Mother Nature really puts Indiana through the ringer come winter. The winter temperatures can produce dangerous driving conditions whether there’s precipitation or not. Some dangers may arise based on how the cold affects your car. To help prevent adverse driving conditions in the cold, you need to take some precautions with how you care for your car.
Tips That May Help Protect Your Vehicle in the Winter
The National Weather Service (NWS), Indiana Department of Homeland Security (IDHS), Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), Indiana State Police (ISP), American Red Cross and the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) created Winter Weather Preparedness Week material that includes a list of steps to deal with the cold winter that blew through in 2012.
These steps are still helpful and include measures to protect your car from freezing:
- Know your car’s operating characteristics. This means knowing if you have a front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive vehicle and then using that information to inform how aggressively you approach an icy hill, for example.
- Make sure you change the oil according to manufacturer recommendation.Check your car owner manual or ask a trusted mechanic for advice on what to use.
- To prevent fuel line freezing, fill up the tank before parking for long periods of time and always keep the tank at least half full.
- Do not try to melt frozen locks with hot water. They will refreeze. Instead, heat the key.
- Keep your exhaust pipe free of snow to prevent harmful gases from building up and filtering into the car, especially if you are stalled.
- Use a 50/50 mixture of antifreeze and water.
- Keep an eye out for battery corrosion.
- Inspect belts and hoses. Cold weather affects their life expectancy.
What If the Driver That Hit Me Failed to Maintain His or Her Car for Winter?
Many factors might figure into winter wrecks:
- Driving too fast for weather conditions
- Visibility
- Failing to properly maintain the vehicle
So if the person who caused your winter wreck did not adequately care for his car and the accident was related to the poor condition of the vehicle, then that could point to the driver’s liability.
The vehicle itself will be an important piece of evidence to establish that this is the cause of – or a contributing factor to – your crash. An accident reconstructionist may be necessary after a serious wreck to establish the cause. Of course, you may need other pieces of evidence standard to a car accident claim to establish the circumstances of the accident.
How Hensley Legal Group Can Help
According to the Center for Criminal Justice Research (CCJR) “the number and rate of speed-related collisions is generally three to six times greater in winter months (December, January, February) than in other months.”
The CCJR primarily attributes this to driving too fast for weather conditions based on studies from 2011. Investigating such factors is one way Hensley Legal Group can help you build a case that shows the other driver is liable for your injuries. Call us or contact us online to set up your free initial consultation to discuss the various details of your claim.