The heavy snowfall in Drenthe means dangerous driving conditions. That is why the KNMI recommends that you only take to the road in a car if it is really necessary. But what if you have to: how do you do that safely?
Charles van der Straten gets this question regularly. He is a traffic training teacher at Kreeft in Hoogeveen. “It starts with preparing for the circumstances,” he says. “Make sure your windows are clean before you drive away, because fogged up or frozen windows hinder your view, making it difficult for you to anticipate other road users.”
A common mistake is that people drive too fast under these circumstances. “They drive too fast at a dangerous intersection or roundabout.”
After days of snowfall, it has now broken in considerably, creating an ice sheet. “You therefore have much less grip, which means that when you brake you slide much further than you might have expected. In short, your braking distance is much longer. Moreover, the faster you drive, the greater the injury.”
Winter tires are a must, but all-season tires are also possible. “With summer tires you slide in all directions.”
What should you do if you start to slide? “If you drive a car with a gearbox, you immediately depress the clutch. Then you disengage the drive, but the wheels continue to turn. This way the car remains steerable. Then look where you want to go and steer there. As soon as you brake, the wheels lock, the car cannot be steered and it always goes straight. You don’t want that.”
With an automatic transmission, the driver only needs to release the gas and the car will then automatically disengage.
“But if you get into a skid, it means that you have not taken a number of steps before,” says Van der Straten. “In these types of circumstances you really have to look ahead, predict the situation and act accordingly.”
Many cars are equipped with anti-skid regulation (ASR) and anti-lock braking system (ABS) for the brakes. “When you suddenly have to make an emergency stop, you notice that the ABS is working. What I often hear is that people think that their wheels are blocking,” van der Straten explains. “It may feel that way, but that is the system that corrects the grip of the tires so that the car remains steerable.”
However, motorists should not simply rely on those systems. “It is and remains an aid. If the anti-lock braking system intervenes, you have already made a mistake: you are driving or braking too hard.”