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Taking time off to travel is exciting and gives you something to look forward to. However, it requires sufficient time to plan and ensure that your car is roadworthy; you know how to act in an emergency and driver fatigue won’t result in preventable collisions. Read on for road safety tips when travelling during the long weekend.

Plan Your Journey

If you are driving a long distance, you should consider planning your trip and finding helpful information about the route you will take. Doing so can help you determine if you need to find alternative routes, the status of the roads and whether traffic might be something to worry about. Using familiar roads and sticking to toll roads is recommended since they’re likely to have petrol stations for when you need to refuel and avoid being stranded.

Assess the Vehicle

Ensuring your vehicle is well maintained before you travel is important. It can help prevent accidents and improve road safety for yourself and other road users. Here are practical tips to consider when assessing your vehicle:

• Check if the engine is in good condition, and assess the oil and water levels.
• Look at the tyre pressure and monitor any wear and tear.
• Ensure you have emergency road equipment like a triangle or fire extinguisher.
• Check if headlights and indicators are in working condition.
• Assess if there’s damage on your windscreen.

Ensure You’re Fit to Drive

Being tired, working long hours, and lacking quality sleep can contribute to driver fatigue. Getting enough sleep before you drive a long distance is important to avoid feeling drowsy and causing accidents while on your journey. If your fatigue feels severe, you should speak to your healthcare provider to ensure it’s not caused by health issues.

Be Alert on the Road

Having a set of driving skills to assist you on the road to avoid possible collisions can improve road safety. Sharing the road for hours with other drivers who might be reckless is a challenge and requires preventative measures by staying alert and relying on defensive driving techniques. These are other benefits of staying alert on the road:

• It’s easier to make immediate adjustments to avoid a collision.
• You can prevent veering off the road and causing an accident.
• It ensures you maintain a safe driving distance in an emergency.

Use the GPS

Real-time navigation to your destination is ideal because it can save you time and money spent on fuel. You can access different routes and choose the one that will take the shortest time to get there without worrying about getting lost if you aren’t familiar with your surroundings. Depending on the GPS you use, you can also gain insights into potentially poor driving, accidents ahead and traffic police visibility for enhanced safety.

Plan for Emergencies

An effective emergency response plan that reduces the risk to you and your loved ones is critical to having a safe trip when roads are busy, and more people are embarking on long-distance travel. An accident can be frightening and stressful to experience or observe. Ensure you have the FREE-to-use iER App on your phone to gain immediate access to emergency responders nationwide.

While a road trip is something to look forward to as you create meaningful memories with your loved ones, being on the road for hours can pose a safety risk. Proper planning and knowing emergency protocols can reduce life-threatening accidents. The FREE-to-use iER App is your reliable road companion, ensuring you can connect to over 17,500 medical and non-medical response units if you face an emergency while travelling.

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