How to Stay Safe While Driving in Lancaster, PA
If you have ever heard of Amish country and can imagine what it resembles, you’re probably envisioning a place like Lancaster, PA. This is Pennsylvania Dutch Country, with flatlands and rolling hills punctuating them. You can find corn growing there, as well as tobacco, pumpkins, wheat, oats, and barley.
If you drive through Lancaster, you will want to stay safe and watch out for pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicles. If you need to know how best to do that, we’ll break it down right now.
How Many Accidents Happen in Lancaster, PA?
Lancaster, PA, accounts for 4.6% of state traffic accidents. Since Lancaster is also where you’ll find 4.3% of the state’s population, that means they have slightly more accidents than you’d expect to occur.
That is not a huge discrepancy, but it indicates you should certainly drive through this area cautiously. If you visit this quaint part of PA, you don’t want to disturb the locals, and you want to be sure not to damage your vehicle either.
Don’t Speed
Not speeding is probably the best and easiest thing you can do to avoid hurting yourself or someone else when you’re visiting Lancaster County. You can stick to the speed limit when you’re on the main thoroughfares or back roads. You will find plenty of both crisscrossing the area.
If you stick to the speed limit, that will keep you safe, and also the other drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, and even the occasional horse and buggy that you might see in the rural areas with the high Amish concentration. That will also give you a fine chance to see the sights, which you might miss if you’re trying to tear through there on your way to somewhere else.
You might also keep in mind that if you don’t speed, you can avoid getting speeding tickets. Speed traps exist, even in a tranquil part of the state like this. The cops don’t take kindly to strangers flying through their jurisdiction, nor should they. Slowing down and potentially saving a life should be on your agenda.
Don’t Tailgate
If you’re on the Lancaster backroads, you also might feel tempted to tailgate someone if you see a slower car ahead of you. Doing that will get their attention, and it might also cause an accident.
You should get away from the tailgating habit, either in Lancaster or elsewhere. Tailgating means riding someone’s bumper. You might do it on the highway or on a two-lane country road as well.
If you do that, you might encourage the person in front of you to move their car out of the way. However, they might brake check you just as easily. Brake checking means the vehicle ahead of you stops, and you slam into their bumper.
If they do that, that’s your fault, not theirs. You should know to stay at least one vehicle length behind the car ahead of you. That applies on highways, backcountry roads, and anywhere else you drive.
Don’t Let Anything Distract You
As you drive through Lancaster, it’s easy to gawk at the unspoiled beauty you’ll see there. If you head there for a visit during the high summer, you can see seemingly endless corn and wheat fields. In the fall, you might see pumpkins growing, some of which will seem large enough to win contests.
You can look at what’s around you, but be sure to keep your eyes on the road as well. If you let anything around you distract you from the road, you might hit a child who hops out in front of your car, or a dog, or something else.
Deer call Lancaster County home, and you don’t want to hit one. You should also avoid speaking on your cell phone when driving through the area. You might get a call, but wait until you get to your destination before you answer it.
If you need to talk on the phone urgently and you can get reception, you might pull over to the side of the road to do that. You can also pull over and text.
You may have a car that allows you to talk on the phone hands-free. That’s safer, but it’s still not safe. It’s best to just wait and get someplace where you can speak without worrying about what’s potentially coming up around the bend.
Don’t Let Food Distract You
We’ve spoken about talking on the phone or texting, but food might distract you as well. Maybe you stop and pick up a snack and a beverage somewhere. Perhaps you’re in the middle of a long drive, and you feel like you need some sustenance before you get where you’re going.
That’s fine, but you shouldn’t take your eyes off the road to eat. If you can focus on the road while eating, more power to you, but sometimes, food causes accidents. You don’t want to hit something just because you’re in the middle of trying to unwrap a burger.
Stay Safe While Visiting Lancaster County
If you stick to the suggestions we’ve mentioned here, you will probably get through this area just fine. You will not hit anything with your car, and nothing will hit you either.
You can take the suggestions we’ve mentioned and use them elsewhere as well. Even if you spend the majority of your days in busy cities, that doesn’t mean the same rules don’t apply as when you’re visiting more rural spots.
If you can avoid unsafe driving behaviors, it makes accidents less likely, and that means you won’t harm yourself, damage your car, or drive up your insurance premiums. You don’t want any of that to happen, and if you have an unblemished driving record, you would probably like to keep it that way too.
You will probably find Lancaster natives welcoming if you adhere to driving laws. You will likely want to take plenty of pictures and videos of this beautiful part of the state.