Five tips for safer country drives

For most urban dwellers who spend most of their time driving in the city, taking a country drive can require a deliberate re-think. For such drivers, concentration and caution will have to be increased. It is also easy to forget some of the important safety basics, if you don’t tackle country driving regularly. Here’s a list of the top five basic safety measures as suggested by Victoria’s road safety body, the Transport Accident Commission.

When travelling faster, such as up to the signposted 100km/h or 110km/h speed limits, you are going to need significantly more stopping distance than when driving in urban areas at 50km/h.

The TAC’s Acting Manager Road Safety, Research, Insights and Evaluation, Dr David Young, explains… “The driver’s reaction time plays a big part – reaction time means you’ll cover more ground before you even hit the brakes when travelling at higher speed. The vehicle also requires more distance to slow down at speed.”

The TAC recommends keeping a minimum two-second gap, preferably three, between you and the vehicle in front. The gap should be even bigger in low-visibility or wet conditions.

Overtaking on a single-lane road is a very different proposition compared to a multilane freeway and can be much more dangerous. Aside from never overtaking when there is a single unbroken centre line on your lane or an unbroken double centre line, you should always ensure you can see well ahead for oncoming traffic and that the vehicle ahead is going slow enough to justify the overtaking manoeuvre – if in doubt, wait it out.

Dr Young mentions an often forgotten element to country driving roadcraft: “It’s really important to drive to the conditions, even if it means driving slower than the speed limit,” he says. This is especially the case when driving in rain, fog, dirt roads or in the dark, particularly on unfamiliar roads.

This is a silent danger on the roads that many of us can be tempted to ignore. The fact is that fatigue can give you a similarly dangerous reaction time as drink-driving, with sometimes fatal results.

If you are driving in the country, make sure to make it an early night the day before you go, don’t be tempted to make too early a start to the trip and take a break every two hours.

“Countering fatigue is important on country roads; people travel longer distances, at different times of the day, often setting out on a long drive much earlier than they usually ever would,” says Dr Young.

“Making sure you are prepared and alternating between who is driving and who is taking a rest is important. If you’re driving by yourself, make sure you’re well rested before you travel, and take regular breaks. A 15-minute break every hour or two is a good idea to help avoid fatigue setting in. Go for a walk through a park in a country town, enjoy the scenery.”

When travelling at speed in the country you may face a danger you’ll never think of in most city suburbs: wildlife wanting to cross the road. Often very unpredictable, kangaroos and wombats for example can seemingly appear out of nowhere and have absolutely no road sense.

The best advice when travelling in the country is to do so only in daylight hours, if possible. If you have no choice but to drive between sunset and sunrise, especially on quiet country roads, it is best to drive more slowly so you have more time to react.

“It’s about being aware of the potential for wildlife to be there, and to be prepared for what you will do,” says Dr Young. “So that means seeing what the road surface is like generally, noting if there are other vehicles on the road and if they are coming from the opposite direction, considering the quality of the road shoulder – all those aspects may play a role if you need to make an evasive manoeuvre.”

When you’re on low-speed multilane city roads, it usually doesn’t make much difference which lane you choose to drive in. “There’s more congestion, there are more cars on the road, and if you have to turn right you have to be in the right lane ahead of the turn,” says Dr Young.

That all changes on the highway or freeway. It is not only a legal requirement to keep left unless overtaking at higher speeds, but also a courtesy to other drivers who want to pass.

As Dr Young suggests, it makes practical sense too. “On country drives you’ll usually be travelling on roads for a longer period of time and in general the road will have less traffic on it, so it’s good to keep left when you don’t need to use that right-hand lane,” he says.

Summary: Five tips for safer country drives

1. Maintain a safe following distance

2. Overtaking and appropriate speed

3. Manage fatigue

4. Watch out for wildlife

5. Keep left