PTC Certification Training · Section 02

Driving at Night & in Bad Weather

Night visibility, wet roads, snow and ice, and collision reporting for professional drivers.

Nasreddin Hodja — a folk sage from 13th-century Anatolia, known across cultures for turning life's rules into punchlines. Similar figures appear in nearly every tradition: Birbal in India, Till Eulenspiegel in Germany, Ivan the Fool in Russia. The wit travels. The lesson always lands.

One evening, Hodja took a fare across town. His passenger — a man always in a hurry — kept glancing at the speedometer. "You're driving slowly," he finally said. Hodja peered into the darkness ahead. "In daylight I can see fifty metres of road. Right now, twenty. And I cannot afford to need thirty." His eyes swept left, right, left, checking the edge of the beam for cyclists. He added two more car-lengths between himself and the vehicle ahead. "If I were tired," he added, "or if I had been drinking, I would not be driving at all."

Night driving is more dangerous than daytime in ways that are easy to underestimate until the moment they matter.

On the return run it started to rain. Hodja kept both hands steady on the wheel. After rolling through a deep puddle, he tapped the brakes three times on the next straight. His passenger frowned: "The road is clear — why brake?" "I am testing whether I still have brakes," Hodja said. "Water is polite. It does not tell you it ruined them until the exact moment you need them most." Then the setting sun dropped straight into his eyes. He flipped the sun visor down and reached for sunglasses in the door pocket. "They live here permanently," he told the passenger. "Glare does not only happen in July."

Wet roads and glare are two different problems that require the same disciplined response: slow down, prepare, adapt.

By February the same city wore a different face. Hodja found himself on a downtown street that looked wet but felt loose under the tyres — the kind of ice that hides in plain sight. He began braking well before the intersection, on the straight section of road. "The light is still green," said the passenger. "Brakes need a straight to work," Hodja answered. Through the bend he steered in one smooth arc — no sudden corrections. Half a block ahead, a van hit a patch and began to slide sideways. Hodja eased off the accelerator — never the brake — looked at the gap he wanted to drive through, and steered toward it. The van corrected. Hodja passed without incident. "Always look where you want to end up," he said to no one in particular.

Snow and ice demand a different relationship with speed, space, and steering. They also demand a vehicle that is ready for winter.

The following week, a delivery van clipped Hodja's rear bumper at a red light. A light tap — no injuries, minor damage. The other driver held out his phone: "Small thing, just swap numbers." Hodja stepped out with a notebook. "Licence. Insurance. Plates. Make, model, colour. Location." He looked up. "Then we both go to the Collision Reporting Centre." The other driver blinked. Hodja shrugged: "They are open until nine tonight. Toryork Drive, North York. My insurance company will appreciate an official report considerably more than your phone number — and the law requires it."

The goal is always to avoid a collision. But when one happens, four steps protect everyone involved.