The road can be as unpredictable as life itself. In an instant perfectly safe highway can become a potential death trap. A tire blowing out, a driver takes their eyes off the road or maybe it suddenly starts to rain and conditions are bad. Whatever the case may be, if you think about, it is a bit of a miracle that more wrecks don’t happen. Sure they teach you how to drive in driving school but there are some things you just need to know. Here are a couple.

Nine and Three is the New Ten and Two

You know the positions they tell you to hold your hands at. They are at 10 and 2. Well it is time to forget that and move to something better. Try 9 and 3 or even 4 and 8. (Okay for you young folks this refers to the position of hands on an old analog clock.) The reason is modern safety technology has suddenly rendered the old positions unsafe. Blame it on airbags.

The problem is that 10 and 2 place your hands right over the air bag and when you hit something and the airbag explodes guess what? Your hands are going to come flying back in your face. It may not sound like a big deal but think about this. There was a story about a man who had one hand in the 12 position (which you should NEVER do) and reached down with his other hand to adjust the radio. At that moment he hit another car. The airbag exploded and set his hand flying into his face. He hit himself so hard it broke his nose. Not fun at all. You should also never use the hand-over-hand turns anymore either.

Fortunately many modern cars have “thumb hooks” at 9 and 3 that you can lock your hand on to. If you are going below 14 mph go ahead and put your hands wherever but beyond above that play it safe.

Learn to Skid.

Let’s say you drive used vehicles with old tires and have a blowout.  What do you do? First don’t panic. Your instinct is going to be to immediately turn the wheel back onto the road. This is the worst thing to do. What you need to do is to turn into the skid. This will help your tires regain their traction. Obviously there are limits to this, like if you are on a bridge or steep embankment but generally speaking you turn into it.

Don’t slam the break because this will lock your tires and keep you from turning into it as easily. If you have room it is better not to brake at all. If you don’t have enough room then tap the breaks repeatedly until you slow enough to regain your frictions. Of course the best defense against a blowout is to keep good tires on your car

Jeff Jordan writes and lives in Southern California. He writes about cars, technology and travel. Jazel Autodealer Websites can help you market your used cars today.

Print This Page / Download PDF / Email This Page