May is the Month for Motorcycle Safety Awareness

PEKIN, Ill. – May is the month for Motorcycle Safety Awareness. Velde Ford takes your safety very seriously. Keeping you and other drivers on the road is our first priority. During the nicer months, it’s important to start looking for motorcyclists on the road. Too many accidents are caused between car drivers and motorcycle riders that could be easily prevented. Staying safe on the road is a two-way street and a shared effort, so take a look at these safety tips for drivers and motorcyclists.

Tips for Motorcyclists:

• Wearing the right gear for riding is the key to your safety. A helmet, closed toe shoes, pants, a motorcycle jacket, and gloves should all be worn. Although some motorcycle gear can be a little heavy to wear, it’s going to ease your fall in case you ever get into an accident. Some of the gear, like your helmet, will also help protect you from flying debris when you’re riding.
• Stay aware of your surroundings and always watch out for potential road hazards. As a motorcyclist, you’re harder to see in traffic. Being aware of other drivers around you and looking out for any road hazards like potholes, train tracks, and construction will help you avoid any potential accidents.
• Use your turn signals and headlights. The key is to make you as visible as possible to other drivers. This is also very important to other drivers, but motorcyclists especially. You’re more likely to get into an accident when other cars can’t see you or don’t know where you’re going. 
• Check the weather. There’s nothing worse than getting stuck in a rainstorm or thunderstorm when you’re on your motorcycle. Double checking the weather will help your avoid these situations and keep you safe on the road.

Tips for Drivers:

• If you’re driving behind a motorcycle, leave at lease a 3-4 second following distance between you and the bike. If there’s ever a case than you need to stop quickly or swerve, you want to have the time to do that and avoid hitting the motorcyclist in front of you.
• Consider the condition of the road you’re on. If you’re on a road with potholes, railroad tracks, or even construction, the motorcyclists will need to slow down and avoid these obstacles more than a person with a car. We recommend following even further behind when encountering road conditions like this.
• Always, always, always check your blind spots! This is one of the leading causes of accidents between cars and motorcycles. Motorcyclists move much quicker and are much smaller, making them harder to see when they’re coming up in your blind spot. Double checking your mirrors and looking over your shoulders will help you avoid any potential accidents.
• Don’t try to share a lane with a motorcycle. Even if your car is on the smaller size, it’s never safe to share a lane. In the case that you have to swerve or the motorcyclist needs to swerve, you may collide. Give the motorcycle the space it needs to drive. 

Although May is the month for Motorcycle Safety Awareness, you should practice these tips every month to keep safe on the road. Your safety goes beyond these helpful tips. Take a look at our Spring Car Care pages online to learn about the maintenance your tires, car fluids, and suspension and alignment need this season. Routine maintenance will not only keep you safe on the road, but your vehicle will perform its best as well. Schedule your spring service appointment online today.

At Velde Ford, we're committed to providing our customers with an unbeatable level of service and a great car buying experience. Feel free to visit Velde Ford located at 2200 North 8th Street, Pekin, IL 61554.

Visit our website: VeldeFordPekin.com

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How to Drive Safely on Halloween Night

PEKIN, Ill. –– On Halloween, kids will swarm neighborhoods to participate in a sugar-fueled frenzy of door-to-door trick-or-treating. While this is an invigorating event for most kids, parents’ reactions to this ghoulish night usually consist of some measure of anxiety over their kids’ safety. Fortunately, there are plenty of Halloween safety tips for parents to give their kids before they hit the streets and morph into candy goblins.

Keeping kids safe on Halloween should also be considered a community effort that includes parents, neighbors, and even drivers. If you’re planning on hitting the road on Oct. 31, make sure you know how to drive safely on Halloween night during the time kids are trick-or-treating. Here are a few cautionary steps you can take to keep neighborhoods safe.

Try to avoid neighborhood streets.

Unless you’re heading to work or a Halloween party, it’s a good idea to keep your car off residential streets during trick-or-treating hours. Keeping cars off of neighborhood streets on Halloween night greatly decreases the hazard formed when energetic kids in costumes are crossing streets cars are driving down.

Don’t speed through neighborhoods.

If you absolutely have to head out on Halloween night, make sure you drive slower than usual through your neighborhood. While legally you may not be required to drive slower on Halloween, it’s a good idea because, again, it’s likely your neighborhood will be flooded with hyped up kids who aren’t paying much attention to a set of headlights a block away. By driving slowly, it gives you more time to react if a group of goblins, vampires, or ghosts decide to run across an intersection before looking both ways.

Use your floodlights in darker areas.

While most neighborhoods streets are lined with streetlights these days, some residential areas choose not to implement them. These streets can get extremely dark at night, especially on Halloween when the only noticeable light is coming from a few porches with candlelit pumpkins.

Make complete stops at stop signs.

Let’s be honest, it’s more than likely that you roll through a majority of the stop signs in your neighborhood, as most drivers do. While you should always come to complete stops at stop signs, it’s especially important on a night like Halloween. Most kids that are out trick-or-treating won’t think about looking before they run across an intersection. By you coming to a complete stop you can take time to look for these kids before proceeding.

Slow down at intersections without signs.

Even if there aren’t any signs telling you to stop or yield at an intersection, it’s a good idea to slow down as you pass through them. Again, this will give you a chance to spot any trick-or-treaters who aren’t paying close attention to the vehicles driving through their neighborhood.

As a driver on Halloween, it’s your responsibility to help the community keep kids who are out trick-or-treating safe. You can do a lot by choosing not to drive during trick-or-treat times, but if you have to, our used car dealer near Peoria Heights, IL, wants to make sure you know how to drive safely on Halloween night. We share tips like these because we care about our community, but another way we try to keep our neighbors safe is by providing them with quality used cars and trucks they know they can rely on. Visit us for a test-drive and you’ll see what we mean.

At Velde Ford, we're committed to providing our customers with an unbeatable level of service and a great car buying experience. Feel free to visit Velde Ford located at 2200 North 8th Street, Pekin, IL 61554.

Visit our website: VeldeFordPekin.com

Follow us on: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram