(Spirit Lake)– With wintry weather in the forecast comes a reminder to brush up on those winter driving skills. Kevin Krull of the Iowa State Patrol says one of the most important things is to remember to allow some extra stopping distance when road conditions are bad and to allow extra space between you and the vehicle ahead of you…
“We need to understand that we’re not going to be able to stop as fast. I guess a lot of people have come around with this four wheel drive, all wheel drive, and get up to the road speeds that are common right now, but when poor road conditions with the snow and ice and wet conditions, we’re not always going to be able to stop as well as we were so we need to understand we need to slow down a little bit. The speed limit might be 55 on the road but the road might tell you you can’t go that fast.”
Krull says driving defensively is always important, especially in the winter…
“Watch if they’re going to be able to stop at that stop sign or if they’re going to be able to make it through the intersection and make that corner. We have to be watching in our rear view mirrors to see if somebody’s coming up behind us if they’re going to hit us in the rear or not. Be paying attention to how close are we following the other vehicle. Are they going to be able, are we going to be able to make a maneuver to get out of the way if they come to a sudden stop or if they slow down. We just need to be paying attention 100 percent to what we’re doing.”
And Krull says it’s very important to watch that forecast…
“Watch the weather conditions, watch the road conditions and make that decision. Maybe I don’t need to take a trip right now, maybe we can put that off, but be capable of making that decision and give those road operators, the plow operators, that opportunity to get the road cleared off without having us be out there as part of the obstructions and possibly breaking down and or going in the ditch.”
Krull also reminds us it’s important to make sure your vehicle is ready for winter driving. We’ll have more on that next week.
