Whether you’re planning a road trip style vacation or whether you simply wish to take to the wheel whilst on your trip, there could be some significant differences between driving at home and driving in new surroundings – and those differences could lead to accidents. For example, if you are travelling abroad, have you checked which side of the road to drive on? You should also be aware that popular destinations will attract people from all around the world, and who therefore may be accustomed to different driving laws, increasing the possibility of a road accident – find a car accident lawyer (Charleston) if you have been affected.
Vehicle maintenance
This is more so an issue that can come into play when renting a vehicle while on vacation (because, presumably, your own car will be well-maintained). Unless you are an amateur or professional mechanic, you are unlikely to have the necessary on-the-spot skills to check over the rented vehicle’s moving parts. Nevertheless, there are a couple of quick safety checks that you can perform with no training.
For example, you can check the depth of the tread using a coin, and it is possible to see with the naked eye where balding has occurred. Again, you may not know how to check the air filter and you may not have the knowledge to check the engine oil level (with any confidence, at least), but you can check that the lights are working before you leave the forecourt, you can check that the brakes are working, and you can look under the car to see if there are any issues with leaks.
Plan your route in advance
When driving in strange places, you are more susceptible to accidents. This is because you will naturally be required to observe more of your surroundings in order to get a feel for whether you are headed in the right direction (as opposed to driving under conditions well-known to us, whereby we may only search for a few familiar visual cues). You may be drawn to simply following a satellite navigation system, but this means you are going to be constantly flicking your eyes between the screen and the road. While this cannot be avoided to a certain extent, carrying out research into the area using Google maps can prepare you for the visual cues to expect.
Keep the roadside assistance telephone number to hand
Breaking down in a strange place is no joke – especially if you break down at night with other people in the car. Before you resort to calling a premium rate number that promises to locate and connect you to a breakdown service, make sure you have the number of a local breakdown service to hand. You should probably also look into a portable phone charger – if you have never before purchased a portable phone charger and you don’t know where to begin, keep in mind that lower mAh chargers may only give you between one and two full charges, whereas a fully charged 20,000mAh portable charger, for example, will provide serval full charges.
