On the Road

The answer is: use the brakes. Really.

By now you must have heard of the issues and controversy surrounding Toyota’s errant accelerator pedals in overseas markets. I’m not going to step into that unresolved morass, but the problem doesn’t affect local cars and hopefully it stays that way.

In any case, it’s not just a problem for the Japanese giant, as it’s a supplier issue too: Peugeot and Ford vehicles have been affected by the same parts.

Manufacturers providing customers with defective parts in something as important as an automobile should never be allowed to get away with it, but on the flipside, I can’t help but suspect part of the hoo-hah is due to America’s lawsuit-rich, passing-the-buck paradigm.

The flipside is (and this truth is more or less unquestionable), anyone who’s willing to enjoy the convenience of an automobile (or any sort of vehicle really) must also be willing to take their lives into their own hands every time they take the wheel.

This includes knowing what to do even if a car goes haywire, the road conditions are bad or, in the case of drink driving, what not to do.

So, what do you do if, by a very very remote chance the car you’re driving goes Christine and has the throttle stuck?

1. First apply the brakes and don’t let up.

2. Shift the gearbox into neutral.

3. If the brakes burn out, which is not likely since modern brake systems are very robust and ABS-equipped, swerve from side to side to lose momentum.

But as is always the case, a car is only as good as its driver. Even with today’s wonderfully safe vehicles, it never hurts to be prepared for anything.

Upgrading to a safer vehicle might cost thousands of dollars, but changing your own philosophy of driving makes you safer all the time, everywhere, and costs nothing.

Tags: brakes, philosophy, recall, responsibility, safety, Toyota

Want to feel like Spiderman? Go drive a car.

No, I’m serious.

We often forget that being able to drive a car is both a privilege and a responsibility – when you start the engine, two tonnes of potentially lethal automobile are at your disposal, to be placed in a certain condition, time and place solely at the driver’s discretion.

Why bring this up? A recent accident in Loyang claimed the lives of three people, when the Subaru in question lost control at what was undoubtedly high speed, then embedded a tree into itself and caught fire.

Also fresh on my mind are two other high-profile accidents last year: one on Old Upper Thomson Road where two polytechnic students were killed in a Mitsubishi Lancer, and another Subaru in Geylang which split into two.

Speed was probably the main factor in these accidents, judging by the damage, although other causes like driver fatigue can’t be ruled out. The two in the Lancer weren’t wearing seatbelts either.

Speed alone is neither fatal, nor dangerous – It’s the context which makes it so. With F1 drivers for instance, speed is their daily bread, yet the last F1 fatality was Senna 15 years ago.

When you speed up, everything occurs faster and reaction time is reduced. The behaviour of the vehicle changes, no matter what you’re driving. If you’re not experienced (and sometimes even if you are), adrenaline makes it hard to react in accordance with the laws of physics over raw instinct.

Consider two cases:

1. A well-rested highly experienced driver, a modern car with a high level of safety equipment, perfect daytime weather and a familiar German Autobahn.

2. A freshly-minted licensee, a car with a less than stellar NCAP rating, midnight, an infamous winding road in an area inhabited by wild animals, vegetation on the tarmac and four occupants without safety belts on.

There’s a tiny difference between being a driving enthusiast and a reckless killer: It’s what you consider before stepping on the gas.

Tags: accidents, responsibility, safety