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I
Off-Road Recovery
You may find sometime that your right
wheels have dropped off the edge of a
road onto the shoulder (A) while you're
driving.
If the level of
the
shoulder is only slightly
below the pavement, recovery should be
fairly easy. Ease off the accelerator and
then, if there is nothing in the way, steer
so that your vehicle straddles the edge of
the pavement. You can turn the steering
wheel up to 1/4 turn (B) until the right
front tire contacts the pavement edge.
Then turn your steering wheel to go
straight down the roadway.
If the shoulder appears to be about four
inches (100 mm) or more below the
pavement, this difference can cause
problems. If there is not enough room to
pull entirely onto the shoulder and stop,
then follow the same procedures. But if
the right front tire scrubs against the side
of the pavement, do NOT steer more
sharply. With too much steering angle, the
vehicle may jump back onto the road with
so much steering input that it crosses over
into the oncoming traffic before you can
bring it back under control. Instead, ease
off again on the accelerator and steering
input, straddle the pavement once more,
then try again.
Passing
The driver of a vehicle about to pass
another on a two-lane highway waits for
just the right moment, accelerates, moves
around the vehicle ahead, then goes back
into the right lane again. A simple
maneuver?
Not necessarily! Passing another vehicle
on a two-lane highway is a potentially
dangerous move, since the passing
vehicle occupies the same lane as
oncoming traffic for several seconds. A
miscalculation, an error in judgment, or a
brief surrender to frustration or anger can
suddenly put the passing driver face to
face with the worst of all traffic accidents
-
the head-on collision.
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