BE READY FOR SKIDS

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 3230, 22 June 1928, Page 2

BE READY FOR SKIDS

While all applications for a driving (license should be proceeded by a test of driving ability, how many realise that before a driver is equal to all emergencies he must have done many thousands of miles and had some years of experience. There are so many things that may happen with a car, creating situations that an experienced driver will handle correctly by instinct, | which it would be difficult for those | who have not the advantage of driving [Cars for a number of years and under every condition to understand. Take, for instance, a front wheel skid. The road is wet, the surface being polished tar. The car is being driven at a fair pace when, for apparently no reason, at a slight left-hand-bend it proceeds diagonally to the other side. The driver being unable to direct its course, it crashes into the bank, or, perhaps, into a vehicle coming in the opposite direction. In all probability the driver will be completely at a loss to account for the mishap; the only theory that he may be able to advance is that the storing must have failed, particularly! as he locked the wheels far ov^r to the left when he found the car steering to the right, without altering its course. The explanation is that it was .a front wheel skid, which is always liable to occur when the treads of the tyres are worn smooth and the surface of the road is like wet glass. Here is an emergency which the experienced driver is always prepared. He knows ' the risks at every left-hand bend, driv- j es slowly if he thinks there is, the slightest possibility of his tyres not holding, and if he does get a skid checks it by applying the brakes (even the application of rear wheel brakes only -will usually pull a car out of a front-wheel skid), and by wriggling the steering left and right rapidly, a little more to the left than 'the right each time. COLLAPSE OF TYRE. Supposing a front tyre bursts. Does the new.motorist realise that a tremendous pull will be exerted on the steering on the side on which the tyre collapses, and that if he were travelling at all fast it would take him all he knew to keep the car in a straight line? Try"-drivjng a car with one front tyre flat and see how difficult it is to keep the steering wheels straight. The experienced driver, again, will hold the steering wheel Avith a grip which can be instantly tightened, so that the wheel is not knocked out of his hand by hitting a stone or a pot hole or by a suddenly deflated tyre. Tlie Avhecl is held palm uppermost close to a spoke. It is not a tiring position, like that adopted by so many ne.v motorists, yet it gives A-cry decided control Avith one hand, leaving the other free to manipulate the gear an<l brake levers or to give signals. Holding the rim of the steering Avhcel by two hands aAvkwardly does not give the same degree of control.