LOOSE METAL ON ROADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21114, 23 February 1932, Page 13

LOOSE METAL ON ROADS.

Sir, —I still maintain that a motor-driver ! should be capable of safely driving a car, large or small, over any loose metal road in New Zealand, even if the metal is very thick and treacherous in some places, or if the car happens to be a light one, fitted with high-pressuro tyres. I honestly believe that a lot of trouble is caused through an incompetent driver becoming over confident in himself and tearing along tho road at an excessivo speed until he either pulls off the crown of tho road to pass another car or reaches a corner which has been blessed with an abundance of loose metal and, unfortunately, before the driver is quite aware of what is happening, the car is out of control and either turns over or crashes into something, perhaps runs over a bank. Such an accident is usually attributed to skidding in loose metal. Incidentally, a car sometimes gets out of control when a tyre bursts at. high speed and there is a definite tendency of the car to skid violently to one side. The experienced driver regains control immediately, but the inexperienced driver probably crashes. Would your correspondents put that down to incompetency or loose metal ? Take tho case of a car taking a corner on its wrong side and meeting another car. The driver of the first one swerves suddenly to try to gain his correct side, with the result that the car skids badly and crashes into the other. Would that be incompetency or loose metal ? I definitely say that such an accident would be caused through incompetent driving, but would not be the least surprised, if present to help pick up the unfortunate driver, to hear him say, "She skidded in the loose metal." However, such accidents are bound to occur, even on first-class roads, and are hard to prevent. 1 sympathise with Mr. Hanwell and his motor-cycle on loose metal roads, and although I have not come to grief with mine I have seen any number of accidents with them, not only on loose metal roads, but also on every other kind of road as well. I shall not express any opinion about motorcycles on the road?, as I am more or less prejudiced against them and regard them as an evil anywhere at all. I feel confident that your two correspondents will agree that there would be ever so manv fewer accidents on all roads if just a little more care and thought were exercised. Frank T.

Sir, —With reference* to the risk of driving through loose metal, the motor-cycle does not offer a satisfactory or logical argument. When the latter is thrown off the perpendicular, the unbalanced weight easily causes a fall, unless the wheels have a secure grip. A motor-cycle travelling ovor a loose surface is dangerous at the best of times, a fact borne out by the large number of machines getting beyond control and crashing, often with tragic results, into the nearest object. The momentum, much greater than is commonly supposed, of heavy fourwheeled vehicles, will cause any of them to skid when negotiating an angle or a straight, on a soft and friable surface at anything over a reasonable speed. No heavy vehicle is an exception to the hard and fast rule governing momentum, a phase of the science of dynamics but little understood. In such circumstances brakes are useless. Accurate and quick judgment alone will enable, the driver to regain control, should control for a moment bo lost. The moral of the whole thing is that only tfie exercise of habitual studied care can reduce the risk of accident to the driver of motor vehicles. Experienced.