How To Make The Most Of Your Driving Safety
Michael Babboni
Car Accidents
Modern vehicles feature a wide variety of safety features which simply weren’t around 20-30 years ago. They include such things as seatbelts, air bags, antilock brakes, and crumple zones. However, it’s worth noting that many of these safety measures work by rules of their own, rules you have to follow if you want to make the most out of them.Buckle Up (If You’re Old Enough)
According to Florida law, everyone in the front row of every vehicle must be buckled in, and every person 18 years old and younger must also wear a seatbelt.
However, there’s something of a problem when it comes to seatbelts and small children. Seatbelts are designed specifically with fully-grown adults in mind, and as such the shoulder belt in particular can cause more trouble than it’s worth if a small child uses it. Airbags are also designed with adults in mind, and they can cause injuries to children who sit in the front passenger seat.
Because of this, the Florida DMV recommends that you always seat your child in the backseat until he or she is 13 years old. Furthermore, Florida law requires that you use a child seat from birth to 3 years and a booster seat from 4 to 7.
Don’t Pump Your Anti-lock Brakes
It’s common knowledge that when your car is slipping, whether it’s because of ice, sand, mud, or something else, you should pump your brake so that your wheels won’t lock up and cause you to lose what little traction you have. However, if your vehicle features anti-lock brakes, this tactic will do more harm than good.
The way anti-lock brakes work is that when they detect your tires slipping, they automatically start pumping the brake for you at a rate which no human foot can match. Thus, if you take your foot off the petal for any reason, you aren’t preventing the wheels from locking and instead all you’re doing is stopping your car from slowing down at the best possible speed.
Don’t Completely Trust Your Car’s Computer
These days, more and more cars are coming with systems which use radar and optical sensors which can detect when you get too close to a vehicle in front of you and can adjust your cruising speed and even brake for you in an emergency. Other vehicles can completely automate tricky maneuvers like parallel parking.
However, you can’t assume that your car’s onboard computer is infallible. A properly designed computer with a properly designed program will make fewer mistakes than the average human, but “fewer” is not “zero,” and it’s possible for any kind of advanced technology to fail from time to time. Commercial airplanes are mostly automated these days, but airlines still hire pilots to sit in the cockpit because if any part of the system fails, someone needs to step in to operate the plane and keep the passengers safe.
Of course, one major problem with sharing the road in general is the fact that even if you do everything right, even if you watch out for trouble and you always follow the rules, it’s still possible to wind up in an accident not of your making. If you or a loved one have been in an accident in or around St. Petersburg, Florida, then you should contact the St. Pete Lawyer today for a free case review. Our clients have recovered millions in damages from personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits, and we will do everything we can to make sure you are fairly compensated for any injury or loss.