When it comes to winter driving, most Canadians have an instinctive ability to navigate slick roads without incident. The problem is that most of us tend to become overconfident and neglect the essentials of collision prevention. Here are five ways to avoid a trip to the body shop this winter.
Perform Pre-Season Auto Maintenance
Before the snow flies, ensure that your car can handle the weather that’s coming. If your brake pads or rotors are starting to look iffy, swap them out for new hardware. At a minimum, you should have a decent set of new all-season tires. Studded snow tires are even better.
Keep a Bad Weather Kit in Your Car
Maintaining a large stash of gear to deal with unexpected squalls is huge. Keep a few jugs of windshield-washer fluid in the trunk as well as a couple of spare headlight bulbs, ice scrapers and a set of wiper blades.
Always Increase Following Distance
Hugging the tail of the vehicle in front of you is the surest way to make an accident happen. Regardless of the road conditions, maintain a following distance of at least three seconds. You never know when black ice is lurking beneath the surface.
Learn to Control Your Car’s Skidding
Every vehicle skids in a different manner. Rear-wheel cars need to be steered in the direction that the rear end is going to regain control. With a front-wheel drive car, taking your foot off the gas and steering out of the skid works best.
Use Technology to Monitor the Weather
Thanks to modern smartphones, keeping an eye on upcoming bad weather events is pretty easy. Download a few apps such as AccuWeather, AMA or the Weather Network to your iOS or Android device to ensure that sudden storms don’t catch you off guard.
What to Do When an Accident Occurs
No matter how careful you are, accidents happen. When an unexpected crash occurs, having a good body shop on speed dial will make life a lot less stressful. If you have a bad collision, call All Makes Collision Centre of Calgary at [sc:tel-allmakes] to remedy the situation promptly.