- Drive Safe-Safety
As a leading South African specialist tyre and fitment centre, vehicle safety is one of Supa Quick’s key objectives. Ary Coetzee,*Bridgestone’s Technical and Product Specialist, shares his seven key tips to help young drivers remain safe on the roads.
1. Stick to the Speed Limit
Avoid speeding, it is a killer. If you frequently speed, try to understand this behaviour so you can change it.
- Give yourself enough time to make your journey easily and without rushing.
- Keep your eyes firmly on the road and obey speed limits, treating them as a maximum.
- Be considerate. On long trips, slow down when you start entering more rural areas to ensure you don’t knock over pedestrians or animals from the settlement.
Read more: How Speed Influences Car Accidents
2. Wear Your Seatbelt
It is inexcusable not to wear a seatbelt. If you are in a collision when not buckled up, you can become projectile. At best this would cause you to bang around in your car, knocking against the steering wheel; at worst you would hit the windshield or be thrown from your vehicle. Serious injury or death would result. Additionally, airbags are far more effective when used in conjunction with seatbelts.
Read more: Seatbelt Safety
3. Don’t Text While Driving
Research shows that texting while driving makes you 23% more likely to have an accident. If you feel it is critical to answer a message or make a call while driving:
- Pull off the road to an appropriate parking place.
- Use bluetooth or a hands free device if you need to use your phone while driving.
- Should you have a passenger, ask them to respond to the phone call for you.
4. Check Your Blind Spot
Those in accidents resulting from blind spots incur injuries such as concussion, whiplash and other spinal cord trauma. You can avoid such injuries by:
- Ensuring your car mirrors frame the rear window.
- Sitting in your vehicle and adjusting the left mirror so that only a part of the vehicle’s left side is visible.
- Leaning to the centre of your vehicle until you reach the area right above the centre consol. Then, adjusting the right hand mirror so that only a part of the vehicle’s right side is visible.
- Checking for cars in adjacent lanes while driving.
- Watching for cars as they approach.
5. Don’t Drink and Drive
An international survey undertaken in 2015 revealed the countries with the highest number of drunk driving incidents:
- South Africa – 58%
- Canada next – 34%
- China the least – 4%
You can influence such statistics and bring about change in our country. Identify when you are drunk and instead of driving home, phone for an Uber, travel with a designated driver or phone a family member, friend, or a service such as Buddys.
6. Don’t Drive when Drowsy
Driving when drowsy occurs for a number of reasons: when a driver has not slept enough, has untreated sleep disorders, works shifts, drinks alcohol or takes medication causing sleepiness. Your judgement is impaired and you could even fall asleep behind the wheel; both could result in serious injury or death.
7. Turn on Your Headlights
Prevent accidents owing to poor visibility by turning on your vehicle’s headlights 30 minutes after sunset, until 30 minutes before sunrise, and at any time when you can’t see a person or vehicle 100 metres away.
Poor driving habits and practices can result in death, life-long injury, imprisonment and losing your licence. Why risk putting an end to your freedom and independence?
Supa Quick is passionate about bringing better safety on our roads. Let’s all work towards this mission starting with Youth Day 2019, on 16 June. Here’s wishing all our young people many happy years of safe driving!
*Supa Quick is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bridgestone South Africa PTY LTD.
Disclaimer: This information is for educational, or entertainment purposes only. The views expressed here are not that of Supa Quick. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information on this site is at your own risk. We will not be liable for any losses and damages in connection with the content on this site.
