Saturday, April 11, 2009

All about defensive driving

Today have been a fantastic day. Nissan sponsor 3 grand livina and 2 sylphy for us to trash about, for once we could drive without worry about tyre, petrol and of course, other road users, pisang goreng stall or birds - yes birds.

Lets run through some basic statistic. To date we have
26 million pple in Malaysia
16 million register vehicle on the road
10 million license holder &
500 000 on the road during peak hour

yes - there are more vehicle on the road than license holder. oh and who does not involve an any accident here before, can i see a show of hand?

none? and stats shows that 80% of accident are due to human error and can be avoided. basically any other reason u involve in THAT accident could be avoided - unless u are fated to die in the accident

the car suddenly appear from no where and bang into u? this can be avoided if u are observant
u expecting the car with left signal to turn left but didnt and bang into u when u enter a new lane? this can be avoided if u have waited for him.

i know, some of u might disagree on the statement. but driving and sharing the road with other users are very subjective - and indeed deep down u know it can be avoided

Lets look at what is defensive driving.

its managing space on the road - for enough time to react and avoid

effective observation - nothing to be react if u cannot observe well enough.

sharp anticipation - the car slow or fast? is he going to smart tag lane or touch n go lane? wrong anticipation = horn coming out

and speed - no need explain. slow does not mean safe.

Why is wearing seat belt so important? you will know its important if u went through any accident.
lets see.

without seat belt, the pain of collison was

at the speed of only 7km/h - standing and face fall flat (hidung patah or not?)
at the speed of 15km/h - standing on 1 chair and face fall flat
at the speed of 30km/h - standing on 4 chair and face fall flat ( 4 chair = 1 storey/floor)
at 50km/h - standing on 4 storey high.

if u notice, the result is always more than double than ur speed travelled. if u speeding more than 120 km/h? i do not know, i dont dare to imagine.

remember princess diana? she and her driver would survive if they wore a sealt belt. really. big old car thats is hard like a tank, bullet proof mirror and armored car - we talking about pricess here. why would they died in a crash inside a tunnel? they did not wore seat belt, the driver flew out the window(face hancur) i saw the photo. how about diana. her whole body intact. But her internal organ all koyak being thrown around inside the car.

when a collison happened, all the loose item inside ur car can become missle (imagine final destination) your umbrella would stick through ur eyes, ur air fresherner would pierce ur body. your kids colour pencil or ultraman could pawn u in a split seconds. back seat pple no seat belt, slam into u with a force of

speed x body weight.

small human = 60kg x 100 km/h

force = 6000 kg force.

do u think ur seat and belt could handle 6 ton force from behind? or rather 12 ton including ur own?

lets talk about airbag. SRS is NOT the brand of the airbag. its stand for secondary restrain system. its only secondary, it will NOT save ur life of a collision happened. primary system? yes still ur seat belt.

the bag deploy at the force of how much? any lucky guess? it deploy at speed of more than ur car top speed. if ur car top speed was 220 the bag will deploy at 270 say for example. it MUST deploy faster tha the speed of ur car.

what happens if u driving your car at 180 and the bag deploy at 150? yes - you flung out the main screen, muka koyak then only the bag deploy. all in split seconds.
so always remember to buckle up. avoidance is always better than regret. the belt is to save life. not to be put on when there is policeman

before we discuss about skidding. we talk about accident. accident = driver attitude come from. l

look at these picture
















whatever your observation on above is correct. there is no right or wrong. its all based on your perception agree? whatever u perceived is always correct ( and forever opposie party wrong one)


i am trying to say here, correct anticipation is extremely vital, is the car coming out from the corner fast or slow? the car is thinking i am coming out, will he slow down for me or not?
this is 1 of the example. another 1, in a main road that you are travelling, a car from opposite direction come and put right signal want to turn to ur left. do u slow down? even if u not slowing down, what happen if he THINKS u are slowing down? see what i mean?


lets talk about skidding. we have 2 kinds of skid, the understeer or oversteer. understeer happens when ur front wheel lost traction and does NOT go to the direction u want the vehicle u go. the most important point to note during an understeer is never never slam on the brake to reduce speed - and NO, do not lift off the throttle as well.


if we look deeply into a vehicle weight distribution, simple physics and momentum apply.

for example. if u press ur gas, the weight shift to the back and when u brake the force goes to the front. simple?


in understeer, when ur front tyre lost traction and skid, if u BRAKE or LIFT off the gas entirely, what does ur car do? yes, the weight shift to the front and put extra pressure on ur front right tire,(if u understeer to the left) and u will immediately crash to something - u will not be able to do anything beside pray and hope for the best.


the only thing u can do is ease of the throttle slowly, let the weight go on front slowly and let the traction catch back on the road surface


ya i know - easier said than done.


let discuss about oversteer. the 3 video below is about oversteer. oversteer happens when u exit corner, and the back tire lose traction and your butts begins to flung out.

at this moment, please remember DO not brake. we will see what happen when u brake when u oversteer in 3rd video.


when u oversteer and start skidding, move ur sterring to the direction of ur butt, if u skid left, turn ur steering to the left and vice versa - and press on ur GAS HARD !! remember !!

what happen was if ur back tyre is slippery and u press the brake, ur car is going to spin. 360 again and again, cos the front tire stop there. what u need to do is to floor ur gas hard - this will help to 'pull' ur vehicle to the front and escape the situation, - provided ur sterring is at the correct position.

lets enjoy the video


this the correct method, floor the gas and spin the sterring fast !

this one too is correct.

u do NOT want to brake like this when oversteer. what if there is a lorry behind? good game la.

finish watching the video? notice any similiarity in the first 2 video?

immediately after u tackle a first skid, there is a SECONDARY skid due to your sterring position, the butt flunk from right to the left and this is normal in all situation. all u need to do is again turn the steering into the opposite way - fast enough. and maintain pressing on the gas all the way.

ya i know. easier say than done. want to know how i feel? i feel like my car going to flip any time - it was scary and fun, i am not saying i am a perfect driver now but at least i know what to do in situation like this.

till the enjoy the movie and drive safely. share the road with other users and remember to smile instead of cursing.

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