"Driving In Rain Or Snow"
Cruise Control?
USE CAUTION!
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 hydroplane 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 had 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 and your car
begins to hydroplane -- when your tires loose contact with the pavement your car
will accelerate to a higher rate of speed and you take off like an airplane. She
told the patrolman that was exactly what had occurred.
We all know you have
little or no control over a car when it begins to hydroplane. You are at the
mercy of the Good Lord. The highway patrol estimated her car was actually
traveling through the air at 10 to 15 miles per hour faster than the speed set
on the cruise control.
The patrolman said, "This warning should be listed, on the drivers 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.
If you send this to a number of people and only one of them doesn't know
about this, then it was all worth it. You might have saved a life