Tips For Driving In Heavy Rain

Drive in the rainy weather condition. This is the most common situation faced by drivers. Driving in the rain especially hard rain could be very dangerous if we don't be careful. Many accidents can happen if we drive in this weather situation. Some human error could cause catastrophic accident and so does some mechanical problem. Make sure everything is in the best condition when you have to drive in rainy weather condition. Here are some basic tips for driving in rainy weather condition.

Do Not Speeding
Just drive smoothly and slow your vehicle down. The rain will make the road wet and slippery. These conditions will make you harder to stop immediately so you better be slowing down.

Keep Distance From Another Vehicle
Maintain and keep distance from vehicle in front of you is on of the most important thing to be done. Maintain at least 3 seconds distance from the vehicle in front of you.

Follow Car Tracks in front of You and Avoid Getting Too Close with Trucks
Follow the track of the vehicle in front of you car and always keep your distance from trucks or any other large vehicle cause their large tires can create massive water spray which will reduce your vision. Take very careful if you have to passing a trucks or other large vehicle and do it fast, smoothly and safely.

Stay In The Middle of Lanes
When it rains. Water tends to pool and gather in the lane's edge so make sure you stay in the middle of lanes.

Avoid Off Road
It is hard to guess the depth of the water puddle so make sure you stay on road and not having some silly off road adventure.

Avoid Using The Brake
You should slow your speed down and get your feet out of acceleration pedal instead of using your brake pedal.

Turn Your Light and Watch Others Light
Turn your headlights on. They will help you see the road and also help others see your car. Watch carefully for the brake light of the car in front of you.

Never Drive Beyond The Limits
Judge yourself about your visibility limit and never drive beyond your visibility limit. Avoid te road where you can not see the ground. Never drive in in the moving water because there's a risk your car will be swept off.

Stay Out If It Is Possible
Just pull out and stay off the road then park your car inside a building if you can. Avoid the rain if you can is the best prevention step.

Preventing Driving Sickness For your Kid

Driving sickness also called travel sickness but usually called motion sickness. This motion sickness is basically caused by conflict between eye and ear. When we are on the moving car, our ear detects if the car is moving while or eye just stay focused in the car and don’t feel the car movement. The ear and eye different detection will cause a conflict for our brain. This conflict will become a nausea result and make us feel sick. The children are usually feeling this sickness first and we better sped some time to cure it before the start vomiting. We can prevent this sickness to be happened by some tips :

Ask Our Children to Loot at The Far.

Ask them to focus at distant object outside the car. Encourage them to play some game which make them look at the distant (e.g : Let’s spy game). Bring some music they like to make them feel comfortable so they still can listen to the music while they look at outside the car. Do not let them do some activities which make them stay focused onside the car such as reading and play video games.

Avoid Rear and Backward Seat for the Children

If your car has some rear or backward seats then do not ask your children to seat on them. Facing rear or back could cause the children feel the sickness faster. You should avoid them.

Settle Our Children Stomach

Full stomach will also cause our children get the sickness faster. Just try to settle their stomach first before you start your journey. An empty stomach is not recommended for avoiding motion sickness. Give your children some easy to digest food and avoid for give them some greasy hard to digest food.

Smooth Driving

You have to try to drive smoothly. Less braking and swaying are better for you children and do not speeding. Try to have some smoothing suspensions on your car. Smoothing suspension also can prevent motion sickness for your children.

Stops and Rest Often for Having Fresh Air

Make some stop or rest planning on your trip and let your children for having some fresh air. Do not smoke inside the car and also do not bring some food with strong smelling. Smoke and strong smelling food will trigger motion sickness for your children.

Prepare and Be Responsive.

Watch your children carefully and listen to them. If they start to get pale or feeling dizzy then stop the car if you can. Stop and then rest for a while, wait for your children to feeling better.

Motion Sickness Drugs
For me personally the motion sickness drugs are the last option. Try to have some discussion with your doctor before you give it to your children.

Hope those tips will helps you and your family, especially your children. Have a nice trip...Cheers.

Family Safety For Long Distance Driving Trip

I was looking for some fun safety driving education material for my family when I came to this Red Cross Homepage. I found some interesting Family Safety Planning Guide with fun and attractive way. Although this is not what I looked for but I think it is so nice and good to be converted as Family Safety For Long Distance Driving Trip. When you and your lovely family go for long distance driving, there are several thing to be prepared. I have already discussed about Long Distance Driving Preparation in my previous post. In this post I'd like to discuss about things we should do for our family especially for our children. Here they are :

Family Meeting

This is the first thing to do. Gather all of your family around and start talking about your family trip. Start with where you going to go (I assume this was a family holiday to a far and beautiful place). Talk to your kids especially about the trip and make them understand about the importance of trip safety.

First Aid Kit, Emergency Equipment, Fire Extinguisher and Communication Tool

Tell your family where they can find those safety tool and equipment on your car so every member of your family should know how to find it.

Planning Route.

Open your map and tell your family about it. Your children might not understand it if they still under 5 years, but at least we can start to educate them about the importance to plan your trip.

Check Point

Tell your family about the place you are going to stop for eating, resting and fuel refilling. Teach them to always check family member one another so nobody left behind.

Emergency Number

Make a list for emergency number in case you have some problem or accident such as police, hospital, fire department and car service. Hopefully this will never happen but we still better be prepared.

Family Number

Make list of every family member number who’s coming in the trip if there’s any. Also make a list for other family who’s not coming such as uncle, aunty, grandpa and grandma in case something happen.

Children

Make sure you have brought everything they need on the road. Since this is a long distance trip, just bring your children’s favorite food, drink or toy. Bring some pillow and blanket in case they need some sleep. It would be better if you pack your children’s stuff and ask them to carry it by themselves if it is possible. I guess it could teach them about responsibility,

After those things above and your Long Distance Driving Preparation done, I guess you and your Family are ready for your trip. Here is an example of safety checklist recommended by Red Cross - Family Safety Planning Guide :

Flashlight, Radio, Food, Water, Cloth, Bathroom stuff, matches, medicine, blanket, whistle, poncho, gloves, bandage, tape, tools, important documents, picture of whole family member, emergency contact information, money, smoke alarm, carbon monoxide detector, travel map, fire extinguisher and important personal stuff.