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Car
Prevention
Personal Safety - Be prepared for flooding!
Motorists should ensure they have a few safety essentials packed in their car when undertaking a journey in flood conditions, including:
- A First Aid Kit
- A torch and spare batteries
- Wellington boots
- Spare change, mobile phone and in-car charger or spare battery
- A pen and paper, or booklet
- Warning triangle
- Spare engine oil
- A bottle of drinking water
- Emergency card featuring name (but not address), date of birth, blood group (if known), allergies information and an emergency contact number
- Detailed maps of the area in which you're travelling
Safety Advice - How to survive Aquaplaning
What's aquaplaning?
Aquaplaning occurs when driving at speed in wet conditions causes your vehicle's wheels to lose traction from the road surface.
Aqua-planing is characterised by a general loss of control – you might experience reduced steering response and a tendency for the back end of the vehicle to weave and wobble from the direction of travel.
How to reduce your risk
The best way to prevent aquaplaning is to reduce your speed to under 50 mph when travelling in wet conditions.
Stay in the tracks of the vehicle in front of you, but stay back by at least 3 seconds.
Try and stay in the middle lanes, as water will tend to gather in the outside lanes first.
What to do if you aquaplane
In the event your car begins to aqua-plane, don't panic – staying calm greatly increases your chances of safely regaining control to your vehicle.
The following procedure is recommended:
- Depress the clutch
- Put you hazard lights on
- Grip the wheel firmly and steer where you want to go (steer into the skid)
- Avoid braking/accelerating
- Check the rear view mirror for other vehicles getting too close etc
Reporting Waterlogged Roads
To keep you and other motorists as safe as possible it is important that local councils are kept informed of any dangers on our roads.
To report flooding from the public highway or blocked road gullies or gratings, contact your local council.
Report road flooding and find details of your local council.