“The Fleetsafe Group’s vision is o strengthen it’s market-leading position through identifying and reducing risks faced by drivers and employers”

I am always wary of talking about supposedly specialist driving techniques – fast driving, motorway driving, winter driving. Done safely they all need a common approach: concentration, observation, hazard anticipation and identification, and a planned response. That said, winter driving is significantly different to summer driving and winter has arrived!Developments in vehicle technology mean that winter driving has become a more predictable process than it was even 10 years ago. Modern cars incorporate unprecedented levels of stability and braking control. ABS, Brake Assist, DSC, ESP and a host of other gizmos have prevented many a crash that the driver could not have avoided, and if all else fails, passive safety features incorporated into the best modern cars provide similarly unprecedented levels of crash protection for their occupants.

However, vehicle technology really only comes into play when things start to go wrong. At best, modern technology may prevent a crash; at worst it will simply limit injury to the occupants of a crashed car and is of little or no use to pedestrians and other vulnerable road users who may get hit. Some argue that the undoubted benefits of improved vehicle safety systems are negated by the fact that they encourage driver complacency and reduce awareness of natural hazards. My first car, a VW Beetle, slid all over the road at the first sign of rain or frost, encouraging a cautious and slow approach to winter – and sometimes summer – driving. My current car, also a VW, is stable and predictable and allows much quicker – and less exciting – progress. Let’s be clear about this, modern technology has improved the driver’s lot immensely.

It is said that there are more computers in a modern car than there were on the rocket used for the first lunar landing. However, the single most critical safety component in the whole process is the driver’s brain, without which the other components are of little use. So how can drivers be alerted to the hazards and what is the best approach to minimise them?Let’s get back to basics. The problems that make winter driving so hazardous are dark, wet and cold. So what should we be doing to persuade drivers to take the sort of simple precautions that will minimise the danger to them, their passengers and other road users?We need a high-profile information campaign, based on simple messages that need very little effort and no technical knowledge on the driver’s part.


Before winter arrives, engage brain
Think about the problems: dark, wet and cold.

• Check all your lights. Without them, you can’t see, or be seen
• Check your tyres for pressure and tread depth. The legal limit may be 1. 6mm, but below 3mm, tyre treads won’t cut through water or frost very well and below 2mm they are not much use. Running on worn tyres is a false economy. Replace them preferably with winter/cold tyres which, as the name suggests, work much better in the cold and just as well in warmer weather.
• Check your windscreen wipers. If they are worn, you won’t be able to see. So replace them.
• Buy two cans of de-icer, one for home and one for the car and use them to properly clear a frosted windscreen.
• Don’t worry about replacing your battery. If your battery fails, the car won’t start, but that’s not a safety issue. According to Road Casualties GB, the annual DfT compendium of collision and casualty statistics, not a single road death or injury was caused by a flat battery!

"Stay alert, think about the hazards you face and make the technology work for you"

Before turning the key, engage brain
How dark is it, how wet and how cold?

• How well will you see others, including pedestrians, cyclists and animals?
• How well will they see you?
• You will meet a combination of slippery roads, puddles, frost, ice and perhaps snow. How will you cope? How will you stop?

Whilst driving, engage brain
Will you . . .

• Relax, get comfortable, turn up the heat, turn up the stereo and let the technology get on with it?
• Or, stay alert, think about the hazards you face and that your driving might pose or avoid, think the worst and plan for it and make the technology work for you?
• Feeling unwell, or tired, then you need a rest. Overload the in-car computers and they will switch to failsafe; overload your brain and you will crash

Let me leave you with this thought. Winter is not like summer.

• We don’t throw open the windows and party outside
• We don’t go out in skimpy clothes – or not more than once!
• We don’t sit on the beach sunning ourselves
• So why do we drive like it’s summer?