SKIDS AND SKIDDING

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 11, 12 July 1930, Page 24

SKIDS AND SKIDDING

1 MISUSE OF THE BRAKES

I THE GREASY ROAD DANGER

It would be neither kind nor just to trhat one might call "rub in" the position revealed last Wednesday morning •when driver after driver eamo to grief on the Hntt road through a frost a Httle more severe than usual having settled upon the surface. Motoring conditions throughout the wholo of Now Zealand are pretty favourable from th"c non-skidding standpoint, the most prolific cause of skids being not slippery or glass-like surfaces, but loose metal. Skidding, however, in every caso ariseß from one cause only, lack of adhesion between tires and the road surface. Readers of motoring journals from overseas, especially Britain and European noun tries, must bo familiar with the fact that arguments in regard to skidding and non skidding are both frequent and acrimonious. Some contend that skidding is quite inexcusablo; sfood driving never giving rise to a skid; others say that oven to tho best of drivers the skid at times will come. There is no reason to doubt that tho latter is tho case, but equally there is no reason to believe that tho good driver Trill get into a bad skid very often However, he is liable to be caught, particularly if called upon to brake in an emergency. America is quite familiar with tno skid. Most of America—motoring America—is a land of hard winters, or frost, snow, and glassy surfaces; accidents are common. More than in Europe however, the motorist in America lays up his car for the winter, and vrhen he does find himself out on the roads it is generally with chains. Moreover, he has learned to heed the warning to look to his tires, and use only such as have a good tread on their surfaces. Tho worn tire with its smooth surface is prolific of skids. And he has learned, also; to use his brakes with caution. . . Far too often one hears it said in New Zealand that four-wheel brakes are safe, that they do not give rise to skidfc even that they definitely preclude skidding. Nothing is further from tho truth. It used often to be stated ac a selling point. No braking is safe if used suddenly on a greasy or ynbble surface. Once the wheels lock, pad they lock very readily under such

conditions, nothing can prevent a skid. The motorist must learu to avoid skidding. This implies knowledge, and a sense of anticipation. Tho skia should bo foreseen. Moro than this, tho motorist should learn to correct a skid. Tho London bus-driver may be quoted as an example. Everyone is familiar with the appearance of a London bus, a huge two-story erection that looks as if at any moment it might readily capsize. No body of men, as a class, can drive like the London busman. But he learns in a hard school. Ho is quite at home in a skid, for he has been taught to handle his machine in a greased yard whore adhesions between wheel and surface is impossible. Until he can manage his bus under these conditions ho cannot go out on the road. As tho most prolific cause or skidfTin" is to jam on the brakes, so the ii ling to do in an involuntary skid is o take the same action. Eeleaso the brakes at onco and let the wheels run free.1 Steer the car into the skid, ie turn the front "-heels in the same direction as the car is sliding, and not away from it. Road adhesion will quickly result, and onee_ this takes placo the car can be straightened up. There arc, of course, rare occasions Where ?his would not work, the edge of a precipice or bank, for instance, m where* prevented by adjacent _ traffic and a collision is inevitable. 11 c skil cd mind would decide such a # situation for itself; it works subconsciously, as it were and generally for the best. ■ The troubl! about skidding is that the novice almost invariably docs the vrongthing-unfortunatelythenatura thine Finding the car going oft tho a lorry at the foot oi an iucklaud hill proceeding in circles That was some years ago, but it was a learn to steer into tho skid, it- may meo a nne yoZr if thing The HuttmdJs^r eiSsS btSfS XT danger of both. The danger mus£ be reeocnised and caution adopted. *vi he? Wednesday's chapter of accidents hould warn motorists that they don't now everything. In a strange set of circumstances, therefore, be donbly cautious. Confidence is a gvoat thing, but confidence should be of, knowledge and not merely of a belief in a motorcar.