If you’re not a Salt Lake City native, snow can be a major obstacle. Drivers who are new to dealing with snow are more likely to cause a fatal auto accident. There are a variety of things you need to do to your car to increase your safety. Your lawyer and mechanic would argue that first and foremost, your tires need to have traction.
Check Your Tires
A good way to make sure your tires have enough tread is the penny test. Take a penny, turn it upside-down and stick it into your tire tread. Make sure that the top of Lincoln’s head is in the tire tread. After insertion, if you can still see all of Lincoln’s head, your tires don’t have enough tread. Without proper traction, you are more likely to slide off the road when driving in the snow.
Before winter you should check your tires and buy new ones if you have to. Good tires can be expensive, but it is worth it. Your lawyer would tell you that in the snow, good tires can save your life.
The Proper Use of Tire Chains
If you know you will be driving in heavily snowy areas, you may need to have chains ready. Tire chains are made to fit around your tires to offer additional traction. However, there are some limitations. You need to be careful when driving with chains because if done wrong, chains can damage your tires and cause an auto accident. When using chains never drive faster than 30 MPH. Keep your acceleration slow and never spin your wheels. If the road you are driving on is plowed, then using chains can do more damage than good. Chains are for snow packed roads. If you have any questions about this, talk to your lawyer.
Make sure to check your local weather to see if you need chains or not. Depending on where you live, you may not even need chains. Keeping a good tire tread may be good enough to prevent an auto accident.