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We all know the dangers that we face as motorists following a heavy snowfall. People slow down and drive much more carefully as they tend to do when they see the temperature on their dashboard drop to about zero with the threat that there could be ice about.

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But a bit of heavy rain seems to make little or no difference to the way we drive. This had led to more serious accidents in heavy rain than in any other weather conditions. According to Government figures the number of serious accidents each year correlate with the months when we have seen the heaviest rainfall.

The report compared the month by month casualty totals for pedestrians, cyclists, motorcycle users and car occupants between 1997 and 2012 then matched these figures with average UK monthly rainfall and temperature figures for the same period. The results showed that the highest months for precipitation (rain sleet and snow) increased the likelihood of serious injuries.

The main months were April, June, July, August September and November. Strangely higher than average temperatures in December led to more serious injuries for motorists (wonder if this had anything to do with fog that seems to have been ignored – duh).

The findings suggested that heavy snow and ice are not such regular occurrences whereas rain is something we get used to throughout the year so we  don’t really change our driving styles. At this point they then started to compare years when the months in question had ‘normal’ weather conditions with the months in other years when the weather was considerably wetter and they found that many more deaths occurred across the board with pedestrians, cyclists, motor cyclists and car drivers all being impacted.

So I guess the message here is that you should not take rain for granted and treat the weather conditions in the same way as you would treat snow and ice – with greater caution! By Graham Hill

Sadly we are coming to the end of what wasn’t a bad summer other than August that was complete rubbish! Nights are drawing in and whilst we are still enjoying some late sunshine we should be making plans for the winter months ahead.

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Fleet News has provided a few pointers and given us a few things to think about. Inevitably there will be a few days when it will be difficult, if not impossible, to either drive to work or use public transport (bit of wind, snow, leaves on the train line, volcanoes erupting, landslides etc.) so do you have a back up plan that enables you and/or staff to work from home in the case of an emergency?

Don’t forget if you employ staff you are responsible for their health and safety and could leave yourself exposed if you insist they come to work when the authorities or experts have advised against it. With regard to your car, have you considered swapping to winter tyres to reduce tyre wear and increase grip. Many of the national tyre fitters now offer a service whereby they will swap over tyres for you between summer and winter and store your summer tyres till spring.

Fleet News also suggest that you consider 4WD cars but I disagree. I don’t recall one day last winter when a 4WD car would have avoided taking any time off work and I have to say that unless you have taken a 4WD course the chances are that you will be no better off driving a 4WD car than a 2WD car. Oh and a little tip if you are stuck in snow, try letting a little air out of the drive tyres to increase grip or better still buy a set of snow chains and a spade to dig yourself out.

Make sure that your car has been serviced and there is enough anti freeze in your radiator and plenty in your windscreen wash. In fact make up some anti-freeze screen wash and keep it in a bottle in the boot, it is so easy to run out of screen wash on a trip and end up not being able to see out of the windscreen. Give yourself a few minutes to sit in the car with the engine running in order to warm up the heater.

If it is cold or raining and you drive straight off you will find the windscreen heavily misting up before it starts to demist making it impossible to see where you are going. Remember it is an offence to drive a car if you cannot see through the screen due to either dirt or mist. Oh and another tip, get yourself some Marigold rubber gloves and stick them in the boot.

Snow chain at the front wheel. Photographer: Devchonka. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The best type of gloves to wear when clearing snow or frost off the car or even to wear when fitting snow chains or digging out the snow. They are totally waterproof and surprisingly warm. I’ll add a few more tips into my next newsletter as the countdown to winter continues. There are lots more tips to come so make sure you read them and stay safe! By Graham Hill

What should you do if you are stuck in the snow or on an icy road? First of all get yourself down to Halfords, Wilkinson or other DIY centre and get yourself a travel/snow spade to carry around in the back of your car. So often you see a little pile of snow in front of the drive wheels after clearing the snow off the screens and the driver then attempts to Read more »