The ice road conditions are among the most dangerous driving conditions you can face. The icy surface makes it incredibly hard to achieve traction, but learning how to drive on ice might be a life-saving tip. Today, we will be looking at 5 things you need to remember when driving in icy conditions.
Patience – Drive Slower, Take Your Time
The best strategy you can find when driving in snowy weather is to take your time and drive slower than you can normally do. You should consider spending some additional time before you leave, so you can take your time while still arriving at your destination on time. Moving steadily would significantly decrease the likelihood of experiencing an accident. Not to mention, if you happen to lose control and hit something, this will also lower your car’s amount of damage.
Brakes – How To Use Them On Ice
Even if brakes are widely used to help steady the car and bring you to a stop in and out of emergency situations, they can do more damage than good if used incorrectly on ice. In slippery weather, pressing on the brakes will bring your car into an uncontrollable skid. What you want to do is drive carefully enough to allow the weight of your car to bring the vehicle to a stop if needed. When you need to use your brakes on ice, gently pump your brakes to avoid locking up your tyres.
Skidding – How To Get Out Of A Skid
Skidding amounts to losing your vehicle’s stability on ice and sliding across the ice without traction. During a skid, a number of drivers freeze up or overcorrect, allowing them to spin out of control. You’ll want to gently turn into the skid and get out of the skid safely and pump the brakes slowly to try to stop traction. When you feel your vehicle recover momentum and start to straighten out, gently slip your steering wheel back into position to drive out of the skid. This does not necessarily mean finishing in the same direction, mostly merely reducing whether you overcorrected or froze up the amount of skidding you might have done.
Temperatures – Watching For Freezing Temperatures
Icy traffic conditions occur as water on the road freezes because of a decrease in temperature. Tracking the outside temperatures is a great way to stay on top of shifting road conditions. Using an in-car display displaying outside temperatures is a smart way of determining where you will need to look for ice patches on the lane. In order to see what you can expect, if your car does not have this feature, you can simply check the temperature adjustments before leaving the building.
Snow Tires – Do They Help On Ice?
Most individuals believe that ice tires and winter tires can aid in frozen road conditions, close to how they help on snow-packed highways. The solution here is not because no extra traction is added on ice. Icy roads are too slippery for snow tires and tyre chains to make a difference, but they certainly won’t hurt if you already have them in your winter vehicle.
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