Risks and dangerous situations

Safety and prevention

• When you’re driving on a country road, and you missed an exit, then you´re allowed to reverse or turn around to take the exit. But only if you´re not causing hindrance or danger to all other road users.
• If there is very little traffic and the visibility is very good, and there are curves on the road, then the best is to drive as straight as you can through those curves.
• A towbar on your car increases the risk of a whiplash if you would be hit by a car from behind.
• The flashing amber light (SIG5) (image 1) means you can pass it, but with special caution.

Image 1: Flashing amber (SIG5)

• When passing a warning sign, and the speed limit is 50 km/h, then you can expect the danger to be in 5 - 75 metres.
• When passing a warning sign, and the speed limit is 90 km/h, then you can expect the danger to be in 150 - 250 metres.
• Texting while driving is considered to be approximately as dangerous as driving while being very drunk. Therefore, this also means that texting while driving is more dangerous than drinking only a light beer.
• Make sure to know the difference between these following two road signs (image 2), because a person with a hearing impairments will act differently than a person with a visual impairment.

Sign A (T10) indicates that there is a high possibility to encounter people with hearing impairments in this particular area. Sign B (T9) indicates that there is a high possibility to encounter people with visual impairments in this particular area.

Image 2: A = hearing impairment, B = visual impairments

Railway crossings

• At most railway crossings it is not allowed to overtake vehicles such as cars and trucks. However, it is allowed to overtake two-wheeled vehicles.
• If at a guarded railway crossing the gates are not lowered and the signals not on, you are not necessarily obliged to stop.
• Never assume that there isn’t any train coming when the signals or not on and/or gates are not lowered. If the signals and the gates at a railway are not functioning as they should (for instance broken), then it could happen that a train can come without you expecting it.
• Your top priority at railway crossings is always to evaluate how good or bad you visibility is.
• Parking 30 metres before and after a railway crossing is prohibited, but stopping is not.
• If you can´t properly see if a train is coming at an unguarded railway crossing then you should lower your window and listen carefully for trains before you quickly cross the tracks.

Pedestrian crossings

• Accidents on pedestrian crossings are very common when it´s dark, because both drivers and pedestrians think they have a better understanding of the situation than they actually have.
• You should keep in mind that, because children are being taught that they should always cross at pedestrian crossings, many children think they are so safe on a pedestrian crossing that they can not be hit by a car and therefore they aren´t particularly attentive when crossing the road.

Dealing with several specific dangerous situations

• When you’re driving uphill, and you see a tractor on the opposite side of the road when you’re about to reach the top of the slope, then you should be extra cautious. Because tractors drive much slower than for instance private cars, private car drivers are often very eager to overtake a tractor. In addition, the limited visibility due to the slope possibly makes this an even more dangerous situations.
• In situations show in this picture (image 3), you should de extra attentive to the behaviour the motorcyclist. Motorcyclists are very likely to overtake cars and trucks thus coming near to the centre of the road and possibly even a bit over to your lane.

Image 3: Be extra attentive to the motorcyclist

• When you're driving at a high speed for a long time and then suddenly decrease your speed significantly (for instance when exiting a highway through an exit ramp) you can misjudge your braking distance severely. This simply means that when you're driving at the lower speed you judge your stopping distance as much less than it actually is. This phenomena is called speed blindness.
• When a moose or deer is already on the road and you’re not able to stop or move to the side, then you should try to drive behind it, not in front of it. This is because mooses and deers are very unlikely to turn back to where they came from, so the best is to drive behind them, since they are very likely to continue crossing the road.
• On a country road, a left turn is generally considered more dangerous than a right turn. Because when turning left you cross the opposite lane where there can be many uncoming vehicles. This entails much more danger than turning right, because of possible inaccurate assessments and poor communication with oncoming vehicles.
• Especially when passing by several busses at once at a bus stop (image 4) you should be extra attentive. It can happen that someone can cross the road, both in front of and behind a bus. This can be dangerous because you´re very unlikely to see him or her and then suddenly he or she is front of you on the road.

Image 4: Be extra cautious for people crossing the road suddenly