Car Accidents: How to Stay Safe on the Road

by Ricardo Barrera
attorney brownsville car accident
Living in Brownsville, Harlingen or McAllen means using navigation systems and cell phones, but be smart when driving.

Living in the Brownsville, Harlingen and McAllen Texas region means living with car accidents. You can’t control what other drivers do on the road. But you can take precautions to ensure that you and your passengers stay safe when traveling in your vehicle.

The first thing you should do is to wear your seatbelt. According to Mother Nature Network (MNN) online, seatbelts not only keep vehicle occupants inside a car during a collision, they also “protect the brain and spinal cord and help the body slow down after impact, reducing injuries.”

If you are traveling with small children, make sure that they are properly buckled into car seats that are “appropriate for the child’s age, height and weight.” Infants and children under should always ride “in a rear-facing car seat.” All children under 12 should remain in the backseat, even after they have grown out of harnesses and booster seats.

It may be tempting to multitask or text while driving, but you should avoid doing either at all costs. MNN online recommends that you do such things as “setting your vehicle’s route, selecting music and making cell phone calls before you drive.” If any children who are with you start fighting, pull over to the side of the road: don’t try to settle their disputes while you’re also trying to drive.

Pedestrians, motorcyclists and bicyclists may also be sharing the road with you and are not as visible as motor vehicles. Watch out for pedestrians crossing the roadway, “give cyclists at least half a car’s width when passing” and “ never pass a motorcycle too close as a blast of air from the car can cause a motorcycle to lost stability.”

Don’t allow yourself to be lulled into a false sense of security: when you’re behind the wheel of the car, you need to make sure you stay protected and maintain awareness of your surroundings at all times.

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