Montana · Handbook chapter 7 · 5 min read

Montana's safe driving advice: distraction, steering and stopping, scanning ahead, night driving, using lights and horn, adjusting speed for gravel, snow, ice and rain, skids, wildlife, following distance, merging and passing.

Why this chapter matters

About 90% of driving decisions are based on what you see, and nine out of ten crashes come from errors in human judgment. This chapter turns the manual's advice into habits.

Distraction

• Distraction means eyes off the road, hands off the wheel or mind off driving.
• Texting is the worst, because it is manual, visual and mental at once. A text takes your eyes away for about 5 seconds: at 55 mph, the length of a football field.
• Even hands-free calls take your attention. Do not drive with headphones or earbuds.
• Most Montana cities have their own laws against texting and phoning while driving.

Basic control

• Hold the wheel at 9 and 3 (or 8 and 4 with a steering-wheel air bag) and turn hand-over-hand.
• Check your speedometer often; leaving a fast road makes slower speeds feel slower than they are.
• Avoid panic stops by seeing problems early.

Seeing well

• Look 10 seconds ahead: about one block in town, about a quarter mile on the highway.
• At intersections, look left and right even if others have a red light; red-light runners are most likely just after your light turns green.
• Check behind you when changing lanes, slowing, backing or going down a long hill. Look over your shoulder for blind spots.
• To back up, turn and look through the rear window; do not rely on mirrors.

Night driving

• Headlights on from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise, and whenever you cannot see 500 feet.
• Dim within 1,000 feet of oncoming traffic and 500 feet when following.
• Look toward the right edge of the road, not into oncoming headlights.
• Tinted and some photo-gray lenses can cut night vision by up to 30%.
• On long trips, stop at least every two hours.

Communicating

• Turn on headlights in rain, snow or fog: if your wipers are on, so are your lights.
• A light tap on the horn for a possible conflict; a sharp blast in real danger. Do not honk to hurry people, to scold or near blind pedestrians.
• Signal before every turn, lane change, merge or pass, but not so early that a driver thinks you mean an earlier driveway.
• Tap your brakes three or four times before slowing where others will not expect it.
• If you break down, get off the road, use your flashers, and never stand in a traffic lane.

Adjusting speed

• Stopping from 60 mph takes more than three times the distance needed at 30 mph.
• On gravel and dirt, slow down: you have less traction and skid more easily. Use low beams in dust.
• Wet road: about 10 mph slower. Packed snow: cut your speed in half. Ice: slow to a crawl.
• Bridges and shady spots freeze first. The first minutes of rain on a hot day are the slickest.
• Studded tires are not allowed June 1 through September 30.
• Tires keep good grip on a wet road up to about 35 mph; in heavy rain they can hydroplane and lose all traction at about 50 mph.
• If stranded in a snowstorm, stay in the car.

Skids

Stay off the brake, ease off the gas, look where you want to go and steer there, then keep correcting until you are back in control.

Wildlife

Watch for animals at sunrise and sunset. If you cannot stop, do not swerve sharply; hitting the animal is usually safer than a head-on crash or a rollover. Where there is one deer, expect more.

How far you can see

At 50 mph it can take about 400 feet to react and stop; at 30 mph, about 200 feet. Use the Four Second Sight Distance Rule: if you reach a fixed object before counting four seconds, slow down.

Space around you

• Keep at least three seconds behind the vehicle ahead, and four on slippery roads, behind motorcycles and large vehicles, when towing or in poor visibility.
• If tailgated with no lane to move into, slow down gradually to let the driver pass.
• You need about a four-second gap to merge or change lanes, and you should cross several lanes one at a time.
• Use the ramp to match traffic speed; on a controlled-access highway, move left for entering drivers when you can.
• Passing at 55 mph takes about 10 seconds and over 1,600 feet (about a third of a mile) of clear road. Do not start a pass within a third of a mile of a hill or curve.
• Return to your lane when you can see both headlights of the passed car in your rearview mirror.