SKID DANGERS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 251, 14 June 1932, Page 2

SKID DANGERS

REDUCED BRAKING POWER. CAUTIOUS DRIVING ESSENTIAL.

Three sepayate and distinct cattses of Loss of adhesion between tyre and road are nearly always referred to by the use of • one and the same word — "skidding." Skidding, strictly speakihg, implies that a wheel, or wKeels, continues td_ move in its original direction, but either locked by braking or rotating at a slower speed than is natural to its rate of progress over the road. For the sake of simplicity we can say that only a locked wheel skids. j When a car slithers sideways (us- i uaily the rear part only), it is not necessarily skidding; it is side-slipping a form of loss of wheel-adhesion that is encouraged to occur when the wheel skids. A side-slip is also likplv to occur under some conditions, if the third form of loss of adhesion exists — -viz., . wheel spin, which arises from the sudden engagement of the cluteh with a low gear in use on a slippery road, or from the sudden depression of the accelerator when similar road copditions exist, especially, but not only on a low gear. Wheel slip is not a source of danger unless the road speed is fairly high; if it occurs when the car is beirig started from rest, no harm or disconcerting circumstance wili ensue, apart from the possibility, on a cambered road, of the driving wheels side-slipping toward the gutter. Danger of Skidding. A skid, howcver, contains greater , possibilities of harm. It brings with it, for instance, greatly reduced braking effect, for a locked wheel skids along a slippery road more readily than a braked wheel rotating at its normal speed in relation to that of the car. Then, too, a skidding wheel is very prone to side-slip. Applying those fundamental facts to practical driving, the following

hints may be given: — Do not try to accelerate rapidly, or drive so that it may he necessary to use the brakes violently, on a slippery road, particularly on the side of a cambered road. Engage the clutch as ^ently as pos^ sible when starting from rest where a .side-slip niight cause the car to hit something. Try to avoid accelerating or braking forcibly on a slippery corner. If the car commences to side-slip merely because a curve of the road is being taken too fast, or another vehicle being overtaken on a slippery cambered road, do not apply the brakes. Do not even release the accelei'ator violently on a really slippery road at a corner or elsewhere, for this gives rise to an engine-braking effect that may cause the rear wheels first to skid and then to side-slip. Keep four-wheel brakes, especially the units of the pairs, baek and front, uniformly adjusted. If one back wheel is locked and skids, road adhesion is halved. Do not swerve with the steering on a slippery road; anticipate the need for change of direction whenever possible, in order to negotiate an obstruetion in a long and gradual sweep. Above all, drive slowly and cautiously where the road surface is or may be treacherous, and hear in mind, for one thing, that oil drippings at bus stopping places and elsewhere are a potential cause of skidding, wheelspin and side-slip.