Bucket trucks are designed to work year-round, especially during the winter when thick layers of ice cause power and telecommunication lines to snap. As with any other vehicle, driving on an icy road requires a great deal of focus. One small miscalculation could cause things to go from bad to worse in just seconds. Before tackling an ice-packed road in a bucket truck, here are some important things to be considered.

Safe Distance - Keeping a safe distance between other vehicles on the road is one way of ensuring safety. On an icy road, there is no way of knowing when or where tires could lose traction. To ensure that there is enough room to maneuver if the bucket truck does slide due to a loss of traction, it is important to keep a safe distance from every other vehicle. This should be a car length for every 10 mph of speed, i.e. if the bucket truck is traveling at 30 miles per hour then it should have a safe distance of 3 car lengths from the vehicle in front.

Safe Speed €" The speed of a vehicle should be kept as uniform as possible. Sudden acceleration or deceleration can cause wheels to lose traction. One thing to consider when adjusting the speed is to ensure there is enough time and space for reaction if something were to happen to the bucket truck or any other surrounding vehicles.

Know the Vehicle €" Various makes and models of vehicles handle differently. Large bucket trucks have double rear tires and rear-wheel drive, so there is more traction in the rear end. The front end only has a single tire at the end of each beam so there is a smaller amount of rubber coming in contact with the road. With bucket trucks, the front wheels are the most prone to skidding. With no traction on the front wheels, the truck could be under steered. To prevent this, drivers should slowly turn the steering wheel. Abrupt rotation of the steering wheel could put the front wheels at an angle, causing them to lose traction.

Learn to Control a Skid €" When a vehicle skids, it may seem as if the driver no longer has control; however, there are things that can be done to regain control of the vehicle. There are two possible scenarios of what a driver does when a skid occurs, either over-steering or under-steering.

Over Steering €" Over-steering occurs when a car turns sideways, causing the rear tires to slip uncontrollably. It is common for a driver to turn the wheel in the opposite direction or apply the brakes. Both of these actions are wrong. To control an over steer, the weight of the car should be transferred to the rear tires to regain traction. This can be done by accelerating gently to recover the traction on the rear wheels, then slowly correcting the vehicle's orientation.

Under Steering €" Under-steering occurs when the front tires lose control, making any effort to correct the truck's orientation through the steering wheel useless. Normally, turning the wheel even more is done to achieve a change of direction; however, this is the wrong approach in a skid as the tires will never regain traction on ice. The best way to correct this is to first stop accelerating and then align the position of the front tires with the direction the vehicle is heading so the tires can rotate and gain traction. Only when traction is recovered should the steering wheel be slowly rotated.

Prepare for Winter €" Driving a vehicle during winter requires preparation. One of the most important things to do to prepare for the colder seasons is to change over to winter tires with more traction and a more effective road grip. Tire chains should be readily available to allow for more gripping of the road during icy conditions.

Bucket trucks are vital important year-round vehicles. During the winter when the roads are most dangerous, every driver should know how to get out of dangerous situations such as skidding on ice. Hopefully this article has provided some basic information on how to avoid the dangers of winter driving and how to avert the danger should it occur. The most important thing to remember is to beware of ice when driving bucket trucks during the winter!