Long Weekend Means Busy Highways
Prince George, B.C.- The long weekend is nearly here, and that means plenty of folks will be heading out to campsites, or out of town to visit family and friends. It also means there will be crashes, and sadly, deaths on the highways.
Statistics show that on the Victoria Day weekend, 17 people will be injured in 100 crashes in the North Central region and that’s why ICBC is reminding drivers there is a month long campaign underway to target high risk driving behaviours .
Failing to yield the right-of-way, speeding, unsafe lane changes, tailgating and ignoring traffic control devices. These are the high-risk driving behaviours police will be cracking down on this May long weekend.
ICBC is passing along some tips to ensure your long weekend doesn’t end in tragedy:
- Share the road. Warmer spring weather means you’ll see more motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians on the roads. Actively watch for them, especially at intersections, and make eye contact whenever possible.
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Leave space. Always maintain a safe travelling distance between vehicles to ensure you have enough time to react to the unexpected and reduce your risk of being rear-ended. Allow at least two seconds of following distance in good conditions, and at least three seconds on high-speed roads or if you’re behind a motorcycle since they have a much shorter stopping distance.
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Safe passing. If you’re planning to pass another vehicle, keep within the speed limit and always signal, check your mirrors and shoulder check first. Ensure you can see the vehicle you’ve passed in your mirrors before pulling back in front of it. When you pass or change lanes in front of a truck, leave extra room before pulling back in.
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Think ahead. If you’ll be taking a road trip, check the road and weather conditions for your entire trip at drivebc.ca before you head out. Even if the roads look clear, slow down to reduce your risk of crashing and be realistic about travel times as our highways will be busier than usual. Plan rest stops every couple of hours or switch drivers to avoid becoming fatigued while driving.
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Get your vehicle ready. Long trips can be hard on your vehicle so make sure it’s up to the drive. Check your engine oil, washer fluid and lights. Take a look at your tires too, including the spare, to make sure they are in good condition and properly inflated.
Comments
“Leave space. Always maintain a safe travelling distance between vehicles to ensure you have enough time to react to the unexpected and reduce your risk of being rear-ended.”
That should read: “… and reduce your risk of rear-ending the vehicle which is ahead of you.”
Being tailgated can not be avoided while driving at the speed limit or going with the flow of the general traffic at a slightly higher speed! If anyone has a solution which eliminates being tailgated don’t keep it a secret!
My mom has a solution. She wants a car like the one James Bond had with the rear-firing machine guns and the oil-slick nozzles.
PrinceGeorge – all the solutions I like – are probably illegal. But here’s a few of my RCMP approved (I ran it by them) solutions. When being tailgated, turn on your right turn signal, and gradually slow to a safe speed, and pull off the road, and let them pass. To get maximum pleasure for this maneuver, make sure there is on-coming traffic before you do it, so you can eat up 30 of the precious 120 seconds he’s hoping to save by getting ahead of you. You can wave to him when you meet at the first traffic light.
If he’s a super dick tailgater, i.e. drives an F350 or GMC equivalent, and jacked up so it’s like he’s humping your car, turn on your left turn signal, slow to a safe speed, and make a left turn in front of him – preventing him from passing. You will get a chuckle out of the watching him burn diesel and cash roaring off in a tantrum, and in both cases, what you are doing is what he wants you to do, get the hell out of his way, you’re just making him wait for his ice cream.
If we all did this, it wouldn’t be long before tailgaters would just hang back and pass at the first opportunity.
BTW – I only recommend these strategies if you yourself are travelling the speed limit or greater. If you want to drive under the limit, you should pull over long before you get a parade behind you.
One solution that will never work, is waiting for the RCMP to patrol the outlying roads and ticket them, because they actually have to be on patrol to do that. I drove from PG to Vancouver last May long weekend – saw no police anywhere.
Had a tailgator follow me down foothills yesterday driving a black 250-350 ford pickup pulling a trailer-what an idiot. Also went for coffee this AM and saw three people playing with their phones while driving.
Most of the dangerous drivers are out on our hwy’s after dark all night long. HID and LED headlights, passing on double solid blind corners and all the other fun stuff. Never see a cop during these hours except for the one in the SUV at Jardine Rd that passed me through the left turn lane for no apparent reason. He was in sight the rest of the way to Vanderhoof. I guess he just didn’t like being behind.
Ski51, you have some great ideas there, but I wouldn’t try any of them! They are too much of an incitement to road rage, imho!
BTW, driving from here to Cache Creek we saw only two cop cars on the entire trip: One close to Quesnel and one just south of 100 Mile. On the few four lane stretches tailgating does not exist at all!
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