Age Old Dilemma or is it Old Age?
I’ve solved the dilemma of whether to forward on worthy emails to dear family and friends, i.e. “shall I spam my kids and those 3 peeps I ‘know’ on Twitter with this important message?”. I decided rather that I’ll just inflict it on unwary passers by:
"I wish she'd just send the funny ones!"
FOR THOSE WHO DONT KNOW OR NEED A REFRESHER……. I wonder how many people know about this
A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago and totaled her car.. It was raining, though not excessively, when her car suddenly began to hydro-plane and literally flew through the air. She was not seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden occurrence! When she explained to the highway patrolman what had happened he told her something that every driver should know – NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON. She thought she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain.
But the highway patrolman told her that if the cruise control is on when your car begins to hydro-plane and your tires lose contact with the pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed making you take off like an airplane. She told the patrolman that was exactly what had occurred.
The patrolman said this warning should be listed, on the driver’s seat sun-visor – NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR ICY, along with the airbag warning. We tell our teenagers to set the cruise control and drive a safe
speed – but we don’t tell them to use the cruise control only when the pavement is dry.
The only person the accident victim found, who knew this (besides the patrolman), was a man who had a similar accident, totaled his car and sustained severe injuries.
If you send this to 15 people and only one of them doesn’t know about this, then it was all worth it. You might have saved a life.
HIS NOTE: Some vehicles (like the Toyota Sienna Limited XLE) will not allow you to set the cruise control when the windshield wipers are on..
HER NOTE: If you’ve never had this happen to you, it isn’t quite like that but close enough. This is more like what happens on ice with cruise control on, still I bet that girl was a purty blonde and had maybe had a glass of vino or something.
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Comments
Oh my Gosh, that is so scary! I’ve hydroplaned about three times in my 40 some years of driving, it’s not fun! The state Trooper is right. “There should be a WARNING on the Drivers Sun Visor, Never Use Cruise Control In Wet/Icy Conditions.” Of course in smaller text explain the consequences in visuals and writing.
Thanks for sharing Wonder, you have probably saved hundreds of lives in the ten minutes it took me to read and post my comment.
Tell your grand kids.
Hey Wonder!
As many years as I’ve driven – always using Cruise Control when I travel – I’ve never heard this advice before. Since I love driving, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened to me, although, I have to admit, I do try NOT to drive in the rain due to my lead foot.
Excuse me now while I go pass this on to all my progeny and their progeny, et al.
Since I’m always cautioning THEM not to drive too fast, I know they can’t wait to get, yet another, warning from me. Maybe I’ll just send them over here to you!
As a former police officer, I can tell you that while it’s true that cruise control is made for normal driving conditions and shouldn’t be used in bad weather, the reason given is totally false. Read it. “the highway patrolman told her that if the cruise control is on when your car begins to hydro-plane and your tires lose contact with the pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed…”
Sorry, when your tires loose contact with the pavement, your car isn’t going to accelerate. It can’t – your tires lost contact with the pavement! Duh. Do you go faster when your tires spin in the snow?
The problem is that when the tires break traction, they will tend to spin faster causing the hydroplane situation to get worse. And when the tires grab again, they will be going at a different rotational speed than the vehicle, causing yet more handling difficulty.
My ex-husband would tell people about this from time to time, and he knew about it from his three years as a trucker. This is worth emailing to a friends list, and who’s not to gain from having just one more disclaimer on the sun visor when one incident could permanently change your life.