| Author | Message | ||
     James Feller Experienced User Username: james_feller Post Number: 16 Registered: 10-2007 |
HNY all! I thought I would regale you all about a SIGNIFICANT STOPPING event I had last week. While travelling west on New South Head Road Rushcutters Bay going into the dreaded Cross City Tunnel I very nearly hit a very foolish pedestrian. I was not speeding, doing about 50-60klms as signposted, and was luckily a bit in front of the other 3 lanes of traffic proceeding through the green lights. I saw this rather fat jogger cross this main road on green lights for traffic and I thought he better either stop and look or make it quick. Suffice to say, he did neither and when I was a little closer I saw he had a bloddy IPOD on with ear phones in so he was not able to hear the on coming traffic!!! very dangerous!!! I was really expecting the twit to stop on the curb and look but instead he ambelled out into the middle of 3 lanes of on coming traffic! I sounded the horns but he simply did not hear me or the other cars sounding the horns, he was by this time in the middle of a 3 lane expressway. I was applying braking obviously but as I got within say 200 metres of him again I was expecting he would quicken his pace and get to the curb. Then the most shocking part of this frightful episode for me was he suddenly did something he should have done from the beginning, he looked to his right and stopped dead still!! Well the look in his eyes said it all! 3 lanes of on coming traffic while all the time he seemed blissfully unaware due to the silly Ipod and headphones no doubt blaring muic in his ears. He was stopped dead in the middle of the road, with fear I would assume, probably not a pleasant thought being mown down by 2.5 tonnes of Rolls Royce, if it was any consolation my 'spirit of exctasy' would have retracted.... pity about the mess the fat lump could have made at the front of the car if I had hit him. It then gets better, he then jumped out of my lane just as I changed lanes and I was not more that 100 metres from this goose now and with no alternative I applied full braking while he then literally jumped right back in front of me!!! Needless to say I thank CREWE for putting such powerful brakes into these cars! Now its only in these situations you relaise how very heavy these cars are and although my car being an '86 build did not get ABS, the car locked up briefly before I released the pedal pressure a bit and steered around him. I simply did not have time to get the window down and holler abuse at him. All I could do was sit on the horns and then proceed up the hill. I would have, if I was not on this 3 lane expressway pulled over, got out and physically decked this guy, not normally being aggresive at all, I took to screaming obscenities at noone inparticular in the car. All this of course happening over a matter of about 5-10 seconds at most. For the first time in my life I really thought I was going to hit a pedestrian, it was a truly frightening experience. I would like to think though, for this complete plodder who I nearly hit, it gave him more of a fright than me, I wonder what was going through his mind while he was staring into the abyss of the pathenon grill while the horns were blaring? Anyway I can now confirm the braking systems work very well on my old girl.... thank CREWE.... BLOODY PEDESTRIANS James | ||
| Peter Colwell Frequent User Username: peter_colwell Post Number: 58 Registered: 3-2005 |
You mention that your car did not have ABS, but you managed to release the pressure, and then steer around him. This is almost a text book example of precisely what ABS does, but unfortunately most of the population is under a misconception that ABS simply means shorter stopping distance. It has nothing to do with that, and may even increase distance, but it allows steering control to be retained. Many people are not aware that locked brakes means no steering, - until it happens to them. In the case of motorcycles ABS is even more effective, as it prevents the wheel locking, which instantly puts the bike down on the road. | ||
| James Feller Experienced User Username: james_feller Post Number: 17 Registered: 10-2007 |
yes exactly Peter, but it really takes quick thought to modulate the pressure in non ABS cars and not to just 'sit on the brakes', close the eyes and hope which is what I have seen many people do. I am no expert driver but I have been to a few driver training courses where you are taught what to do and what it 'feels' like in a skid. It is very frightening for real, let me tell you!!! My point is this, RR's are bloody heavy! but not 'underbraked' as vehicles, the stopping power is there but physics being the nature of the day will always decree the heavier the object and the faster it is moving the more time and distance it needs to stop... also if your jogging with an Ipod and earphones, ( I have one myself so it's not Ipods per say) for godssake look before you leap!! | ||
| Peter Colwell Frequent User Username: peter_colwell Post Number: 59 Registered: 3-2005 |
Fortunately, - although I did not realise it at the time, - I was brought up on a farm where the roads were of the very black dirt slippery-when-wet variety. And so the feel of skids, unintentional sideways motoring, and total loss of control were all a very normal part of the learning curve. A 360º rotation takes about .2 of a second.... In hindsight this challenge was a Godsend in terms of learning what happens in lost-control situations, and how futile braking can be in avoiding disaster. This opens up another subject, viz. the concentration of the road safety experts on speed, without any thought for proper learning of emergency control. On a very slippery surface, eg. a diesel spill, a complete out of control skid can develop at little more than walking pace. It is appalling to think that in a new driver's first experience of a skid he will have no idea at all how to recover. Probably just brake hard. I remember once travelling through a forrested are in New Zealand, and suddenly smelling a very strong diesel smell. I immediately thought of a spill, and sure enough around the next corner was an overturned truck with diesel everywhere, and one car, complete with occupant, already on its side. There is no substitute for being alert, as I'm sure you agree, and constantly blaming the road, or speed, for all accidents is a dangerous diversion. I sometimes think when motoring serenely in the Silver Cloud, what a handful that car would be sideways.....and then I saw Jeremy Clarkson sideways in a cloud of smoke in a late model Bentley....on the Top Gear airstrip. | ||
| James Feller Experienced User Username: james_feller Post Number: 18 Registered: 10-2007 |
my favourite show on TV, Top Gear. Why don't we have something like it here??? although what Clarkson was doing to that Arnage T was hardly 'serene'. Fantastic to watch though huh! it sounded awesome! Cheers J |
