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Show SAFE STOP DEPENDS ON DRIVER OF AUTO In Tests 88 Feet Has Been Fixed as Minimum Distance, i Tskes One-Half of Second for perienced Man to Sense an Emergency Before He Begins to Apply His Brakes. What Is the shortest distance required re-quired to stop your car going at a certain speed in an emergency? The answer to -this, in the opinion of E. W. Weaver, Cleveland engineer, depends on two tilings : Fii-st Condition of brakes and tha road surface. Second Time required for tha driver to sense an emergency before applying the brakes. Of these conditions the second Is most important, says Weaver. Tests have set certain minimum distances for stopping, based on knowledge of brakes and road surfaces, in relation to the various speeds of the motorcar. motor-car. For Instance, S6 feet has been fixed as the minimum distance required to stop a car with good brakes, going 30 miles an hour on a dry level road. With poor brakes on a slippery road, the distance Is 23S feet, j But the human element must also ! be considered, says Weaver, lie figures fig-ures it takes one-half a second for au experienced driver to sense an emergency emer-gency before lie begins to apply the brakes. In this one-half second of time, at a speed of 30 miles an hour, the car will have gone 22 feet. Therefore, in stopping an automobile automo-bile from a speed of 30 miles an hour, for example, the total distance required would be 10S feet, with good brakes and a dry, level road; 2M0 feet, with poor brakes and a 6lippery road. Other distances can be judged with the aid of the chart Weaver has prepared, pre-pared, dependent on the car's speed and the driver's own alertness Id sensing the emergency. |