BRAKES AND LIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 34, 9 August 1934, Page 14

BRAKES AND LIGHTS

BURST OF INTEREST

ARE CERTIFICATES A TEST?

The burst of interest over brakes and lights is the best proof possible that inspection of these essentials for motoring safety is badly needed and overdue, for the fact that drivers arc almost overwhelming garage proprietors by their demands for immediate testing indicates clearly enough, that they are not at all sure that their brakes are in the order they should be. Lights do not trouble them so much, j but while the garage man is on the job he looks them over, of course. The fact is that a great many motorists, probably the majority, have just taken a chance on brakes and lights, arguing, soundly enough, that the risk of prosecution has been negligible, and, not so soundly, that smashes arc for the other fellow. The system of brake inspection until the last week or so, of strict examination after the smash, has not resulted in observance of the regulations. The system of inspection of lights has, if the glare and "anti-aircraft" effects seen on the Hutt Eoad on any night are a proper indication, been no system at all. The general understanding seems to have been that if the lights go on at all they are quite all right, the brighter the better. Baby cars seem to have come in for most criticism, but some of the heaviest vehicles, on the Hutt Eoad, are the worst of all. When the traffic inspectors met a few weeks ago at the suggestion of the Transport Department and discussed the necessity of better inspection of ail motor vehicles it was recognised that anything approaching a full inspection would be a tremendous task, hence the compromise- of accepting a certificate or statement from a garage proprietor that brake equipment and lights were in accordance with requirements. It is at best an expedient, and now and again a poor one. The great majority of garage proprietors are strictly competent toi carry out the work and as strictly insistent that no document shall be issued unless the regulations arc fully met, but for quite obvious reasons a traffic inspector cannot accept ouo certificate and question another. A recent collision case in which the driver of the- overrunning car immediately produced a brake efficiency certificate,. which was not upheld by a subsequent road test, would seem to illustrate the point. However, though there may bo a few cases in which a way is found, deliberately or in, error, round the regulations, the drive against faulty brakes must be having a very good temporary.result. Of one batch of 18 machines stopped in the city a dozen had brakes which could not get through the test, and on one the braking system might almost have been designed by that inventor of mechanical marvels, Heath Kobinson. There wore several bits missing, particularly a continuous connecting rod, but a length of twisted wire made that up. The disadvantage of tho wire, however, was that it stretched when tho brakes were, put on. . FORTY FEET A MINIMUM. Tho regulation requirements as to braking-—the stopping of vehicles in 40 feet on foot brakes and 75 feet on hand brake from a speed of 20 miles per hour —-are minimum requirements, that is, that is the poorest braking that can be passed, so that if a driver tries out his car over, the several sets of road markings now'laid down and just gets through, or almost gets through, he need not be particularly pleased with himself. He must stop in 40, or 75, feet or better, not just about 40 or 75 feet. The City Traffic Office has a very ingenious instrument for brake testing. It is quite a small device, working on the inertia principle. It is placed on the floor of the ear and the driver is requested to drive at a speed between 15 and 30 miles an hour and then to brake; a disc slides round as the car decelerates, pauses and runs back to position. The point at which the disc pauses indicates tho number of feet in which the machine' will stop from, a speed of 20 miles an hour.