Flat Tire Safety Tips
Many a night during my years of driving a tow truck
I pulled up to a vehicle sitting in the lane on a highway
with a flat tire while cars braked and skidded behind
it to avoid hitting this obstacle, and what do you think
I heard as the excuse for sitting there in the lane
risking life and limb? "I did not want to ruin my tire,
or wheel."
Let me be the first to tell you, if you don't think
your life, or the life of other motorists on the road
is worth more than the tire or wheel on your car, you
should be on a psychiatrists couch not behind the wheel.
I do not care if you have stock wheels or a phat set
of spinners, your life is worth enough to damage those
wheels or tires to get yourself to a point of safety
and out of the way of traffic. At which point you can
wait for assistance or take the time to make repairs
on your own.
The only time I was ever more angry than the above situation
is when I pulled up at a similar scene only to find
a police car sitting behind that same car with the flat
tire, blocking traffic and causing a potential safety
hazard. As far as I'm concerned that is two people who
do not know the value of safety. The most important
thing to remember in a time like that you want yourself
and the motorists around you to make it home at the
end of the day. The wheels and tires can always be replaced.
When you get a flat tire, no matter what type of vehicle
you are driving the most important thing to remember
is to turn on your hazard lights, gradually take your
foot off the gas allowing the vehicle to gradually decelerate,
and get off the roadway, out of the lanes of travel
as quickly and safely as possible. When you do this
you not only get yourself to a point of safety where
you can calmly survey the situation and choose the best
course of action, you also make the roadway safer for
everyone else.
No matter what your financial situation may be, getting
killed because you did not want to ruin a wheel or tire
is not going to pay any of your bills or save you any
money. Everything material in life can be replaced,
your life, or the life of the person who slammed into
your car because they were going too fast and did not
have time to stop, can not.
Take the time to get to safety and you have done something
good for yourself and for all the other motorists on
the road.
Fred Ost is a writer, web designer and spiring indie
movie maker. He is a founder of, and staff writer at
the free independent artits community at http://www.scptv.net.
He also offers personal safety products through http://www.pepperspraybargains.com.
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