Tips For Safe Highway Driving in India

Just like any other developing countries, India has been experiencing many positive changes in almost every field. And road infrastructure is one of the most growing areas. Indian highways account for 40% of the country’s traffic, and they are expanding every year. However, no matter how better the roads are, deaths and traffic accidents still happen very often as there are many negligent, reckless and careless drivers. In other words, driving on Indian highways contains potential severe crashes which can occur to anyone. To prevent this from happening, IndianAuto would like to present the most helpful tips for any people who want to increase their safety when driving on the highways.

Also read - Road Safety: The Worst Driving Habits That We All Have

Driving on Indian highways requires certain skills and tips.

Maintain your car’s condition well

First and foremost, not only when driving on the highway, but also in other driving circumstances, the most crucial factor besides driving skills to ensuring a driver’s safety when driving on highway is the condition of the car. To be specific, an unresponsive braking, stuck engines, or an old tyre burst due to friction caused by high speed has been reported many times as one of the causes of car accidents. Therefore, you should frequently check whether your car’s essential parts such as engines, tyres, and brakes are in their best condition. Additionally, you also need to do regular car maintenance to keep your car in good shape.

A good car ensures its driver's safety.

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Safe distance is the key

Not all people easily get distracted, but when being distracted, we usually have a tendency of shortening the gap between our cars and the car in front. This behaviour may cause a sudden crash if the car in front abruptly stops or brakes due to various issues. For example, the car has some problems, the traffic is suddenly jammed, or there is a crash happening on the highway. Therefore, always remember to maintain a safe distance towards the car in front because accidents might happen when we least expect it. So as to prevent sudden crash, you can try keeping an eye on signs suggesting the ideal distance between two cars along highways. Besides, you can estimate the safe distance according to the 4 seconds rule or your intuition.

Pay attention to the mirrors

Everything has its purpose; so do car mirrors. Because we don’t have eyes on our back, we cannot have the vision behind us. Therefore, by using reflective accessories like the rear and window mirrors, we are able to observe what is going on on the road behind. However, some people think that hiding the side mirrors on highways will help decrease the chance of having accidents as the other cars may hit the glassy accessories. That is not a positive assumption because it is unlikely for the windows mirrors to be hit during a drive. What’s more, the extra visions from the mirrors will give us more information on highways such as how other cars behind us approach or change lanes. With the information, we can make good decisions and avoid unexpected situations. For this reason, you should frequently check your car mirrors, clean them, and fix them if necessary.

You should regularly check your car's mirrors.

Remember to use indicators

Turning on indicators when you are about to make a turn or change between lanes has always been recommended not only on highways but also in other types of road. Because when other drivers see your indicators, they will know what you want to do in the next seconds. With a couple of seconds, both you and the other drivers have a sufficient amount of time to adjust each other’s manoeuvre. This will create friendly traffic where individuals interact with each other through signals. However, the first thing we must learn is how to use our turn signals.

Avoid a tyre burst

Also read - Here Is All You Should Know About Your Car's Tires

Tyre burst is one of the most severe cases happening on highways. The situation occurs when a car goes at a high or extremely high speed that causes friction between the tyre and the road surface intensive. For old tyres, under-inflated or bad-quality tyres, if they cannot bear the heat resulting from the friction, they will get explosive. Such an event happens on highways can lead to a sequence of accidents because of its sudden characteristics. Therefore, if you don’t want to be a victim of tyre burst, make sure your car is having the best tyres.

Remember that tyre burst is extremely dangerous.

Driving at the right speed

Sometimes, the urge for emergency incidents makes us recklessly exceed the speed limits. In most cases, this may cause no harm at all except a heavy fine if you and other people are skilful drivers. However, as mentioned earlier, unexpected things happen when we least expect them. And you can face a sudden crash which can also cause a series of accidents just as what may result from a tyre burst. On that account, do not exceed the speed limits unless you are an ambulance. One more thing, you may need to improve scheduling skills if you cannot cope with many deadlines, which lead you hurriedly drive.

Do not try to drive when your body is out of stamina

Truck and taxi drivers often spend hours, even up to a whole day, on the wheel. As a consequence, tiredness and fatigue overwhelm them and in the moment of sleepiness and distraction, unexpected accidents happen. This has been occurring a lot on highways all over the world; experts advise that the drivers need to work less and focus more on relaxation. Also, the circumstances can be applied to us. When you are too tired to continue your journey on the road, try not to lay your hand on the steering wheel. You must take a rest, even a bit.

Don't force yourself, take a rest!

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Blind spots are dangerous, be alert!

Not having enough vision is still one of the most potential causes of accidents. Even if your car mirrors are fully installed, there still exist some areas that our vision is unable to reach. When your car’s rear mirrors and sides mirrors cannot cover all the blind spot no matter how you adjust them, you should try these methods to reduce the number of blind spots:

• Often turning head briefly to check the blind spots,

• Installing mirrors with larger fields-of-view,

• Reducing the overlap vision between rear and side mirrors by adjusting the side mirrors and then checking to ensure that you can observe approaching cars from behind on both sides when driving on highways.

​Above is a list of some tips on how to drive on highway in India. Hope that with these tips, you can have a safe journey not only for yourself but also for other car occupants.

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