Before you hit the road in summer – especially the height of summer, the kind Bahrain is experiencing right now – it is essential to seriously consider a few things. Otherwise, on account of carelessness or laziness, one might unexpectedly suffer unforeseen consequences which can sometimes be quite regrettable.
Thus, before you take out your car, make sure you are okay on the following counts:
WATER
You must check the water level and top it up without fail, also taking care that the coolant is topped up. The water level generally depletes as one now and then sprays the windscreen with it to wipe it clean. And without one’s realizing it, the water may go down to a dangerous level. The inadequacy of water or the coolant may hasten the process of heating up of the already hot engine to a dangerous level and the engine may even catch fire when the outdoors temperature is 45 degrees.
TYRES
One must check the air pressure. Let it be a little less since with heat air tends to expand. Do not have a ‘tight’ air pressure in tyres in hot summer days. It the tyres have worn out do not take chance with them in summer. A thin and worn tyre may burst all of a sudden with dangerous consequences. If you are in speed the vehicle may even go out of control.
Also, remember to have the spare tyre with the right air pressure in your car boot.
HUMIDITY
Humidity at night can make roads dangerous in summer. The water droplets settle down on the road making it slippery. So in hot and humid nights do not speed. Chances are at turns or otherwise your vehicle might skid, especially if its treads have worn so much that they lose their grip on the road.
WIPERS
Your windscreen wipers must be in working order during summer because on humid nights you might be compelled to otherwise stop the car, get down and clean it with a handful of tissue papers.
WINDOW SPACES
If you have to park your car out in the sun, and especially if you do not have a sunscreen, you must roll down the front seat window panes by a 1 or 2 centimetres so the chink allows flow of air. A sealed car parked in the sun might lead to cracking of the windscreen as the air inside the car expands with heat though this happens but rarely.
FIRE-EXTINGUISHER
Make sure you have a functional fire-extinguisher on hand in the car at all times, but more especially in summer when there is a higher chance of an engine catching fire.
SPEEDING
On a summer day, at high noon, the roads generally have hardly any traffic with people away on vacation, schools closed and the heat menacing. Only those with pressing work tend to come out at such times. Here is a temptation to speed – even jump the red light – because there is no traffic, no one in sight and presumably no one watching. But you never know. You must follow all the rules of traffic no matter what the state of the road. Calamity rarely befalls with warning. So be cautious.