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Show Powerful Forces Control Your Car Blow your breath hard between two sheets of paper held in your fingers and you'll see a graphic demonstration of the powerful natural force that takes over part of the control of your car when you're overtaking and passing another car. The sheets of paper don't blow apart, as your'd expect them to do. They pull together instead. This is what tends to happen when you pass another car. Suction Suc-tion and vacuum set up by the speed, invisibly pulls your car toward the one you're passing. That's why you should be doubly doub-ly alert and doubly careful while passing. But that isn't the only extra force that almost takes the w-heel out of your hands. Speed itself is another. You've suddenly speeded up to pass, after a period per-iod of steady cruising. Instantly all steering characteristics change and so do your safe reaction re-action times, which shorten toward to-ward the danger point. Then the human factor the great unknown creeps in too. Is the man you're passing going to take it suddenly into his head to swerve to the right, without loking into his side-view mirror or making a signal? Is there a hidden side road around the curve, with a car about to pop out of it? Is there a car coming in the opposite direction that may speed up and makes it impossible im-possible for you to pass in time? All these factors, known and unknown, make the act of overtaking over-taking and passing one of the most delicate you can perform in your car one to be approached with great care. Proof? Last year, so say Insurance In-surance people, 26,000 were injured in-jured and 600 were killed by wrong decisions while passing. Factors they could not cope with in time tripped them at the vital vi-tal moment. One thing you can be sure of. Proper care of your car, by the men who handle your mane of car, will at least make sure no mechanical failure will complicate compli-cate the already tricky business of passing. That means a check of steering, rear-view and side-view side-view mirrors, brakes, turn signals, sig-nals, acceleration and general safe operating condition. It's worth it, when you have to cope suddenly with outside forces as powerful as those that spring into action when you pass. |