RVing or Not--This Warning could save your life!

Whether you are driving your motorhome, pulling a trailer, or simply driving across town in your family car to pick up groceries, here is one warning that most drivers never learn about until it is too late. Whether it is ever mentioned in State driving manuals that are given out for those taking driving tests, I can’t say. And it’s doubly important for RVers to be aware of this danger.

First of all let me say that the last state we got our driver’s licenses in didn’t even have drivers manuals, never mind that new drivers and new arrivals in the state had no way of knowing about local laws or safety issues. And the state we’ve just moved to gives a driver’s test at 16, and drivers keep their licenses for the basically the rest of their lives. So state residents will likely never have to take a written test again after their first one, even though laws change and new dangers emerge. Someone who recently moved here told me her license was good for 45 years! How many older drivers on the road were issued licenses before the first Interstate Highway was built? How did they learn the rules of driving on high-speed highways with entrances and exits unless they read it in a drivers manual?

Anyway, safety is a serious issue that should be routinely covered in the media, especially when it concerns something almost all of us have done at one time or another. And that is driving with the cruise control engaged when it is raining! If you are driving on wet pavement while it is raining, turn off your cruise control.

Even though I’ve been aware that this was a frequent cause of accidents, rain is so unusual here that when I drove out of the garage this morning, I immediately turned on the cruise control. I had driven across town before I remembered to turn it off.

Cruise controls were designed to make driving more relaxing, but when the road is wet, they increase the risk of skidding. Remember to turn yours off when roads are wet.