Posted: 2 Aug '16

The Summer Driving Safety Tips You Need to Keep Your Vacation Accident Free

It’s the last month of summer and you want to make sure that you enjoy every minute. Maybe you take a road trip to the mountains or drive your trailer out to go camping with the family, but with everyone on the road at the same time, it can become dangerous. Did you know that the August long weekend is one of the riskiest to be driving? As your safety training experts in Edmonton, those of us at MI Safety wanted to share a few tips to keep you safe while on the road.

The Startling Statistics

Alberta Transportation Statistics show that in 2014 there was a total of 144,740 collisions where 369 people were killed as a result of traffic collisions and 18,745 people were injured in traffic collisions. Despite the increase of safety systems built into vehicles, collisions, damages from collisions and fatal collisions have not seen decreases over the past five years. A whopping 85.6% of collisions are a result of a driver error. We know those statistics seem daunting, but we’ve come up with some safety tips to keep you safe while driving.

Here's what you need to know:

• Use left lanes only for passing, otherwise, stay in the right lane
• Look ahead. 20-30 seconds ahead specifically. Many people don’t look far enough ahead.
• Continuously move your eyes by checking side mirrors, review mirrors and ahead. This keeps you aware of your surroundings but also keeps your eyes alert.
• Leave distances of four to five seconds between you and the vehicle ahead of you.
• On long trips, take breaks every couple hours. Something as simple as getting out and having a stretch can have positive impact.
• Ensure your speed is suitable to the conditions.

Choose Safety Training for a Safer Lifestyle

We often over-hear lectures on driving safe to save our own lives, but safe driving benefits in many other ways. When it comes to safety training in Edmonton, at MI Safety, we offer over 60 different driving related online courses including Cargo Securement, Defensive Driving, Off-Road/Unpaved Trail Driving, Demerit Reduction, Pre-Trip Inspections and Extreme Weather Conditions to name a few. Contact us today to see how our safety training courses can help you live a safer life both on and off of the road.