OVERTAKING ERRORS

Shannon News, 9 October 1928, Page 4

OVERTAKING ERRORS

LACK OF JUDGMENT A BESET TING SIN OF MANY MOTORISTS.

A besetting sin of many of the new motorists is lack of judgment in the matter of time, speed, and pace, when overtaking and passing other vehicles on the road.

Generally, the error of judgment is two-fold. Possibly the driver of the vehicle being passed will himself acwhich makes the situation of the overtaking vehicle more serious. More often than not, however, the driver of the vehicle passing fails altogether to judge the speed of the vehicle in the opposite direction—which car has undoubtedly the right of road.

The tendency of the impatient driver, too often, is to persist in passing, until he finds that the speed of the oncoming car is much greater than he thought. The driver of that car. having right of way, duo-; not alwajs slow down. The result then is that he has to follow up his error of judgment by doing the worst thing any driver can d 0 —namely, to cut in in front of the car he is passing and between that vehicle and the car which is approaching. Sometimes it means disaster. Always there is a risk of it.; It needs training on the road and constant vigilance to judge accurately the specci ol oncoming traffic, and the larger the vehicle the more difficult it is. Before deciding to overtake, the driver of a car should . be dead sure that he can get through without endangering or inconveniencing the cur he is passing and an oncoming car which has the right of way. 'if he has once found his judgment seriously at fault in this respect, his only coarse is to exercise patience until his way is absolutely clear, and his acceleration must then be fully equal to the oc casion. •