Driving in poor conditions

Plan ahead

You should avoid driving during unpredictable and severe weather events and conditions.

Before you drive, check for storms, bushfires, hail, snow, dust storms and heavy fog.

Respond to changing conditions

If you’re driving and conditions get worse, pull over to a safe place. Wait until conditions improve.

When you cannot avoid driving in poor conditions, slow down, drive carefully and increase your visibility by using your day running lights or headlights. Stay informed about the weather by listening to the radio. You may need to change your route to avoid driving into danger.

Stay alert by taking regular rest breaks.

Wet weather

When driving in wet weather, the road can become slippery and your vehicle takes longer to stop.

If it starts to rain, you should turn on your day running lights (if they don't come on automatically), break gently to slow down, and increase the gap between you and the vehicle in front (crash avoidance space).

Unsealed roads

Take extra care and slow down when driving on unsealed roads (dirt or gravel). Your vehicle takes longer to stop and is harder to control. If you drive too fast, your vehicle may skid, slide or roll over.

Driving through water

You should avoid driving through water. It can be very risky. There’s a limit to the depth of water that your vehicle can drive through safely.

It’s difficult to assess how deep and fast water is when it’s moving over a road. The road surface under the water may be damaged or there may be debris, or the water level may be rising.

Floodwater is extremely dangerous. Find another way or wait until the road is clear. It’s safer to turn around than to drive in floodwater.