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Should you stop if you’re driving in the fog?

Driving in the fog can be difficult, dangerous and unnerving. You may be driving along on clear roads when you suddenly encounter a bank of fog and the horizon disappears. Before you know it, you can barely see out the windows. Your headlights just bounce off the fog in front of you and you’re worried that you’re going to cause an accident.

Your first instinct may be to simply stop your car. You don’t want to drive if you can’t see, so you know that you need to wait for the fog to clear if it’s so thick that there’s no way for you to maneuver through it. But should you really stop?

Be sure to move out of the traffic lanes

Stopping can be beneficial, but you absolutely don’t want to stop in the traffic lanes. Even if you think that the fog is too thick to drive, people behind you may not come to the same conclusion. As a result, they expect your vehicle to still be moving ahead of them, and they have no idea that you’re there if you stop. This can lead to a very violent rear-end accident when they hit you without even having a chance to brake.

Perhaps the best option, if you’re on a typical highway, is simply to pull over onto the shoulder until you’re entirely out of the travel lanes. You can then wait until the visibility has improved enough for you to drive safely. You may also consider pulling into a parking lot. 

What if someone else hits you? 

Despite your best efforts to be safe in the fog, another driver may make a mistake and cause a severe accident. If you suffer serious injuries that result in high medical bills, you may be able to seek financial compensation. 

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