Thursday Thirteen #41

1. Most people don’t realise that driving is such a high risk activity. Apart from getting fat and developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, vehicular accidents are one of the most common causes of death. Every time we go out on the roads we put our lives in other people’s hands, the only thing that separates us from them is a painted white line on the road.

2. In Australia we have a culture of always being in a rush on the roads and not knowing what other people are thinking when they’re on the road. Most people have a habit of thinking that they are good drivers and better drivers than other people, they don’t bother to think that their speeding or quickly changing lanes or not indicating (that they feel can be done safely) might cause other people on the road to crash.

3. There was an ad campaign a while ago saying that men could drink 2 standard drinks in the first hour and one each hour, and women could drink one standard drink each hour, and then drive. They failed to emphasise that it could be a horrible estimate depending on weight, fat, metabolism and susceptibility. They also failed to emphasise that it was up to 4 hours, therefore five drinks in one night. You shouldn’t drink all night and then drive. Seriously, who’s kidding who? If you need to count your drinks or use one of those personal breath testers then you really shouldn’t be driving and if you cared about not killing other people, then you wouldn’t.

4. ABS brakes are cool. They cause the brake pads to clench and release the wheels rapidly when you brake hard. It means that your wheels won’t lock up and you can maintain control of your vehicle.

5. If you don’t have ABS brakes and need to stop really quickly you should brake with as much pressure as you can without locking the wheels up. If you do lock the wheels it’s not really a big thing, remain calm and release a small amount of pressure from the brake pedal. You don’t really need to “pump” the brakes to get out of a skid, you only need to release pressure on the brakes to just before locking pressure. If you have no idea what you car is like in that situation you should definitely go on a course like I did or just go to a skid pan or something and brake hard, feel what it’s like to lock the brakes and then release them a bit.

6. Safe minimum driving distance behind another car is 3 seconds. Everyone knows this but so few people do it. Get off other car’s asses! You are driving dangerously if you are that close to another car.

7. As with the 3 second rule, speed limits are there for a reason. It doesn’t matter how safely you “feel” like you are driving, there’s only so fast a car and a driver can react and slow down in an unexpected situation. With every extra 10km/h you drive you nearly double your stopping distance.

8. I was really nervous when we were going for our first hard brake. I’d never tried to do one in this car (the only time I had to in another car I crashed). It wasn’t scary, the skid pan conditions are very controlled.

9. We had to try stopping on a wet surface. It’s not as easy to tell when they brakes lock up in the wet (the tyres don’t squeal) but you can. I’m glad I’ve practised it.

10. They had tea and coffee available for when we were inside as well as Krispy Kreme doughnuts and they gave us unlimited cans or bottles of drink. I drank so much water! Sometimes it was a bit of a problem waiting in the queue of cars to do the manoeuvres. 😛

11. They recommended to adjust your side mirrors a little further out than you normally would – you don’t need to see the back of your own car all the time, it won’t fall off! Doing this could greatly decrease your blind spot. They claimed it eliminated it but I tried it on the way home and there was still a large blind spot to the rear left. Anyway, tilt your head a bit and you’ll still see the side of the car, for when you’re reversing or think it’s disappeared.

12. I got told to lean my seat back a little because I looked too close to the wheel. Another guy was complaining because he was told to bring his forward a bit and he felt scrunched into the wheel – he was not scrunched he barely had a bend in his arm, when he had his seat back he didn’t have a bend in his arm, he was driving like a fully sick bro. B)

13. If you see me get lazy, stupid, angry, or rushed in my driving say something! I wouldn’t want to be a hypocrite. 😀

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