Tipp of the Week: Winter driving tips

Hello Tipp City!   Marc the Cop here. Tipp of the Week: Winter Driving Tips

Hello Tipp City! Marc the Cop here,

Hope you all had a good week! In this edition, we will follow up on Winter Driving Tips! Now that we have our cars and trucks prepared for the road, that commute to work, or wherever life takes you, let's discuss some driving techniques to keep you and your family safe while traveling in adverse weather conditions.

My best advice is that if the roads are bad, Stay Home! The less traffic, the better! This will give the road crews more room to work. Our city road crews do an excellent job getting Tipp City cleaned up after the storms.

If you must go out, here are a few things to remember when navigating poor road conditions.

Following Distance or Space Cushion - under normal driving conditions, you should be at least three to four seconds of following distance between you and the car ahead of you. Finding a fixed object, like a utility pole, determines your following distance. When the vehicle ahead of you passes it, start counting. One Mississippi – Two Mississippi, you get the idea. When your car passes the utility pole, the seconds counted is your space cushion between your vehicles. The more reaction time you have, the safer you will be. It is also worth mentioning that your reaction time is ¾ of a second to 1.5 seconds.

Many modern cars have anti-lock brakes and traction control. These are great features to have while driving on slick roads. Remember, you cannot control a skidding wheel. As long as the wheel turns, you will have rolling friction no matter the road surface.

While on turning wheels, let's talk about the types of skids and skid recovery. A couple of terms to discuss. One is Understeer. Understeer is when you turn the steering wheel left or right, and the car continues straight. Understeer is when the back of the car loses traction, and slides to either side.

The next one is the power skid. When too much acceleration is applied, the front or rear tires will spin.

The basics of skid recovery are simple. Take your foot off the offending pedal and straighten the wheel. The offending pedal can be either the brake or the accelerator.

The best way to avoid a skid is to simply SLOW DOWN!

When the roads get bad, allow more following distance. Go from the standard 3 seconds up to 6 or more seconds depending on road conditions. Look 10 to 12 seconds ahead to get the road to get the big picture of the driving scene ahead. Be aware of the traffic scene early. Look ahead or down the road ten to twelve seconds ahead of you so that you have plenty of reaction time to adjust your driving accordingly.

That's it for this week! Please be safe, care for one another, and I'll see you in church on Sunday!

Sgt. Marc Basye (Ret.)

The opinions and statements in this column are those of the author and are not affiliated with any law enforcement agency. This column is for entertainment purposes only. Persons referred to may be fictional for comedic purposes only.