As winter sets in, heralding darker evenings and wintry weather conditions, leading insurance broker, Footman James is offering tips to motorists on how to avoid winter driving claims.
David Bond, Director of Footman James said: “Although many enthusiasts choose the winter months to carry out maintenance jobs, this time of year does come with its increase in driving hazards if you do decide to venture out. Here we offer simple tips to the thousands of drivers who will now have to face driving their classics in tougher driving conditions as the winter weather sets in.”
Before you set off
- Make sure you have all the accident and breakdown telephone numbers either in your car, or stored in your mobile phone.
- Make sure your mobile phone battery is fully charged and that you have other essential emergency equipment, such as warm clothes, a shovel, torch, first aid kit, spare tyre and ‘jump leads’.
- While under inflated tyres can cause handling problems, over inflated tyres are just as much of a hazard on icy roads.
- Check the windscreen washer fluid and, when topping up, use screenwash rather than tap water, which will freeze.
- Make sure your wipers are in excellent working order.
- Allow a few extra minutes in the morning to de-ice and de-mist fully before hitting the roads.
- Make sure your headlights are clean.
Once on the roads
- Try to stick to trunk and main roads which are more likely to have been gritted.
- It can take ten times longer to stop in icy conditions than on a dry road, so drive slowly, allowing extra room to slow down and stop.
- Avoid harsh braking and acceleration.
- To brake on ice and snow without locking your wheels, move into a low gear earlier than normal, allow your speed to fall and use the brake pedal gently.
- If you do start to skid, ease off the accelerator but do not brake suddenly.
- When it is snowing, raining and murky – even if it is the middle of the day – always use dipped headlights, not sidelights, so that you can be seen by other road users.
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