Here are 13 essential travel tips:
1. Plan your route, including stops, and ensure you make provision to stop every 200 kilometres or every two hours to rest, refuel and refresh.
2. Look at the planning of your trip and avoid the rush days when there is bound to be heavier traffic on the roads.
3 If possible, leave a day sooner, or a day later. Do the same for the return leg of your journey.
4. Buckle up. This includes all passengers, including toddlers under three who, legally, must be in a car seat, and children 1,3 metres or shorter need to be in booster seats. We can not put enough emphasis on this golden rule. Seat belts save lives.
5. Obey all the rules of the road and drive to the conditions of the road. If the road is marked 120 kilometres per hour but visibility is poor, decrease your speed to ensure clear vision of the road ahead.
6. Be courteous of other drivers. Remember everyone has a right to be on the road.
7. Make sure arrangements for overnight accommodation are done before you leave.
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8. Ensure your car is in good condition and roadworthy and ready to take you to your destination, and bring you home again.
9. Inspect the tyres (including the spare tyre) and make sure they have sufficient tread for the road ahead. Tyres are a key safety feature on vehicles. They are the only thing between the vehicle and the road, and because of this, ensuring their continued good condition is vital. Any tyres which are bald, or under or over inflated, can be dangerous.
10. Check you have all the necessary tools to change a tyre if needed, including a red warning triangle
11. Put your cellphone and other electronic devices away while driving. Focus on the road and on other drivers. Distracted driving diminishes reaction time.
12. Make sure you have a first-aid car travel kit to treat minor injuries or sickness while on the road.
13. Lastly but definitely one of the most important rules – have an emergency service number saved on your cellphone in case of accidents or emergencies. We so often find that people do not know who to call when they are distressed in an emergency situation. Time is life and the sooner an emergency service can attend to you the better your chance of survival and recovery. Save under “A” for ambulance.
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