DRIVING TIPS FROM BRISTOL ADVANCED MOTORISTS
Ice on the Road
Every motorist should take heed of the fact that when driving conditions are icy, it is crucial to adjust your driving style and increase your hazard awareness.
Anybody who has been on the wrong end of a skid knows just how terrifying it can be - and not just for the driver, but for passengers and other road users too.
Even on a fine day when the road surface seems normal, ice can remain where trees and walls shade the road, where gradients are not warmed by the sun, or where wind sweeps across an exposed bridge, especially where cold air gets under a bridge.
When roads are slippery, use the controls - brakes, steering, accelerator, and clutch - smoothly and gently to avoid going into a skid. Black ice occurs in patches, so it is very easy to be lulled into a false sense of security after driving for some miles along a road that seems normal. Tune in to your tyres - if they go quiet, you're probably on ice! The only advice must be to drive very cautiously when the temperature is low enough for black ice to be a risk.
And if you do get into a skid on ice, remove the cause immediately - which means take your foot OFF the brake pedal and concentrate on where you want the car to go. Removing brake pressure will restore some steering and give you a better chance of recovery. And don't rely on ABS or traction control to keep you out of trouble because they only work when there is full traction between tyres and road surface. Full traction is severely reduced by ice.
It is the driver's responsibility to ensure that they're travelling at an appropriate speed for these conditions. You need to be confident that you can stop in the distance you can see to be clear, bearing in mind that when you apply the brake pedal on ice you might not be able to stop in that distance. You need to anticipate the road surface and the effect that it can have on braking or steering.
The question to ask; dry, wet, icy or otherwise, is this; can you honestly stop in the distance you can see to be clear? If the answer to that is 'no' - then you're just too quick for the rest of us!
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