next few months.

Winter Driving Awareness Week is January 11^th through January 17^th. The state’s Department of Transportation wants everyone to make sure they are prepared for snowy and icy roads through the rest of the winter.

Being prepared means making sure your tires have enough traction to grip slippery roads, having items you may need such as an ice scraper, or rock salt in your car, and giving yourself enough time to get where you need to go if you need to slow down due to road conditions.

The first week of December has been deemed “Older Driver Safety Awareness Week.” With over 20% of PA drivers being over the age of 65, and around 15% of all accidents involving an older driver, PennDOT is stressing the need for families and friends of elderly drivers to speak openly about driving safety.

Most drivers who have been driving for years are afraid to lose their mobility as they get older. Not all older drivers need to give up their license however. PennDOT offers driver improvement courses to help sharpen driving skills.  A list of these courses are available at www.JustDrivePA.com. Many insurance companies will even give a discount to older drivers who complete one of these approved courses.

If someone does need to consider giving up their driver’s license, there are resources available to them and their family at www.PACommutes.com. Just because someone can’t drive, doesn’t mean they need to give up their mobility.

Since daylight savings time is now over and the clocks have rolled back we are pretty deep into the fall season. As winter approaches and we get less sunlight each day, there are some driving hazards that come up this time of year that we didn’t have to deal with during the summer.

Sun glare now coincides with many people’s morning and evening commutes. For many this is during rush hour traffic, the amount of people on the roads and the dangers of being blinded by the sun while driving can make for a pretty bad situation.

Keep your sunglasses handy where you don’t have to reach or look around for them while driving and remove items from your sun visor so you can put it down when needed. Also remember that dirty windshields can reflect sunlight and cause a glare that can be hard to see though, so keep your windshield clean.