Road safety in Europe: what you need to know

While the UK can boast some of the highest standards of road safety in the world, Europe may have slightly lower standards, meaning that UK drivers have to be more vigilant when crossing over.

Green Flag has some experience in this field, offering great assistance on their website and also low rates on European breakdown cover , helpful advice and even a route planner to help motorists plan their trips to the continent.

Here are some of their top tips for staying safe on European roads this year:

Get covered

European breakdown cover is a low cost way of making sure that your trip to the continent goes off without a hitch...or at least, with a minimum of fuss should you encounter a hitch. Visit Green Flag at www.greenflag.com for an online quote, or even just for some good European driving advice.

Getting it right

The biggest change for UK motorists is the change to the right hand side of the road. It’s easy to forget this vital piece of information first thing in the morning and pull off, directly into oncoming traffic. Avoid this mistake at all costs!

Overtaking when driving a left-hand drive car is pretty tricky. Ask the passenger in the front seat to help you out if you must overtake, otherwise rather wait for a stretch of duel carriageway. Always exercise the utmost caution when overtaking in Europe.

Taking it slow

Speed limits on European motorways are often higher than in the UK, but don’t take this as a license to speed. Rather stay in the slow lane until you are more familiar with the ways of the road in that particular country and always be extra careful.

The green light

Traffic lights are also different in some European countries. Remember to look at the traffic lights on the right of the road at junctions. Take note that the green light on the left is for the people on the road coming in just to the left of yours, and not for you.

Map it out

Plan your route with Green Flags helpful route planner. If you don’t have a passenger to act as a co-pilot, then pull over when you need to consult a map.  Driving and reading a map simultaneously don’t go together very well at all.