New Year Catch Up

New Year Catch Up

Hope you had a lovely…incident free…New Year and are ready and raring to go for 2010!

Unfortunately, as you have all probably seen the cold weather is still upon us and appears to be worse than ever. Temperatures dropped below freezing and many of us seeing snow showers (some more than others!), it’s not the warmest welcome to 2010 I have to say.

I know it may seem that we keep ‘banging on’ about how dangerous the cold weather is but that’s because it is a daily reality and the ongoing cold weather can only lead to more problems on our roads. We want our blog readers to be as safe as they can be over the next few weeks.

Sky News have this evening reported on only a small handful of incidents around the country due to the snow and ice which is causing havoc on Britain’s roads.

The A2 in Kent, the M1 in Leicestershire and the M5 have all been congested by broken down cars; part of the M42 was closed as was the M6 toll slip road to the south bound M6 and many other minor roads were affected.

Many schools were closed across the country due to freezing temperatures affecting their heating systems and the unsafe pathways leading through/around them.

It’s all great news for the kids who get an extra day’s school holiday but what about the rest of us who need to travel to work.

The roads at present are very tricky with the freezing conditions leaving very difficult conditions for many of us.

Just to remind you all of some very important points which need to be taken in to consideration before heading out on the roads:

• Leave extra time for your journey so you are not rushing
• Leave extra room between yourself and the vehicle in front of you allowing plenty of breaking distance
• Alter your driving technique to suit the road conditions – choose a low gear if necessary and reduce your speed to ensure that you have full control of your vehicle
• Make sure you have warm clothing with you in the vehicle – these will be needed should you find yourself stuck due to the road conditions or your vehicle breaks down. Pack a bag with warm jumpers, sock, hat, gloves etc…you get the picture
• Remember to carry out weekly maintenance checks on your vehicle to ensure that all of your lights are in full working order and your tyres are in good condition.

Drive safely and hopefully we will have something more positive to write about in a few weeks in terms of the weather!