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Your Driving
and the Road
true for brain, spinal cord and heart
injuries. That means that if anyone who
has been drinking
-
driver or
passenger
-
is in a crash, the chance
of
being killed or permanently disabled
is
higher
than
if that person had not been
drinking. And we've already seen that
the chance of a crash itself is higher for
drinking
drivers.
Condrol
o f a
Khkk
You have three systems that make your
vehicle go where you want it to go. They
are the brakes, the steering and the
accelerator. All three systems have to do
their work at the places where the tires
meet the road.
Sometimes, as when you're driving on
snow or ice, it's easy ta ask more of
those control systems than the tires and
road can provide. That means you can
lose control
af your vehicle.
Bruking
Braking action involves perception
time and
reaction time.
First, you have to decide to push
on
the
brake pedal. That's perception
the.
Then you have to bring up your
foot
and do
it. That's
reaction the.
Average reaction time is about 3/4 of a
I
second. But that's only an average. It
might be less with one driver and as
long as
two or
three seconds or more
with another. Age, physical condition,
alertness, coordination, and eyesight
all
play a part. So do alcohol, drugs and
frustration. But even in 3/4 of a second,
a vehicle moving at 60 mph (100
k m / h )
travels 66 feet
(20
m). That could be a
lot of distance in an emergency,
so
keeping enough space between your
vehicle
and
others is important.
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