With St Patrick’s Day coming up, many of us will be celebrating by going on a night out. But have you done all you can to make sure you get home safely without the need of a car? Richard Gladman, IAM RoadSmart’s head of driving and riding standards, provides crucial tips on the preparations you need to make before, during and after drinking alcohol.

If you are to ask someone what do they think about people who speed, talk on handheld mobile phones and cut someone else up on the motorway, they will routinely say they are vehemently against such practices, and would never do it themselves.

Whether it’s winter or summer, there are some key items you’ll need in your vehicle all year around to help you stay safe on the road. Richard Gladman, IAM RoadSmart’s head of driving and riding standards, provides the eight essentials that you should always keep in your vehicle.

Tuesday and Wednesday saw me working in Dolgellau in the heart of Snowdonia. Home these days is near Presteigne, on the England/Wales border. The trip’s 70 miles or so, depending on the route you take, but all of them involve hills – not gentle rolling slopes, but big, steep sided mounts where the roads have to zig-zag up one side and down the other.

When it comes to the development of cars and motorcycles, manufacturers have proven time and again that the lessons they learn from putting their cars through their paces in racing environments, can eventually be used to improve their products for the general public on the road.