How Warm Weather Factors Can Cause Hazardous Driving Conditions
Warmer weather conditions usually put more vehicles on the road. Therefore, increased traffic makes it even more crucial to be aware of seasonal road hazards that can lead to accidents and impact your auto insurance costs. It helps to know what to watch out for, as well as the preventive actions you can take.
Potholes
Winter weather can make for some poor road conditions, including potholes. When temperatures rise, water from melting snow and ice seeps through cracks in the asphalt. But once the temperature drops to below freezing again, the water freezes back into ice, which expands in the cracks, making them even bigger. The weight of traffic eventually causes the pavement to break, forming a pothole.
You can avoid pothole damage to your vehicle and the need to file an insurance claim by scanning the roadway ahead. If you spot a pothole, slow down and allow your vehicle to roll through the pothole rather than swerving or braking abruptly to avoid it. Swerving may cause you to lose control of your vehicle, which can take you off the road or crash you into another vehicle. Braking can lead to more damage to your tires, axles, muffler, shocks, or struts when you hit the pothole, especially if you are traveling at a high rate of speed.
Weather Conditions
Rain
Those April showers that bring May flowers can make roads slippery for driving. Reduce your speed when it's raining since it takes more distance to bring your vehicle to a stop on wet roadways. Water also creates less traction between your tires and the wet road – a condition that can cause you to hydroplane or slide. You can keep from hydroplaning by not making sudden stops, braking gradually, taking curves slowly, and keeping your tires properly inflated.
Rain also hinders your driving visibility; therefore, it's important to check the condition of you wiper blades. You want other drivers to be able to see your vehicle on the road too, so make certain that your headlights, taillights, brake lights, and turn signals all are in working condition.
Also, before driving through big puddles on the road, keep in mind that the puddle could be hiding an equally big pothole.
Unsettled Summer Weather
Spring leads into summer, which can bring with it heavy and severe rainstorms, hailstorms, and sometimes flash floods. Flash flooding occurs quickly and just six inches of water on the roadway can stall your vehicle or cause you to lose control. Two feet of water can tip a vehicle on to its side, flip it on its roof, or carry it away. Pay attention to flash flood warnings and watches, and even if the water doesn't look deep to you, don't try to cross a flooded roadway.
Fog
Fog is another weather factor that can cause hazardous driving conditions when the seasons change. In the warmer weather months, fog forms when rain cools and moistens the air near the ground. A warm, humid air mass blowing over a cold surface, such as snow-covered ground in the spring, also causes fog to form. If you can, avoid driving in fog, which is more common in the morning and evening hours. But if you do have to drive, use extra caution.
Road Construction
Drivers aren't the only people who take to the roadways once warmer weather hits. Road construction crews abound during the spring and summer months, as this is the time they repair and maintain the nation's bridges, roadways, and highways. Unfortunately, road construction projects can delay traffic and lead to accidents in road construction zones.
You can make the work zone safer for you, other drivers, and road crew workers by slowing down when you enter a construction zone. Pay close attention to what's around you – particularly the signage – as you may be required to make lane changes or come to a stop. Keep a safe distance between you and the vehicle ahead of you, and watch out for flaggers and anything unexpected. Inattention can put you in a dangerous situation fast.
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