Holidays are always a great time to spend time with family and friends. It’s the time of year when you’re away from work and you can concentrate on other work-unrelated issues.
It’s a joyful season that is most of the time accompanied by pleasure, modernity and other vanities. It’s a time when most accidents happen and if you take a closer look at the statistics, especially around December, is when most road accidents happen. Now, with this in mind, you need to be extra cautious when driving around this time of year, because it may not necessarily be your fault but that of another reckless driver.
This just goes to show how important it is to take action whenever you see some ill behaviors while on the road. Unfortunately, we’re slowly sinking into being selfish and self-absorption behaviors that we are no longer our brother’s keepers.
That having been said, below are various ways on how to prevent getting into car accidents on your holiday abroad.
Invest in a travel insured
Before getting behind the wheel while on your holiday abroad, it’s imperative to ensure that you have valid overseas travel insurance. This will help to take care of your medical expenses in case you’re involved in an accident.
One thing to note is that while it might be in your best interests to prevent an accident while driving abroad on your holiday, anything can happen and you just want to ensure that you’re prepared for it. William Webb, a qualified personal injury attorney at Dallas Law Firm says that, among the issues you need to be concerned about when driving abroad should be your insurance status.
Fortunately, various insurance companies will be willing to support your accident claims when involved in a road accident, whether you’re in your home country or abroad. Below are tips to help you find the best travel insurance:
- Decide on the insurance policy cover you need
- Consider the costs
- For those who travel abroad more often, invest in an annual cover
- Check the age limits
- If you’ll be driving, get an abroad car insurance cover
Familiarize yourself with foreign diving rules
For those who live in parts of the world where cars are driven on the left hand-side, it’d be helpful if you knew a little bit about driving a right-hand drive automobile. For instance, cars in the US are left hand driven while those in the UK are right hand driven. So what does this mean?
Well, in a nutshell, almost and always, in countries where you have to stick to the right side of the road, the cars will be designed for the driver to sit on the left side, and vice versa. This may have an impact on your driving skills even whilst you brag to be a proficient driver! You, therefore, need to be in the known zone of the traffic rules of the countries you intend to visit on your next holiday.
Hire a chauffeur
As earlier mentioned, holiday seasons are filled with joyful celebrations. Fortunately or unfortunately, this feeling may be induced by either drugs or the mere fact that you’re just jolly. If you, therefore, feel like you’re not composed enough to be behind the wheel, you can always hire a designated driver to get you to wherever you need to be.
Various countries have drivers who offer these services at affordable rates. Nevertheless, you’ll need to check in with them beforehand, just to know if they are legit or not. Among the factors that you need to consider when hiring a chauffeur abroad include:
- The driver’s experience
- The company’s reputation
- Reliability
- Licenses and insurance
- Cost
Avoid any superfluous risks
When driving abroad, whether during a holiday or not, it’s important to avoid any unnecessary risks. These may include driving at night, driving a rickety vehicle, driving on poor conditions, and driving under inadequate lighting and road signs. Additionally, do not text and drive, drink and drive, or indulge in reckless road behaviors.
You should also avoid road rage as much as you can when driving on foreign roads. You just don’t know the penalties for such crimes. This will help to keep your pretty face out of lock up and help you avoid road accidents as well.
As you can see, it’s logical to want to prevent being involved in a car accident when driving abroad while on holiday. The thing is, most foreign countries have strict laws about careless driving and the punishment for such may be spending time in jail or having to part with a few bucks. So, whatever you have to do, drive safely and stick to your lane!
