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Show Small Oars And Winter' Wrath By VAL WILSON Chief of Police The trend toward smaller, lighter, more fuel efficient cars is both good and bad news for drivers. . THIS WAS Chief of Police Val Wilson's comment today as he cited National Safety Council's Committee on Winter Win-ter Driving Hazards research to back up his contention. According to test findings, the heavier the vehicle, the longer the distance required to slide to a stop on ice. This relationship re-lationship between vehicle weight and locked-wheel stopping stop-ping distances on ice is at odds with the reported behavior of vehicles on either wet or dry pavements. ONCE THE wheels are locked, lock-ed, vehicle weight shouldn't make a difference . But on glare ice. a difference has been well established by the skid testers. Stopping distances on ice for compact and sub-compact cars can be as much as 25 percent per-cent shorter than for a full size vehicle, a plus for drivers of these cars according to National Na-tional Safety Council researchers, resear-chers, who then turn the coin to the minus side. ONCE STOPPED, however, the smaller, lighter cars have notable trouble getting back into motion again. This is particularly parti-cularly true at warmer ice temperatures tem-peratures or when ice has become be-come highly polished, such as at intersections. After breakaway break-away has occurred, however, and the wheels are spinning, there is little difference in the traction capabilities of different diffe-rent size cars. , Chief Wilson also joined the International Association of Chiefs of Police in noting a change in braking techniques that motorists should be aware of: PREVIOUSLY, hard fast jabs at the brake pedal were the proper way to "pump" the bakes on slick roads. That was when cars had drum brakes on all four wheels. A good share of today's cars, however, have disc brakes on the front and drum brakes on the rear. The "fast and hard as you can" pumping technique does not allow the front disc brakes to release completely. With the front' wheels staying locked and sliding, slid-ing, steering control is never regained the basic objective of pumping the brakes in the first place. INSTEAD, SKID testers now recommend a. slower, intermittent in-termittent braking action fully on and then fully off long enough to let disc brakes release re-lease so that all wheels are rolling roll-ing again. In short, apply the brakes until you feel that a skid is about to start, then release, steer and pump again. And, according to National Safety Council performance tests, contrary to the impression impress-ion of many motorists, radial tires are not necessarily a substitute sub-stitute for snow tires for driv- ing on snow and ice. THESE TESTS showed'that . the performance of radial tires varies widely and is dependent on tread configuration. In other words, a radial tire with a regular highway tread will perform per-form as a regular highway tire. A radial with a snow tread will perform as a snow tire. In the final analysis, Chief Wilson reminded car owners, reinforced tire chains remain your best and most dependable traction aid for severe snow and ice conditions. They provide pro-vide from four to seven times as much traction on snow or ice as regular tires; and they stop up to 50 percent better on ice. THE CHIEF concluded with another common-sense suggestion sug-gestion for motorists: "Always "Al-ways buckle up! Use the safety restraints in your car for yourself and your passengers. If you have children, equip your car with the proper type of restraints recommended for your child's age and weight.". |