Car champion shares tips for safe driving

Bonafede, who is also an instructor at the Volkswagen Driving Academy in Kyalami, said that a driver’s attitude is what counts the most. Bonafede said, “People assume that just because I am a race car driver, I also speed on the roads. It would not be wise to do so, motorists must drive in awareness of other road users.”

Bonafede’s safe driving tips are:

•  Watch the road ahead and recognise situations before they become a threat.
•  Avoid driving into puddles in potholes during thunderstorms, you do not know how deep the pothole could be.
•  Do not drive into puddles to splash other drivers, someone may have an accident because of the temporary obstruction on their windscreen.
•  Beware of kerbs, lamp posts and road works especially during rainy weather
•  Make sure your car is roadworthy as faulty breaks will make it impossible to drive on any surface
•  A taxi stop or bus stop is usually very slippery because of oils dropped onto the road.
• On a good road, a car travelling at 80km/h will need more than twice the stopping distance than a car doing 60km/h. At 120km/h a car will need over four times the distance to come to a safe halt. Most modern cars have an ABS breaking system which helps to brake faster.
• Hard acceleration causes wheels to spin, unless the car has traction control. Sudden steering inputs can cause a car to slide and not make it around a corner.

Bonafede added that, although nearly 25 percent of all motor vehicle accidents are blamed on bad weather, he disagreed. “The driver should be able to control the vehicle through bad weather,” he said.