HIGH-ROAD & BY-ROAD

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20989, 16 December 1939, Page 24 (Supplement)

HIGH-ROAD & BY-ROAD

SAFETY GROOVES Centreline barriers are feasible only on wide highways where cars do not have to cross the middle of the road in passing. An unusual installation on a main highway in Michigan has been effective in preventing head-on collisions. It consists of a series of diagonal grooves placed in the middle of the pavement. The new barrier does not project above the surface of the road, but consists of corrugated sheet steel having deep, slanting ribs, which grip the inside front wheel of the encroaching car and deflect it back into its proper path; in fact, the safety grooves gently nudge the car out from the middle of the road.

THE “HALF-DISTANCE” RULE DANGER OF CUTTING IN “A Supreme Court Judge referred recently to the habit of some drivers of cutting in to the space a motorist has allowed between his car and the car he is following, a reference which has a bearing on the importance of maintaining the half-distance rule,” says a road safety message of the Automobile Association, Canterbury. “There is a marked tendency for drivers, particularly at week-ends or on other occasions when processions are possible, to travel close up to the car ahead even at a substantial rate of speed. This is a very dangerous procedure at high speed, and at a low rate of speed it can be a cause of danger, or costly damage. Much of the damage to the front or end of motor vehicles is done through rearend collisions. Speed and Braking “The importance is obvious of the degree of speed in relation to the degree of effective braking but a feature which many motorists overlook is that the improvements made in the design and finish of the brakes in the latest cars are so great and their stopping distance in feet is so short that anyone driving close be- ' hind has to be very alert to avoid an end-on contact in event of the front car stopping suddenly. The safe drivers are those who know just how smartly their vehicles can be stopped, and the correct distance they should maintain from the vehicle in front. It is easily conceivable that the driver in front may have to apply his brakes suddenly for some traffic obstruction, and unless one’s eyes are focussed on the stop-light of the car in front one is likely to be caught unawares and make contact with the rear-end of the car in front. Or the car in front may have no stop-light. “Rear-end bumps or crashes are invariably caused through driving too close to the car ahead or through inattention, or carelessness on the part of the following driver. “Those motorists who possess older types of cars or trucks do not always have brakes with the stopping ability of the brakes on the very latest cars, so that it is the duty of such drivers always to make due allowance for a sudden stop when trailing a car of the latest make. “Always allow a good working margin between your car and the one in front in the day or the night. Always you should be able to pull up in half the distance of clear road ahead, and if you are trailing another car or truck by day or night, there is certainly very little clear road ahead. Know your car’s limitations. allow plenty of room, and always make allowance for any sudden whim or emergency on the part of the driver ahead. Cutting-in “And when you see that a motorist is maintaining a rate of travel about the same as that of vehicles ahead, and allowing a safe margin between his vehicle and the one ahead, do not cause trouble or danger for him by cutting in to the space and thus reducing the safety margin not only for him but for yourself. “It should be pointed out tnat while there is an obvious duty resting on the drivers of following cars to take every precaution to avoid end-to-end collisions, there is also a responsibility on every motorist to indicate by hand signal or in any other way his intention to stop in the track of following vehicles if any emergency calls for such a stopping. On the other hand, if a motorist wishes to stop for some cause not related to traffic conditions ahead, he should indicate his intention to stop and then pull in strictly to the lefthand side of the road for such stop. It is an extremely bad driving practice to halt one’s vehicle in the directtrack of traffic if that stop can be at all avoided.”