Take caution as seasons change

The colorful leaves, cooler temperatures and fresh, clean air of autumn combine to make this many Americans’ favorite season. But autumn also poses distinctive driving risks as scary as a goblin-filled haunted house on Halloween.

Wet leaves, the glare from a lower sun, the changeover to Standard Time and the first freezes on motoring routes are some of the driving challenges served up by the harvest season. So don’t fall for autumn’s beauty without also heeding its hazards.

Those orange, red and yellow leaves festooning deciduous trees during October are the inspiration for many a “fall color tour.” But once they drift to the streets and highways below, especially if moistened by rain, they can be dangerously slippery. In fact, wet leaves are among the most common causes of autumn traffic accidents.

Automotive Web site icarumba.com reminds motorists that hard acceleration, braking and sharp turns on leaf-covered roadways can lead to skidding, the same way similar actions on a snow-packed thoroughfare can. A greater distance must be maintained between drivers and vehicles ahead when traversing roads covered in leaves, especially in areas where pedestrians are out and about. Motorists should also remember falling leaves can obscure potholes, dips and other highway hazards.

While a car whipping through piles of colorful leaves makes a pretty picture, a slower, more careful driving strategy is in order when autumn’s leaves begin to fall.

Another rite of autumn is the gradual change from long summer days to short winter ones. After months of driving under a high sun, many of us will need to grow re-acclimated to commuting directly into a rising or setting sun. The resulting glare can dramatically obscure vision of the roadway ahead, and make driving dangerous.

The Minnesota Safety Council reminds drivers to make sure their windows are clean both inside and out, which can help improve visibility. Also, the council advises motorists push their sun visors all the way forward before pulling them back to an appropriate lowered position. A visor directed toward the driver’s face could become a source of injury in a head-on collision. The council also notes driving away from a setting or rising sun can result in vision problems for motorists approaching you. For this reason, it’s a good idea to use a car’s low beam headlights even during daylight to help oncoming drivers better see the vehicle. Finally, keep sunglasses present at all times to help better grapple with a setting sun.

Autumn is also the season when we “fall back” from Daylight Savings to Standard Time. The shorter days mean more driving in twilight or dark hours, which can affect our depth perception, color recognition and peripheral vision.

For older drivers, whose night vision abilities often decline precipitously as a natural result of aging, driving in the dark can present special vision challenges.

The Minnesota Safety Council suggests motorists take several steps to deal with the hurdles of increased driving after dark. The first is to allow two to five minutes for one’s eyes to adjust when leaving a brightly-lit building and heading out into a darkened night, before driving your vehicle. Ensure a car’s headlights, taillights and turn signals are all clean and working properly. And also check the direction of the headlights, because poorly aimed headlamps can reduce the distance illuminated ahead on the roadway. Finally, be sure to turn on the headlights as soon as natural light begins to fade.

Of course, along with the shorter days and longer nights, fall also ushers in cooler and, in some places, downright cold temperatures. Those living in northerly climates will likely be dealing with frost and ice for the first time in months.

That said, it’s imperative motorists drive with caution over bridge surfaces, which freeze before all other highway stretches do. The Web site icarumba.com urges “steering smoothly, staying off the throttle and braking gingerly” when transitioning from roads to bridges.

Autumn is the time to also become reacquainted with the dangers presented by “black ice,” which can present as normal highway pavement but is as slippery as any other frozen surface. Be especially careful in roadway stretches where black ice often appears, such as under overpasses, on bridges, in shaded areas and in areas where water routinely covers the pavement. “Use extreme caution when driving on cold mornings, where there’s evidence of frozen moisture on the highway,” the site advises.

It’s not just pumpkin-carving knives but our driving skills we must sharpen in fall. Doing so will help ensure our grins stay as broad as that of the jack-o’-lantern.