Emergency vehicles: you’re traveling along in the left lane of a four-lane, undivided city street in bumper-to-bumper traffic. As you slowly creep along, you hear a siren. A check in your rearview mirror revels a fast approaching fire engine. Traffic has completely blocked the right lane.
To help the emergency vehicle get to its destination stay where you are if traffic is too blocked to move into the right lane. Do not move to your left and into oncoming traffic lanes. You ask a head-on collision and could also interfere with the path of the emergency vehicle.
Highway hint: emergency vehicles have the right to move unto on coming lanes to circumvent traffic.
Remember: emergency vehicles have sirens and lights to warn motorist out of their path; you do not!
As you approach an intersection, an oncoming car suddenly makes a left-hand turn in front of you slams on the brakes. You hit your break hard, but it is too late. Your car runs into the back of the vehicle you were following. What could you have done to avoid this collision?
To avoid such a crash: allow plenty of distance between your vehicle and the one ahead. Space allows you time to stop safely if the other driver suddenly brakes. A good rule of thumb: with good visibility, dry pavement, and a safe alternate path travel, allows at least a two-second interval between your car and the one ahead of you. Better still, allow three second.
Highway hints: you can measure your following distance in this manner.
- Pick out something up ahead, such as a light post.
- When the rear of the vehicle ahead of you passes that permit, begin to count “one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three………….”
- If the front of your vehicle reaches the light post before “one thousand three”, you’re following too closely. It is better therefore to reduce your speed to prevent collision.
Caleb Obeng Adjei-Mensah is an old student of Akwamuman Senior High School in the eastern region of Ghana. When he was in school he read General Science. He then furthered his education to the Ankaful Nurses’ Training College where he was awarded with Diploma in Mental Health Nursing. He is currently a Full Staff of The Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital.