How to Avert Accidents

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22670, 6 March 1937, Page 12 (Supplement)

How to Avert Accidents

A large proportion of the record number of fatal accidents which occurred on the highways of New South Wales last year wero due, not to recklessness, but to bad driving, says the motoring editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. "There is a moral obligation on every driver of a, motor vehicle to make himself as good a driver as he can." There is far rnoro in the handling of a motor-car than in the steering of it, the applying of brakes at the right times, and tho keeping of a reasonable look-out for other traffic. There is a definite technique to bo followed, a technique which takes into account the unusual forces which affect a car s stability and which guards against them before they have a chance to upset its equilibrium. Danger of Bad Cornering The worst offences against good driving are to be seen on corners, and it is on corners that many serious accidents occur. Let a driver really master the art of cornering in complete safety, and he has gone a long way toward becoming a perfect driver. Could every motorist become reasonably expert in this one department of driving alone, tho roads would probably become 50 per cent safer than they are. The real art of cornering is perfectly summed up in tho way a racing driver expresses the operation. _ He would never, in describing some incident, say that he went "round" a corner; rather would he say that he went "through it. This is because, to him, every foot of the road comprised by the bend presents its own little problem. His task, as he sees it, is not simply to follow the curve with his wheels, but to plot a path for himself which will not endan-

ger other road users or expose his car to the grave risk of skidding and which will take it through the bend on the straightest posisble course. For this reason, the expert starts to corner some little distance before his car has actually entered the bend. His approach is important. He will slow the car with the brakes while still on the straight, and by the time the car is entering the bend, the brakes will be released and the car accelerating again. A car is always under much fuller control when the engine is pulling than when decelerating. It is very important that this control is hold when a car is negotiating curves and centrifugal force is endeavouring to throw the tail to one side. The driver then starts to plot his path on the curve.

Allowing lor Skids

If he has a complete vision of the road and no other traffic is coming in the opposite direction, he will probably shamelessly cut the corner even if that involves going on to the wrong side, because the more roadway there is between the car and the outside of the bend, the more room there is in which to skid if some miscalculation of speed has been made. But he will under no circumstances cut a corner if ho has not a clear view, but will, if necessary, reduce speed and stay on his correct side.

In either case, ho will keep tho steering wheel in constant movement, turning tho car by a series of short sharp skids rather than by holding the wheel on one setting. By doing this, he keeps the front wheels for most of the time in the straight ahead position, and by this means neatly prevents any tendency the car has toward skidding before it has a chance to develop. Contrast with this thoughtful, skilful approach and negotiation of a bend, the haphazard manner in which far too many drivers negotiate a corner.

Violent deceleration 'while a enr is already negotiating a corner should be avoided. It in much better to err on the side of caution by approaching a corner too slowly than too fast, oven if the driver is in rather a hurry, because ho can at least accelerate when lie learns that he can do so with perfect safety, but a discovery that the car has entered the bond too fast and the endeavour to slow it by violent brake application, may bring the journey to a sudden end there and then. Passing on a Hill Orest While the art of cornering is easily the most important part of driving, there aro a number of other points which require careful pudgment and the exercise of common sense. For example, passing on a corner or near the crest of a lull obviously is fraught with danger, and 110 driver in his senses will do it. It is comparatively easy to make a mistake in judgment by passing a car when another car is approaching from the opposite direction. Judging the speed ui a car from head-on is exceedingly difficult, and more than one collision has been caused by a driver who has pulled out to puss, under-estimat-ing the speed of an approaching vehicle. When two cars approach each other, the speed at which. tliej approach is iba aum of their IndßvidrnsF opmfo Even

Many Caused Through Bad Driving

though these are quite moderate, the two added together niako a total speed that is far higher than the average individual driver ever attains on tho oi>en road. Wet roads should always be dealt with cautiously. Some types of road surface offer excellent grip for the tyres, with well-defined treads, even when wet, but others do not, and it is practically impossible to judge beforehand how a car will behave on a certain road surface until experiments have been made. Accidents sometimes occur because a driver, having found that the wet road ho is on is reasonably safe, proceeds without slackening sjieed when lie comes to a section of road constructed from a different material. The first warning he has of the slippery nature of the now surface is given by tho sliding back wheels of his car. The moral is to sjow down in wet weather driving whenever tho road surface changes, and find out whether tho new surface provides as good a grip before accelerating again.