Results tagged “driving tips” from Road Runner

It's Teen Driver Safety Week, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is encouraging parents to talk with young drivers about unsafe driving behaviors.

Teens lack the experience to recognize and react to high-risk conditions and situations on the roads, PennDOT Secretary Allen D. Biehler said in a news release.

Distractions, such as additional passengers in a vehicle, talking or texting on the cell phone, adjusting the radio and eating while driving only compound the inexperience factor and increase the risk of a crash, he said.

Driver distractions contributed to approximately 10 percent of crashes involving 16-year-old to 19-year-old drivers last year.

PennDOT offers the following safety tips to young drivers:
-- Always wear your seat belt.
-- Do not drink and drive. Drinking under the age of 21 is illegal.
-- Do not talk or text on your cell phone while driving.
-- Obey the speed limit. Driving too fast gives you less time to react.
-- Do not eat or drink while driving.
-- Adjust radio or climate controls before beginning your trip, have a passenger adjust the controls for you or adjust the controls when you are stopped.
-- Plan ahead; know where you are going and get directions.
-- Leave early and give yourself plenty of time to get there.
-- Expect the unexpected.

PennDOT also offers these tips for parents:

-- Start talking with your teen about safe driving skills before they turn 16.
-- Establish a parent/teen driving contract.
-- Limit the number of passengers your teen is allowed to have in their vehicle.
-- Limit dawn, dusk and nighttime driving until your teen gathers more experience.
-- Enforce a curfew.
-- Gradually increase the amount of time/distance your teen is allowed to drive.
-- Do not allow your teen to eat or drink while driving.
-- Do not allow your teen to talk or text on a cell phone while driving.
-- Enforce observance of speed limits and other rules of the road.
-- Ride with your teen occasionally to monitor driving skills.

I attended an open house and took a tour of the 911 center earlier this month. Eleni Garrett, dispatcher No. 17, explained how the job works and that some of the calls are extremely difficult. They have to be OK, too, with usually not finding out how a call ended.

She offered a good tip, too, when traveling: Always know where you are, including the last exit you passed or any significant markers or buildings in the area.

York County 911 recently received a call from a guy who struck a deer with his vehicle on Route 30, and he didn't think it was safe to drive his car. The dispatcher asked the driver where he was on Route 30. The caller didn't know. The dispatcher asked what was the last exit number he passed. He didn't know.

He wasn't paying attention.

And Route 30 is a long stretch of road.

So the driver had to walk half a mile to the closest exit to let the dispatcher know his location.

"I can't send police to the middle of nowhere," Garrett said.

It's that time of year again when drivers have to watch for deer darting across highways and roads.

"Deer movement increases during the fall breeding season, making it all the more important for motorists to drive defensively and stay alert, especially at dawn and dusk, to reduce the risk of striking a deer," said Allen D. Biehler, secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. "Motorists also need to be aware of hunters and others walking along roadways on their way into or out of the woods."

PennDOT is offering these tips to help you drive safely this fall:

-- Be on the alert for individuals entering the woods early in the morning and leaving in the late evening hours.

-- Pull vehicles as far off of the road as possible and remember that parking along limited access highways is prohibited except for emergencies.

-- Seek permission before parking on private property.

-- Wear reflective clothing and carry a flashlight or a glow stick to help increase your visibility.

-- Make young drivers aware of increased deer movement.

-- Slow down and use caution, particularly where deer crossing signs are posted and increase following distance between vehicles.

-- Be especially watchful during morning and evening hours when wildlife is most active;
Exercise caution when one deer crosses a roadway. Since deer often travel in small herds, one deer will usually be followed by others.

-- Always wear your seat belt.

-- Never drink and drive.

-- Turn on your headlights if your wipers are on - it's the law.

If a dead deer presents an obvious safety hazard on state roadways, motorists can call 1-800-FIX-ROAD to have the deer removed, according to PennDOT.