04/08/2026
Please take note .
We have had about 9 weeks of dry weather locally.
During those 9 weeeks, vehicles have been dropping oil deposits and rubber particles from tyres.
When water (Rain) is added to this, it will make the road surface far more slippery than normal wet roads.
Normally, we double our braking distance to 4 seconds gap to the vehicle you are following, I recommend you extend that to 5 and even 6 seconds in this first rain.
You can check your distance by choosing a item of road furniture, say, a lamp post.
As the rear of the vehicle in front of you passes that post, count one thousand and one, one thousand and two, until you reach that post with the front of your car.
If you pass that post under one thousand and five, your to close, lift off the gas and try again until your at a safe distance.
Do increase your braking distance.
Do not brake hard at the end of the braking zone, applly a lighter braking force than usual over a longer distance. This keeps even weight over each wheel as you are trying to avoid accesive weight transfer to the front wheels and hence increasing the risk of locking up.
Remember, if the anti lock kicks in, your braking distance is longer, hence increasing the distance to the vehicle in front is a good idea to allow for this. Bear in mind if you hit a vehicle in front, YOU are at fault in Uk law !
When waiting in a traffic queue, leave a "Ghost car" distance between the front of your car and the rear of the one in front. This is your safety area, if a vehicle hits you from behind. You do not want to be shunted in to the vehicle in front, because that will result in a "fault" claim on your insurance, because you were to close !
Only close that gap, if you have 3 vehicles behind, as they literally will disapate the energy from the first colliding vehicle from behind. Those 3 cars behind, become your crash barrier.
Above all else, drive defensively, observations up, if risk is up, speed is down.
Stay safe out there and enjoy practising the above.
