MOTOR NOTES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 32, 5 July 1939, Page 3

MOTOR NOTES

ALERTNESS NEEDED ; OLD DRIVERS' DANGER AUTOMATONS AT THE WHEEL The greatest single thing contributing to accidents, according to an American, is the fact that the driver's mind is not on the job. He recommends that drivers should emulate a characteristic of the Red Indians of former days, constant watchfulness for every sign along their path, with interpretation of each in relation to personal safety. Most operations in driving are subconscious, he says, and holds that the subconscious can be trained to heed signs and warnings just as it is trained to actuate controls. He declares, for that he has train ed himself to stop automatically as he comes to the arms marking levei railroad crossings. Similarly, he speaks, of a cloud of dust out to the side as indicating a car's approach from a side road, a spit of rain as suggesting that the driver should test his brakes. So ? too, he should automatically have his eyes about for the movement of traf_ fic at intersections, and not conned solely to the lights.. REALLY AUTOMATIC. To which, one may reply, all verv well, but does it really become auite automatic? If it there is another side to the picture, and that is just where drivers of long experience are often caught. They become so thoroughly subconscious, so completely automatic, that one day they are taken unawares. The,alertness exercised constantly over years in becoming the automaton sinks to sleep. The automaton goes on, and like th<* keeper of a dangerous dog. goes or, just once too long. Drivers nowadays are inclined— many were always inclined —too much to expect other people to keep out of their way. The truth about the driver_ however, is that it devolves upon him to be constantly on the alert. One cannot automatically be awake. It is a confusion, of thought. The driver should be wide awak,?. alert, vigilant. What he does may, nay will, be automatic, but wh»t causes him to do is another matter. The mere automaton sooner or l«ter will find himself taken unawares.

FINDING NEW ROADS SHORTER AND CHEAPER BY PLANE The New South Wales Department of Main Roads is using aeroplanes to locate routes for new roads, and improved sites for old roads over mountainous country. The Minister for Transport, Mr Bruxner, said recently that aerial photographs oi unsettled and heavily timbered country between Coonabarabran and Narr*a,bri, had been received by the Main Roads Department. Officials were now working on the photographs for the purpose of plotting a road over wha't had been termed ''the missing link" of the great highway from the Victorian border to Queensland. The use of aeroplanes would, he said, shorten .the preliminary, work by at least six months, and more than halve the initial co£t. The advantage of the aeroplane in locating routes had been shown in the search for the new Gwydir High, between Glen Innes and Grafton. A survey party had been unable to find a suitable route for modern traffic after about six months* work. Within a week, however, the aeroplane had photographed the entire area and a route was laid down which, apart from a few miles of curves, was reasonably straight and fre<» of danger spots. DEATH OF A MOUSE How a mouse met Its death is told by a Waituna garage proprietor. 4 resident had trouble with h's old model car. He took it to the garage } where a dead mouse was found to he blocking the float chamber of the carburettor. There was only one way for the mouse to have made the journey of exploration which resulted in its death. Entering the exhaust pipe, it traversed a difficult passage through the muffler and into the manifold. Evidently still curious about what made cars go, it dropped down through an inlet valve and was gassed in the mixing chamber.