FOG Alert for Driving: Here's how to avoid accidents and drive safe? Tips and Tricks

While it's advisable not to drive in foggy conditions, here are some tips and ticks to ensure safe driving if you have to take a journey in dense fog.

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With the changing weather, Delhi-NCR is engulfed in fog every year during the months of December and January, hampering the regular functions of various modes of transportations. While cancellation and delay of flights and trains is a norm, reports of accidents on highways have become a common occurrence as well. Recently, Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Singh Chautala and home minister Anil Vij's convoy were involved in a collision in Haryana due to dense fog. Meanwhile, another fog-related accident was reported in Noida, morning when a bus crashed with a container killing one and injuring at least ten others.

Fog is a cloud like formation near the surface of the earth and occurs every year in the Northern part of India covering states like Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh among others. It's common in an open area in the morning or evening and creates dangerous driving conditions. Fog reduces visibility, makes it hard to judge distance. While it's advisable not to drive in foggy conditions, here are some tips to ensure safe driving if you have to take a journey in dense fog:

Drive Slow

As the fog lowers visibility, it's difficult to see objects in front till you are too close. As a thumb rule, it's advisable to reduce your speed, to avoid accident chances. One should also avoid bunching up near other cars. Also, fog can create the optical illusion of driving slowly and it's important to check the speedometer from time to time. 

Not just driving slowly, but braking slowly is also equally important and sudden braking is one of the major reasons why we hear about vehicles piling up during an accident. While use of indicators for safe driving is highly advisable, it's of utmost importance to turn on signals for any turn and change of lanes.

Stop in low visibility

As mentioned earlier, foggy conditions are a common occurrence in winter days and the density of fog can differ from place to place and time to time. It's possible that one leaves home with no fog in sight and encounters dense fog a some distance. If visibility gets too low, be sure to stop driving and pull off the road, parking the vehicle at a safe spot, far away from vehicular traffic. 

Once the vehicle is stopped, keep your hazard lights on but turn off headlights to increase the visibility of your vehicle. Do not drive until the visibility improves. 

Use fog lights and low beam

One of the common myths while driving the vehicle in foggy weather is to turn on headlights on high beam. Fog reflects back the light, creating an illusion of even dense foggy conditions. The idea is to use lights in a way that they go as far as possible to increase the visibility. One way to do so is by using fog lights at the front and the rear. They improve your visibility to other drivers as they use warm colour and are positioned to avoid glare created by a headlight.

Also, drive using low beam headlights and not high beam headlights. High beams are reflected by the water droplets in the fog, making it harder to see. The low beam will give better visibility as compared to the high beam.

Drive on known roads

Driving safely in fog requires paying careful attention to your surroundings. If you can't avoid driving in fog, one way to reduce the risk is by driving on roads you regularly travel on. This gives a better idea about the road conditions, dividers, diversions among other things.

Also, reduce all the distractions by turn the radio or music system off. You can also ask your passengers to be quiet and watch for obstacles and don't use a phone while driving. It's easy to drift out of your lane while driving in fog.     

Keep distance       

Be prepared to stop rapidly and to avoid any collision in such a situation, especially to avoid tailgating, keep distance. Maintain a distance of multiple vehicles with the car in front of you. If there's a vehicle behind that's close to your car, let them pass, by pulling aside.