The Top 10 Smart Tips for Safer Driving (That Lower Costs, Too)
What if you could make every journey smoother, safer, and even more economical? These top 10 smart tips for safer driving blend practical, pro-active advice with lesser-known life-saving wisdom. Combined, you’ll be prepared for just about anything on our South African roads.
Apply these tips to better protect yourself and those you care about.
Distracted or Diligent Driver—You Decide
Driving in South Africa presents a unique set of challenges. The reality on our roads is that we encounter a great deal more hazards than the average commuter elsewhere. Potholes, taxis, and pedestrians are a start. According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), a massive 87% of all crashes are caused by human behaviour.1 This includes things like drunk driving, speeding, reckless overtaking, and pedestrian jaywalking.
These smart driving tips are easy enough for everyone to follow. They are small changes to your driving behaviour, but they will make a big impact.
Feel free to share them with your network. Let’s move South Africans to make life-saving improvements to their driving.
1. Master the K53: Drive Defensively, Always
Despite how it felt at the time, the K53 driving system, which you learnt for your licence, isn’t some arbitrary test.
The principles you learnt are the foundation of defensive driving.
It trains you in proactive observation, always creating a safe space cushion around your vehicle, and anticipating the actions of other road users.
This proactive approach significantly reduces your risk of being involved in an accident.
2. Ditch Distractions
Your phone is a massive distraction, but so are other things. If you need to attend to children, pets, or if something outside the car captures your attention, find a safe place to pull over.
Remember, anything that takes your eyes or mind off the road for even a second can be dangerous.
Did you know that just 20 seconds of phone use can increase your accident risk by over 60%? (Eyewitness News, EWN)
Keep your focus on the road: silence your phone and avoid multitasking.
To limit in-car distractions, adjust your seat, mirrors, climate control, and GPS in advance.
If you’re travelling with passengers, let them handle tasks like navigation or adjusting music so your full attention stays on the road.
3. Rename Your Seatbelt to Your Lifesaver
Your lifesaver (seatbelt) is a non-negotiable legal obligation and the most effective safety device in your car.
Wearing a seatbelt can increase your chances of surviving a crash by up to 50%2.
Ensure all passengers, front and back, are buckled up. For our younger passengers, read on.
4. Secure Your Little Ones
If you’re transporting children, you are legally obligated to ensure they are adequately secured.
For children under three, a SANS-approved child restraint is mandatory. Those aged three to fourteen, or shorter than 1.5 metres, must wear a seatbelt.
Road accidents are tragically the leading cause of injury-related deaths for children under five in South Africa. Proper restraints can reduce the risk of serious injury in a crash by up to 75% (Arrive Alive).
5. Driving Sober is the Only Option
There is a very good reason why driving under the influence of alcohol is a criminal offence. A report from the RTMC suggests that around 58% of all road fatalities in South Africa are linked to alcohol.
Your judgment, reaction time, and concentration are severely impaired, even after just one unit. If you’re drinking, don’t drive—simple as that.
6. Keep Your Cool: Diffusing Road Rage
You have the power to de-escalate road rage!
- If another driver is aggressive, never engage.
- Avoid eye contact, and don’t retaliate with your horn or gestures.
- Maintain a safe distance by changing lanes or letting them pass.
Your safety is paramount, and it’s always better to arrive late than to get into a dangerous confrontation.
7. Spotting a Tail: What to Do If You’re Followed
If you suspect you’re being followed, never drive home.
Instead, change your route with a few unexpected turns to confirm your suspicion. If you are being followed, head directly to the nearest police station or a busy, well-lit public place like a petrol station.
Stay in your car, doors locked, and windows up. Press and hold the HELP button in the MyPanic app, our 24/7 on-demand personal security and medical assist service. It will dispatch the nearest response team to your location.
8. Maintenance & Vehicle Roadworthiness
Regular checks of tyres (including pressure), brakes, lights, and steering are non-negotiable. Try to make time to include this in at least one petrol station stop per month.
A well-maintained car isn’t just safer; it’s also more fuel-efficient! Remember that your legal duty extends to ensuring your vehicle is roadworthy. Doing so also reduces the likelihood of a breakdown, so you’ll save on costly repairs, too.
9. Make Smart Travel Choices
- Select Ideal Travel Times: Avoid heavily congested rush hours and twilight, which can make visibility tricky. Driving in daylight is generally safer.
- Stay Hydrated: Dehydration can lead to fatigue and a lack of concentration, so keep water in your car.
- Hard Copy Navigation: While GPS is fantastic, printing a map or writing down directions are excellent backups. This is especially true on long trips where mobile signal can be unreliable.
10. Be Seen, Be Safe
Using your headlights makes your vehicle more visible to others, even during the day.
At night, approach intersections cautiously. Slow down early so you can roll through carefully once the light turns green, without having to stop completely if it’s red. This simple trick can help minimise “smash and grab” risks.
Forewarned Is Forearmed
The saying “To be forewarned is to be forearmed” means that being informed about a potential problem or danger in advance gives you time to prepare for it and better handle it when it arrives.
We want to protect you and also contribute to safer roads for everyone. That’s also why we have created many other handy guides and checklists that you can access here. Our most recent, What to Do at the Scene of an Accident, is an empowering must-read.
With Matrix right by your side, you’ll be prepared for virtually anything. One of the smartest things you can do towards safe driving is to familiarise yourself with all the features of your Matrix App.
For additional information, visit https://www.gov.za/news/ and https://www.scielo.org.za/
