COPING WITH SKIDS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22306, 21 January 1938, Page 8

COPING WITH SKIDS

New Drivers Need

Experience

PROLIFIC CAUSE OF

accidents

"In the latest analysis of accident statistics issued by the Transport Department it is shown that in 175 instances accidents were caused through motor vehicles skidding," says the latest safety message of the Automobile Association (Canterbury). "This suggests—indeed it is proof—that motorists are not as proficient as they ought to be in countering the cfTccts of skid and side-slip. There are very many drivers whose ordinary every-day motoring does not bring them to any knowledge of the embarrassment of a skid or side-slip. They may travel day in and day out over good road surfaces, and never find it necessary to get themselves out of a skid difficulty. "The new motorist may learn to steer, accelerate, use the brake, and so on, and may reveal marked proficiency in keeping out of trouble, but one day on a tour a shingled road surface may be traversed, or a particularly wet or greasy piece of paved road may be met combined with the circumstances of other traffic or some sudden emergency. If such drivers are not prepared beforehand to bring the required skill into play to meet skids as they occur, serious trouble may result. "It is worth noting that in 524 accidents in the March-December period, wet bitumen had something to do with the cause, 381 were in loose metal, and 121 on wet concrete. Those figures, read in conjuction with those of skidding, make it clear how vitally important it is for drivers to know just what they should or should not do when skid or side-slip occur, when the feeling arises that the road surface is taking control from the man at the wheel. It is an uncomfortable experience. "Extricating oneself from a skid can be safely practised by drivers—in some convenient place, of coui-se. It is practice which every driver should have. It is too late '.o practise when the trouble looms up. Skids have caused many deaths, not only of drivers, but also of passengers. Steering Into The Skid "Always steer into a skid; that is, run with the skid as a sudden turn of the wheel away from the direction of the skid has the effect of increasing the skid or side-slip and of turning the car over. Likewise, braking will aggravate a skid, and tend to turn a car over. Steer with the skid and gradually out of it. "But it is a wise motorist whose speed matches with an adequate safety margin the road surface on which he is travelling. Skid conditions are obvious to careful drivers, and careful drivers avoid the risk of skids." "Cheap Travel" "Most of the motorists in this town have their cars on the hire purchase system; they are in arrears with their instalments and get their petrol on credit. It is a very cheap way of getting about." —Mr Justice Beazley, at Ilford County Court, England. a * * Driving Talismans Thousands of figures of St. Christopher, the patron saint of travellers, surrounded with the four principal conventional road signals were scld in November in Paris. Another good seller is the little medallion to take a photograph of the driver's "best girl" with the message: "Take care—think of me!"

THE INSECT PEST

In country driving at this time of year, a car will collect on the front mudguards, the windscreen, the head-er-board above the screen, and in the interstices of the radiator behind the grille, all sorts of insects, which are both unsightly and very damaging to the paintwork. Hence the sudden popularity of those practical, but extremely ugly, wire mesh screens, which many motorists have considered it wise to spread across the fronts of their cars. Those insects caught in the radiator are the main worry, because, owing to the distance between the bars of the grille and the radiator core, it is next to impossible to pick them out. A simple way of removing them is to lift the bonnet and, with a strong stream of water from a hose, wash them out. Methylated spirts mixed with water has been found efficacious in removing insects from the paintwork and the screen.