Stay safe on the motorway

If you want to keep your car insurance premiums down, one of the best ways to go about it is to drive defensively, thereby reducing your risk of being involved in an accident. A lot of accidents come about as a direct result of motorway congestion, much of which could be avoided if everyone adhered to the correct etiquette for motorway driving. Here are a few tips to help you ease congestion, and prevent accidents, when you are out on the motorway:

Use the slip road to build up to the correct speed for the motorway before you try to merge into traffic, in order to minimise disruption and the need for sudden braking on the part of approaching cars, which can cause pile ups.

Unless you are actually in the process of overtaking the vehicle in front, you should drive in the leftmost lane at all times. Huge tailbacks can be caused by just one or two drivers obliviously hogging the overtaking lanes, leading to accidents and delays.

As a rule, you should always keep a two second gap between yourself and the car in front in dry conditions where visibility is good. If conditions are worse, you should double this to four seconds or more, to allow you some reaction time if the car in front should slow down or stop suddenly. In order to make sure that you are counting full seconds, try inserting a lengthy word, such as elephant, between each number.

If you have left a decent gap between yourself and the car in front, there should be little need to use your brakes unless you are approaching a queue. Most drivers will automatically brake when they see the brake lights of the car in front coming on, which can cause a dangerous chain reaction.

Before changing lanes, indicate your intentions far in advance of the manoeuvre, and before you move out, be sure to check your mirror and blind spot to see if the coast is clear.

Avoid driving alongside other vehicles for any length of time, as not only does this mean you do not have an escape route for emergencies, but it also places you in their blind spot, which means they might try to change lanes without seeing you.

When you are coming up to the rear end of a queue, alert the drivers behind you by using your brake lights, and if the conditions require it, your hazard lights as well. Keep a safe distance and check your mirrors on a regular basis for vehicles that are coming from behind.

When leaving the motorway, keep up your speed until you enter the slip road, although if the slip road is short or includes a tight bend, there may be no safe way to do this.

Look out for what the driver in front is doing, as if they are checking their mirrors, speeding up behind a vehicle, or drifting to the side of the lane, they may be planning to overtake, and you should be sure to give them sufficient room to do that.