Nothing beats driving in warm weather, really. You can cruise around and, although not advisable, sometimes zone out without having many problems. The weather is clear so you don’t have any visibility issues. However, things could quickly get ugly when it starts raining and the weather becomes less friendly. No matter how prepared you are to avoid driving in the rain or in bad weather, you can’t always avoid it. And unfortunately, bad weather increases the chances of accidents. Suffice to say, safe driving in bad weather is really important. So, here are a few tips to arm yourself with when you are driving in the rain or in bad weather.

Safe Driving Tips
The tips that I have here are mostly for wet road conditions, and on very rare occasions, drastically reduced visibility due to fog on a cold harmattan morning. As we don’t have winter here in Nigeria, there’s no snow and all other bad weather conditions attached to winter. So, here we go.

1. Prepare for the bad weather conditions
Nothing beats preparation, honestly. Especially when your safety is involved, I think it’s just common sense to do everything you need to do to be safe. Make sure your windshield, windows, and mirrors are clean. You need to see everything worth seeing and see them clearly. Make sure that your windshield wipers are working properly. Also, check your tyres for any signs of damage. If they are old, replace them.

In addition, listen to weather forecasts. Technology has made a lot of things easier these days. You can easily check the weather forecast on your phone. Try to put your ears out for some incidents that could make you late for your appointments and try to see if there are alternative routes to avoid the incidents. Because when you are late, you tend to drive faster, and this isn’t advisable in bad weather conditions.

2. Drive safely by not driving at all… if you can
This is, in fact, the best way to be safe when you are driving in the rain or bad weather. Have you experienced weather conditions where you could barely see what’s right in front of you, talkless of trying to get around on a busy road? It’s just a smart decision to find a safe place to park your car and wait it out if you can.

If you can strictly live by this first rule, there’s no need to go ahead to read the rest of this article. Your work here is done. However, I understand that you might have urgent business to attend to and you don’t want to wait. So, let’s arm you with the second tip.

3. Take it slow, take it steady
Well, since you don’t want to stop you should at least drive slowly. You shouldn’t even negotiate this at all. Wet roads are slippery and slippery roads are deadly. Don’t let other drivers speeding around you intimidate you into joining them. Your first and most important responsibility is to get to your destination safely, not quickly. You should also stick to the far right side of the road.

4. Don’t get cocky. Use your headlights
When the weather gets bad, it’s a common thing for visibility to be reduced. In this situation, you have to use your headlights. To be safe, always ensure that your headlights are bright enough before you embark on trips. As a matter of fact, some countries make it a law to always use your headlights when your wipers are on, which is a good practice.

Headlights aren’t just for you to see ahead of you when you are driving, they are also for other drivers to see you. It would be a silly way to get yourself involved in an accident because an oncoming driver didn’t see you and rammed into you. Don’t take chances, even if you can see clearly, the driver coming in the opposite direction may not be seeing clearly.


5. Learn how to handle skids
Skids could be dangerous when you’re driving fast. But if you are going slowly, you shouldn’t encounter any outrightly dangerous skids. So, what do you do when your car skids on a wet road? You simply turn in the direction your car is skidding without pressing the brake and the gas pedals. This way, your car recovers from the skid by itself. Remember, don’t match that brake pedal, don’t match the gas pedal.

Now, imagine you were actually speeding and your car starts skidding on a wet road, you would most likely crash into something before you are able to stop.

6. Leave a reasonable distance between you and the car in front of you
I believe the heading has said it all. Your car takes longer to come to a stop when the road is wet than when the road is dry. So, it only makes sense for you to plan ahead and create some room for yourself when you’re driving in the rain

Final Words
Don’t mess around with your own safety or the safety of others. Drive safely.


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