Fog is one of the leading causes of chain-reaction car accidents. The best safety strategy for dealing with dense fog is never driving in it. When there is a weather advisory for fog and if your trip isn’t necessary, stay home until the fog has cleared. Fog is often localized to lakes, coastlines, and lowlands and is sometimes avoided by taking alternate routes. When avoidance is impossible, these five safety tips will help:
Reduce Your Speed
Your stopping distance should never exceed your visibility distance through the fog. Since the fog obscures normal outside references that help you judge speed, slow down using the speedometer as your reference.
Use Your Low Beams
While high beams improve visibility when driving in the dark, they reduce visibility in fog. This is because high beam light is angled higher and reflects off the fog droplets back into your eyes. That is, it lights up the fog rather than helping you see through it. Don’t turn off your headlights because other traffic won’t see you. An oncoming car may take a left turn into you.
Increase Your Following Distance
Although watching the car ahead shows you where the bends in the road are, resist the temptation to follow it closely. You don’t want to crash into the car in front if it makes a mistake, so allow plenty of distance for safe braking.
Follow the Painted Lines That Indicate Your Lane
Follow the pavement line on the right side of your lane. Resist the natural tendency to steer toward lights because they may be coming from a house and lead you off the road.
Don’t Stop on the Road
The cars behind may think that you are moving and collide into your back-end. Find a place where you can pull completely off the road. The further away from the road the better. After stopping, turn your lights off. Otherwise, traffic may use your lights as a reference and drive into you. If you are close to the side of the road however, turn off your lights but use your emergency flashers.
If you were injured in an accident because of the actions of another driver, contact us for a free consultation.
