Stay Safe On The Road This November
Brian O Sutter
Traffic Accidents
Between all the snowbirds who come to Florida every fall to get away from the freezing cold, all the vacationers looking to get a taste of sunshine and a warm, salty breeze to go with it, and all the family members visiting their Floridian relatives for Thanksgiving and the rest of the holidays, our state’s lengthy highways can get very crowded throughout late fall and winter. More cars on the roads means more accidents are likely, so remember to stay safe and stay alert when you’re out on the road.Take Regular Breaks
AAA recommends that drivers make a pit stop after every two hours on the road to stretch their legs and clear their heads. You may or may not find this practical depending on your driving schedule and your path, but you should definitely avoid driving more than four hours straight. Fortunately, it’s easy enough to find an excuse to stop at least that often, since you should also be stopping for gas, lunch, and dinner instead of eating on the go.
Breathe Deep And Stay Calm
Heavy traffic is nobody’s idea of a picnic, and getting stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic can be especially stressful if you’re trying to get somewhere on a strict schedule or if you have kids in the back who are bouncing off the walls. However, stress leads to mistakes and bad decisions, bad decisions lead to accidents, and accidents lead to even more stress.
If you want to stop the vicious cycle from happening to you, you need to remember that stress is all in your head. You can find a variety of calming exercises and meditation techniques that can keep you steady even when the world is giving you a hard time. And even if you don’t have time to spare on learning how to meditate, you can always tap into your inner peace by breathing slow and deep and concentrating on your lungs rather than your surroundings.
Let The Jerks Win
Even if you’ve mastered the art of staying calm on a stressful drive, that doesn’t mean that everyone on the road has. For that matter, plenty of people are inconsiderate drivers even when they aren’t stressed out.
Driving defensively means assuming that the cars around you are going to do the least predictable thing possible, such as going straight with a turn signal on, turning with the signal off, stopping for no visible reason, and merging right in front of you whether or not there’s any space to merge. Driving defensively also means letting this happen, because it’s better to lose your right of way to a jerk who isn’t following the rules of the road than it is to stick to your guns and get in an accident.
If you do get in an accident this winter, and if it happens near Port Charlotte or Fort Myers in southwest Florida, then you should consider calling up the All Injuries Law Firm. Our legal experts are well aware of the techniques insurance companies sometimes use to avoid paying the full amount of your claim, so if you’re having trouble getting them to listen to you, we may be able to help.