SHE SAYS ...

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33815, 11 April 1975, Page 4

SHE SAYS ...

Women’s fashions and road safety mightn’t seem to have much in common, but they do, as I’m told a few women drivers are finding out in a rather unpleasant way. Wearers of some of today’s heavily built-up shoe styles, to take one example, are sometimes finding out a bit too late that they’re quite unsuitable for driving, and can cause your feet to get up with the pedals just at the wrong moment.

1 believe that at least one Christchurch woman has left her mark on the end of the family garage because of this sort of problem, and one or two others have made a considerable impact on their fellow motorists. Designers might, mean their fashions to make a mark, but not in this way ! Stilettos — remember them? — weren’t the things for driving in either, and the advice given to women at that time about having a special pair of thin, flatsok J shoes in the car just for driving.. still applies. And so does the advice about dropping the walking shoes in the passenger’s footwell or behind the front seat when you change into your driving footwear. It’s remarkable how easily shoes seem to be able to sneak across the floor while y’ou’re driving and get stuck under the pedals. I’m sure you can imagine the sort -of disasters that could occur if you suddenly found out you couldn’t push in the clutch or. worse still, the brake. Young people on motorcycles and scooters need to take a bit more notice of the footwear situation too, as the authorities have pointed out, with no noticeable effect, on several occasions.

Riding around on motorcycles -wearing thong sandies, or just in bare feet, is a good way Ito multiply your chances of

spending the rest of your life hobbling about with a mangled foot.

Medical men say they’ve seen some horribly mashed up feet after young people wearing very light or no footwear have had motorcycle accidents, or even just fallen off their machines.

The image of the jackbootc 1 leather - jacketed motor-cyclist has unfortunately become a rather disreputable one: unfortunately, because this gear is the best way of avoiding injury if you come off, as the racing motor-cycle types know. Leathers take a fearful amount of abrasion before the road surface and the skin make contact, and really good, stout footwear protects that part of the body.

Driving or riding, the right attire’s important, as the woman said when her! kimono-style sleeve caught I in the gear-lever.