The Grande Prairie Regional RCMP has issued a few safety tips for motorists to stay safe during snowy conditions.
Grande Prairie is a city known for large trucks, and semis and school buses can pose a threat to untrained drivers who might find themselves in smaller vehicles.
According to RCMP Public Information Officer Corporal Mathew Howell, drivers in smaller vehicles should remain mindful that their line of sight might not be the same as the semi-trucks and school buses they share the road with.
“What you’ve got to realize is if you’re driving a vehicle that is not a pickup truck, your line of sight is not the same as if you were higher off the road,” he says. “So whenever you’re trying to go around a vehicle or see what’s ahead, you have to realize that you might not see as much as you would normally see if you had another vehicle in front of you.”
Additionally, Howell says slippery roads and other conditions could lead to loss of control for vehicles, so drivers should maintain an extra level of caution when navigating around the city during the winter.
“You have to realize you have to be a lot more careful, one of the biggest things is following distance, so the further back you are from the vehicle in front of you, the more line of sight you will have.”
Howell adds that large vehicles might take longer to stop, so maintaining a safe distance between vehicles is crucial, especially in low visibility. He says large vehicles like school and city buses will also be driving slower and making more frequent stops due to their precious cargo.
“Especially with school busses that need to make a stop you need to make sure you’re keeping a safe distance for yourself, the bus, and the kids,” he says. “Your safest bet is to keep that extra distance for visibility, and also gives you that time to stop and react if ever there is something going on in front of you.”
Howell maintains that the first step to take this winter is changing out to winter tires and driving to the conditions of the road.
