Using Caution While Driving this Fall

The temperature took a bit of a dip this weekend – and that’s just foreshadowing the weather yet to come. And with cooler temperatures and the shift in seasons, driving conditions also change a bit. Sergeant Luke Newman with the State Patrol reminds drivers to have a clear line of sight when you’re behind the wheel.

 He says “sooner or later the frost is going to come out, so then if you have a car parked outside you’re going to have to remember to scrape your windows. Your windshield, your side windows, your rear window. Or start your car up early and let them defrost on their own.”

He adds that there are other issues with Mother Nature at times, especially around “sunrise and sunset, just happens
that if you’re heading that way and it’s really hard to see. Just be aware of
that – it’s a fairly short window of time that it’s at that right angle where
it’s hard to see. It’s hard to see traffic lights, other cars – so you want to
put your headlights on – even the daytime running lights are great, but they
don’t have your rear lights on.”

Newman adds that the fall season is also harvest season – and tells drivers to “just remember too that this is the time of year where there’s a lot of
harvesting going on, so the tractors and wagons and all that kind of stuff will
be out there. So remember that they go a lot slower than we do. They should
have lights and that kind of thing at night, but sometimes they make unexpected
turns, so just be aware of that.”