If you’re reading this, then it’s likely you care a lot about being safe on the road. You might already practice defensive driving and you ensure that nothing is going to keep your eyes and mind from being focused on your environment. But if you want to make sure that you’re able to handle any disaster on the road, it’s all about preparedness.
Is your car road-ready?
Safe driving isn’t enough to guarantee that you keep control of your car. A step that too many drivers often skip is the very necessary maintenance they need to keep on the car itself. For instance, keeping eyes and ears out for warning signs like leaking fluid beneath the car and listening for anything untoward in the engine or the brakes. If you’re not willing to learn some DIY maintenance, you should at least know when you need to get someone to take a look at the car. It’s even more important to double-check road readiness when facing bad weather. A car shouldn’t go out in the snow or rain without the right tires, for instance.
Make the right friends
If you get into a collision, you should be ready for the chances that it might turn into a conflict. If responsibility isn’t taken or their insurance isn’t paying out, then you might need some legal car accident help. The costs of dealing with a collision, from car repairs to income lost to medical expenses can shoot well upwards of a hundred thousand dollars. If you get into an accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence, you shouldn’t accept the responsibility.
Have a kit ready to go
Whether you crash or you breakdown, it’s always a good idea to have a car emergency kit at the ready. If you’re not too badly harmed, then placing down things like reflective markers and having a reflective vest handy can keep you much safer. Including a first aid kit could let you provide some emergency care as well if it is safe to. One thing you should always keep in the car is an extra phone to call for help if your own phone is lost or damaged in an accident.
Have a step-by-step plan
There are a lot of things you need to do right to make sure you’re safe and that responsibility is properly taken after an accident. Besides calling some legal assistance, you need to call your insurance company and the emergency services. Even if everyone looks fine, the health impact of a crash might not surface until long after without being seen by a professional. If you fail to call the police and file a report, then you might lack proof as to the fact that an accident really wasn’t your fault. In worse scenarios, you might be charged with a hit-and-run.
It’s not enough to assume that nothing bad will happen on the road just because you’re careful. You are not in control of all of the risks. You are, however, more often in control of how you handle them.