Carsut – Understand cars and drive better

Tag: techniques

  • Texting while driving

    texting while driving
    Texting while driving is a very bad habit that most teenagers get used to do it. In Carsut’s car driving lessons, we often discourage anyone to send text messages while driving because it leads to a high risk of having car accidents. Distracted driving is dangerous especially when your concentration is not on the driving but something else – composing a text messages, trying to play a song from your car stereo, listen to loud music, trying to style your hair, or simply talking to other passengers. In that case you are driving irresponsibly. Thus, it should be strictly prohibited and not allowed to text and drive although the law in certain countries isn’t saying you can’t compose or send text messages while driving.

    Most people go into the “chatting” mood when they are texting each other. If the conversation is about Hawaiian Pizza, you may start imagine about pizza and relatively forget that you are actually driving. What if the conversation is about sexy girls? Will you still be able to drive a car properly? Moreover, with the advance technology we are having today, messages can be reached in seconds. Be it LINE, WhatsApp, email, Facebook chat, IM, or Yahoo Messagers, all these apps in your smartphone will certainly influence your driving when they beep or informing you a message has reached. Let’s look at some statistics and facts that related to texting and driving.

    Texting and Driving Statistics

    • About 50% of teenager drivers admit that they used to send text messages while driving.
    • Roughly 14% of drivers admit that they are surfing the internet while driving. What a dangerous act!
    • Approximately half a million car accidents are caused by texting while driving.
    • There are pedestrians were killed by young driver due to texting while driving each year.
    • The risk of car crash for drivers who text and drive is approximately 20 times higher than non-distracted driving.

    Texting and Driving Facts

    • Most drivers especially teenagers drive out of their lane while they are texting or playing with their phones.
    • When a teenager is over into the phone, he or she is not able to see if any vehicles come close by.
    • At the speed of 120mph, if you were distracted by a message and it takes 5 seconds to read it, your car will travel 0.17 miles without a driver.
    • Majority people understand that they shouldn’t be texting while driving but they are addicted to it and still do it.

    Distracted Driving Story

    Here we have got a story told by an American R&B singer Alicia Keys when she shares some of her firsts with PEOPLE contributor Kelly Carter. “The first time I heard my music on the radio… I was driving down the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) in my first car and I almost out of control.” said Alicia Keys “Oh my God! I’m almost crashing into the orange construction things on the road. I was screaming… by myself, by the way.”

    Safety always comes first. Whether texting while driving has been outlawed in your state or your country, you should not do it under any kind of circumstances. You are just look like an idiot by doing so. For more safety driving tips, see also driving in the rain and how to parallel park a car.

  • Driving in the Rain

    Driving in the rain
    Driving in the rain can be challenging, exciting, and difficult especially during heavy rain day. This is because the road surface is wet and your car tires will lose traction and do not grip the wet road as good as dry road. During raining day, drivers feel harder to see incoming vehicles, vehicles at the back, road signs, and may not notice if someone is giving signals. Thousands of car accidents happened every year during raining day. Thus, if you are often driving in the rain, these tips are just so useful to you that might save your life.

    Tips and techniques

    • Many holes have been covered with water during raining day and you will never know if it is a huge hole or just water. If you are not sure whether there is just water in front of you or a huge hole, try to avoid it. Be smart, avoid it better than going through it and crash your own car.
    • Hydroplane could be happen if your speed is too fast, tread dept, water dept, or some other reasons. In case your car starts to hydroplane, remember, DON’T PANIC. Do not accelerate or brake the car suddenly. The biggest mistake people did is applying the brake suddenly due to panic. Hydroplaning is a lost of traction in front tires, sudden brake will lock the front tires and this could cause a spin out for any front-wheel-drive (FWD) or rear-wheel-drive (RWD) cars. It could be dangerous if you accelerate the car suddenly if there are other vehicles traveling in front of you or you are heading the edge of the road. The correct way to deal with hydroplane is to ease off the gas, look for open space and try to steer to the direction.
    • Never use cruise control during raining day. This is because cruise control will automatically provide more gas to the fuel system when the car slows down. In case of emergency happen like hydroplane, the system may try to provide more gas.
    • It is inevitable if someone else hit your car but you can avoid yourself hitting others during wet day. Try to stay in the middle lane or second lane during wet day because water tends to pool in the lower side (both outside lanes). Also, do not keep your car too close to other vehicles. Remember the 3 seconds rule need to change to 5 seconds during raining day.
    • Defog your windows if you are driving in a rainstorm. It helps you to see the road clearly.
    • Turn on high speed wiper if the rain is very heavy. Otherwise, use the minimum speed if the rain is little. High wiper speed is disturbing if the rain is very little.
    • Brake earlier with less force when you see something isn’t right happen in front of you. Emergency brake is always not encouraged during wet day.
    • Avoid following large vehicles or vehicles with wheels larger than 20-inch. Water will spray to block your vision if you are behind them. Either drive slower to avoid them or overtake them.

    Safety

    • Slow down boy! Driving in high speed will increase the risk of having an accidents because the road becomes slick with water. It is easier to stop the car if your speed is below 50 mph compared to above 100 mph. So, please slow down.
    • Switch on your headlights or double signals if the rain decreases your visibility to others.
    • Get a complete emergency kit for your car if it doesn’t have one. Do not buy those cheap emergency kits that don’t have enough equipment.
    • Other than knowing what to do in the rain, it is a must to check your car tires thread. In our car buying guide – inspect a used car before buying it, we mentioned before that a good way to check the tire tread is to use a penny to go through the tread. If you are able to see Lincoln’s head, it is time to get a replacement. Other than tire tread, tire rotation, tire pressure, balancing and alignment should be checked on time too.
    • Be more alert. Watch out for signals, high beam, or brake lights from other vehicles.
    • Rushing in the rain is definitely not a good thing. Give your self more time to travel by leaving the house of office earlier.

    Unforeseen circumstances

    • Old wiper may suddenly stop working while you are driving in the rain. First, do not panic. The best way is to turn on the double signals, pull over and stop your car at the emergency lane. We do not recommend you to continue drive the car especially heavy rain. The best way is to check if your wiper is functioning properly from time to time and replace your wiper blade when it is in bad condition.
    • Always notice your car dashboard symbol and see if some warning lights have turned on. Here you can find some of the common dashboard symbol and explanation at learning to drive a car.
    • If your air conditioning (AC) or defrosters is not working or your car doesn’t have an AC, the windscreen will mist up when the inside temperature is higher than outside temperature. Try to wind down the window a little bit to allow the colder air flow in from outside. If it is not working, stop the car beside and use a rag or tissue to clean it up.

    Besides several points mentioned above, there are many other things where you need to be more cautious. Why not hang around in a shopping mall, restaurant, 7-11, coffee shop, grocery stores or reschedule your appointment if you are not in hurry for your journey? Well, we know that’s in the perfect world otherwise no one will need the art of driving in the rain.