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Show 14 SPRINGVILLE HERALD Thursday, February 22, 2007 Gear: Safer Driving Skills Daniel Souza Staff Writer STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO - With over one hundred days left before the official start of the summer season, sea-son, it's never too late to learn or brush up on safer driving skills. I understand that Utah's four-season weather rotates ro-tates faster than you can say "Utah's four-season weather," but I also pre sume, assume and anticipate antici-pate that more snow may just be headed our way. In either case, the'lessons learned in the home of the Rockies can be used to in either snow or wet conditions. condi-tions. Sponsored by Toyota and Bridgestone, a handful hand-ful of journalists had their skills tried at the Bridge-stone Bridge-stone Winter Driving School, nested near the famous fa-mous touristy Steamboat Springs, CO, just 156 miles west of Denver. The conditions set for our lessons couldn't be better: bet-ter: below freezing temperatures, tem-peratures, terrible visibility visibil-ity during a heavy snow-dumping snow-dumping day with an ice track previously coated with over 250,000 gallons of water. Lessons were learned and no accidents took place. But unlike what some thought, driving driv-ing at higher speeds did not " '"W J resemble an advanced skill level behind the wheel. "The number one rule is to adjust your speed," said Morgan Kavanaugh, lead instructor at the Bridge-stone Bridge-stone Winter Driving School. Kavanaugh, who used to race motorcycles before joining the driving school, stressed upon techniques that most drivers just simply sim-ply forget to practice. "People need to remember remem-ber to separate their inputs: in-puts: brakes, steer, accelerate, ac-celerate, all separate, but working together in a nice, controlled flow," said Kavanaugh. In everyday driving situations, cars with both ABS (Anti Lock Brakes) and traditional braking systems are basically identical. iden-tical. In an emergency stopping situation, two distinctly dis-tinctly different techniques are required. With traditional brakes, the cadence, or pumping technique, is effective, but the driver must lift off of the brake if steering is required to avoid an obstacle. ob-stacle. The beauty of ABS is that pressing the brake pedal as hard as possible and holding it there allows the computer to pump the brakes while still maintaining maintain-ing some steering effectiveness. effec-tiveness. Keep in mind that ABS can't perform miracles: if the driver feels ABS engaging en-gaging often during everyday every-day driving, then the rule is to slow down, because the vehicle is exceeding the reasonable speed for the conditions. All of the drivers taking the course had a chance to try either the Toyota 4Run-ner 4Run-ner or the Toyota Camry. The 4Runner presented an advantage: four-wheel drive capabilities. On the other hand, the Camry in our fleet was fitted only with a front-wheel drive option. It's obvious a four-wheel drive system sports advantages, advan-tages, but the rules taught at the school apply to any type of vehicle. When roads are slippery, drivers must use the entire grip (traction) available for one action at a time. Braking Brak-ing is to be done only in a straight line prior to the curve when the car is traveling trav-eling straight. Taking the foot off the brake before steering into the curve allows al-lows the driver of any vehicle ve-hicle to use the entire grip available just for steering. Remember that the driver can accelerate only when he or she is able to straighten the steering steer-ing wheel at the exit of the turn. According to the instructors at the Bridgestone Winter Driving Driv-ing School, this technique will allow effectiveness of 100 at each maneuver-braking, maneuver-braking, steering and acceleration. ac-celeration. And though winter may not be as heavy as some past years in Utah, Kavanaugh Ka-vanaugh alerts that the safety tips apply just as well while driving on wet pavement. "A good driver reacts. A great driver anticipates," said Kavanaugh. Daniel Souza can be reached at sixth.gear. heraldgmail.com or visit vis-it his blog at http:sixth-gearheraldMogspo http:sixth-gearheraldMogspo t. com V - fMHMwMM v. 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