SKID MARKS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 29, 3 August 1934, Page 13

SKID MARKS

AN EXPERT'S DEDUCTIONS Deductions to bo drawn from motorcar Skid marks provided somoiutcrcsting evidence during tho hearing of a case iv the Supremo Court yesterday afternoon. Tho witness was William. Henry Bowen, who has had racing experience and for sis years was tho late Major Segrave 's engineer. In his' experience,- said Mr. Bowon, skid marks conveyed several things. On a dry surface they denoted speed, quick operation of the brakes—what in tho trado was called ficrco braking— and condition of the brakes. There was moiMB chance of a two-wheel brake car skidding than a four-wheel brako car. If there was a skid mark of 36ft ho would say that tho speed of the car was moro than thirty miles per hour, and if 40ft then proportionately more. As the speed increased the proportion of the length of the skid.increased. Questioned as' to the term '' stopping distance," Mr. Bowcn said that was from the point where.the brake was applied until tho car stopped. The skid mark was not the stopping distance of a motor-ear. If there was a skid mark of 43ft the stopping distance would be approximately 80ft. It was a fair average to say that it took one second for tho brakes to operate. . That meant that if tho car travelled at thirty mHes per hour the car should stop in 45ft, making a. stopping distance of 88ft. If the brakes on a car wore too fiereo, that would have the effect of increasing the skid, but tho ear would bo stopped more quickly.