If you want to avoid car accidents this year — as we all do — you need to know what steps to take. Too many people seem to just hope that they don’t get hit by attempting to generally follow the traffic laws, rather than taking active steps to avoid a crash. That’s often not enough. They get hit by other drivers or cause accidents themselves.
To help you take that more active role, here are a few mistakes you should strive to avoid:
- Only using your mirrors when you are backing up, rather than turning around to look behind the car and using a backup camera.
- Pulling out into an intersection when there is a green light, assuming that no one coming the other way is going to run the red light.
- Not looking far enough in front of your car. For instance, it’s a mistake to look just a few seconds ahead, since you really want to look 12 seconds in front of the vehicle.
- Not leaving the proper distance between you and the next car on the road. You want to be three or four seconds behind them, at minimum, and yet many people drive at just one or two.
- Letting go of the steering wheel with both hands when you need to do something in the car.
- Using your cellphone while you drive, even if all that you are doing is making a call, not sending a text.
Avoiding these common errors can help you stay safe and avoid other dangerous drivers. However, accidents still may happen, so make sure you also know what steps to take afterward.