October 13, 2009
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PSA - Drive Safely!
A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago and totaled her car.
A resident of Kilgore , Texas she was traveling between Gladewater & Kilgore. 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 had a
similar accident, totaled his car and sustained severe
injuries.
NOTE: Some vehicles (like the Toyota Sienna Limited XLE) will not allow you to set the cruise control when the windshield wipers are on.Do any of you guys have any experience with this? It's never happened to me, so I don't really know.
Comments (17)
i didn't know anything about this. but i'm not fortunate enough to have cruise control on my car anyway. was suppose to have it but somehow got left off the car. or i got the wrong car something liek that.
Thank you for the tip . Like this woman I didn' t know this .
About car I didn' have accident but a serious break down last week !!!Ah!those cars !
In friendship
Michel
Ive never experienced it AND I've never heard about that restriction. Thank you!
Personally, I do not like cruise control anyway. R is always trying to get me to use it, but I feel more "in control" when I am relying upon myself, not getting comfy with a machine setting my speed.
(just another sign of my deeply seated stubbornness. *wry grin*)
I had heard this before. My suzuki has a traction control thing that kicks in when the roads are slippery.
Yes, I knew not to do it. My friend wrecked her car that way a few years back. It is in the manual that comes with your car or at least it says that in my Toyota manual. I know not everyone reads the manual that comes with their car.
I used cruise control on the trip so I would not get another speeding ticket ,but I never use it in the rain,no need to,I drive slow in the rain,lunatics pass me and I do not know how they think they can stop if they need to.
Living in Michigan, I've never used cruise on icy or snowy roads because it made me feel uneasy. But it's good to know about wet roads too.
Wow -- thanks for that advice -- will need to drive in the rain today or tomorrow, and I had no idea of this!
This was news to me. I'll pass it on.
never "cruise" when the roads ain't dry ...
Wow! I have never heard about this!! Thanks for sharing it! Driving in a hard rain is scary enough! And most people don't even know how to drive in the rain. Those people scare me, too.
HUGS!
I never put the cruise control on.
@tialoca_talks - You're right, but I never thought much about it either.
never thought about it, but it makes sense...if it can't feel friction, it thinks it needs to make some...who da thought ...
@Still_groovy - I don't have cruise in my truck, but I've had it in other cars in the past. I didn't know this either! Thank you for coming by!
I personally don't use the cruise control, because I just don't like it, but I had no idea about the danger of using it in the rain. I'm going to make sure I pass this information on to my kids and others. Thanks, Bud!
Kathi
Comments are closed.