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Show Skids Are No Excuse for Auto Accidents Madison, Wis. "I skidded" or "I couldn't stop" are poor excuses for traffic accidents, according to a nationally recognized rec-ognized traffi caccident investigator. invest-igator. Prof. Arch H. Easton, Director Direc-tor of the University of Wisconsin's Wiscon-sin's Motor Vehicle Research Laboratory and a specialist in the field of accident investigation, investiga-tion, says that few exceptions, this type of accident is the direct di-rect result of driver error general "speed too fast for conditions" "There are exceptions such, as mechanical failure.of course but in the ovemhelming majority ma-jority of cases that I have investigated, in-vestigated, a skid is brought on by the driver through over-breaking, over-breaking, oversteering or overpowering," over-powering," said Prof. Easton. . "And failure to stop in time to avoid an accident is almost always al-ways the result of driving too fast for the available friction between the tires and the road surface." As the former long-time Chairman of the National Safety Saf-ety Council's Commitee on Winter Driving Hazards, Prof. Easton is particularly concerned concern-ed about the sharp upsurge in skidding accidents that take place on ke-and snow-covered pavements during this time of year. "It is obvious from the types of accidents I see that very few drivers recognize the extreme hazards involved in driving on these surfaces," he reported. "For example, tests have shown that the braking distance dist-ance on glare ice may be as much as nine or ten times the normal distance on dry pavement." pave-ment." When asked what the average aver-age driver can do about driving driv-ing on slippery pavement, Prof. Easton said that the first and most important technique is to develop a sense of "feel" for the road surface so that you can constantly know just how muchr or how little traction is available. He explained that this can best be done by gently gent-ly trying the brakes or accelerating accel-erating in spurts to find out whether the wheels slip or spin. If they do, slow down and do all maneuvering with a gentle, gen-tle, delicate touch. "But don't slow down to the point where you don't have enough momentum to make it up the next hill without spinning spin-ning your wheels," he cautioned. |