Summer holidays are coming and so are long car journeys… everyone wants to rest from the difficult past year! And the travel time, the many traffic jams are tiring and even dangerous. But a trip is being prepared, which is why every year many associations recommend that users do certain checks before departure.
Prepare your trip
For your safety and that of others, having enough sleep, preparing your luggage in advance and having a good view are essential. Let's not forget that to drive, most of the information passes through sight.
A few tips for hitting the road with peace of mind and safety:
Your eyes :
- Have your eyesight checked before departure by a health professional. More than a million drivers are said to have an uncorrected or incorrectly corrected visual problem.
- Beware of certain medications that affect vision.
- To drive, wear a pair of glasses adapted to your eyesight and have another one in case of loss, theft, breakage…. wearing sunglasses will protect you from glare, reverberation and UV rays .
- For contact lens wearers or those with no visual defect, wear class 2 or 3 sunglasses for sunny days; preferably choose polarized sunglasses .
- always have a glass cloth and cleaning spray for your glasses in your vehicle.
- Warning: driving is prohibited with class 4 sunglasses.
Your vision:
- Pay attention to your field of vision and blind spots; it should be 180° clear in front of you and the mirrors help you for the rear.
- Respect the speed limits: The more the speed increases, the more our field of vision decreases and the more our vision is distorted. Indeed, objects on the roadway, cyclists, other arriving cars are all the more blurred as the speed is high.
- Pay attention to the recovery time after being dazzled; this increases with age and can reach more than 2 min. it is strongly recommended to wear anti-reflective glasses, even blue light glasses to protect yourself from the LEDs of the headlights.
- Pay attention to the reaction time: one to 2 seconds pass between the moment you see an obstacle and the moment you react
- Take breaks at motorway service areas to relax and rest your eyes; drowsiness is the 1st cause of accidents on the motorway.
Your vehicle:
- Check the state of cleanliness of the windshields (inside and outside), mirrors, windows
- Fill up with windshield washer fluid and check the condition of your windshield wipers.
- Check the tires and the various lights of your vehicle
- Do not let any object obstruct your fields of vision: front and rear.
- For 2 wheels, clean your mirrors as well as the visor of your helmet.
And don't forget to clean your glasses well!