FOREWARNED, FOREARMED

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 85, 10 April 1926, Page 19

FOREWARNED, FOREARMED

Serious accidents are often due to the careless handling of motor spirit, probably the most highly inflammable spirit known. Yet who has not seen novices filling the tank with a lighted cigarette between their lips. Smoking in the vicinity of petrol is on. a par with the young tenderfoot who longed to play skittles with dynamite. It's quite a common occurrence, too, to see a rear tank being filled with the spirit slopping over the grounds whtye the engine is running. A back-fire and the spirit would probably catch alight. , A very important accessory is a fire extinguisher. Even if you never, have to use it, the knowledge that it is at hand gives you ,a sense of security. Fire inside a car is fraught with terrible danger, as it is liable to occur with alarming suddenness. In the event of fire, as in all other motoring eventualitiesj remember the golden rule which has been the means of saving many motor fatalities—"Keep your head." Bring the car to a standstill and turn off the petrol. This is a great factor. If you have passengers, it is to be hoped your doors are easy of manipulation, and kept well oiled. There is very little woodwork about the modern car, and if none of this catches you may save the situation; but unfortunately many drivers, and especially women drivers, at the sight of a dame have been known to 1 jump off a car and abandon a muchf loved'possession to its fate:—all for the want of keeping one's nervous system under control. A great help in this connection is to visualise danger, and therefore be ready to meet it'when it comes. In this way you are more than half prepared for it. You needn't, of course, rush to the other extreme and imagine every time you set out that your tar is going on fire, or that you are about to be involved in a collision. This, will rob your motoring of a great deal of its joys. Fire is a rare occurrence, but forewarned is forearmed.