Cruse Control and interesting information that can save your life

[Jon]

NEVER KNEW THIS BEFORE.
I wonder how many people know about this?

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 lose 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.

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 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.

If you send this to 15 people and only one of them

doesn't know about this, then it was all worth it. You

might have saved a life."

[Jon]

--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, "Jon" wrote:
>
> NEVER KNEW THIS BEFORE.
> I wonder how many people know about this?
>
> 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 lose 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.
>
> 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 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.
>
> If you send this to 15 people and only one of them
>
> doesn't know about this, then it was all worth it. You
>
> might have saved a life."


I ran this on another internet site and this is one of the answers I
got back-Very interesting for non believers:I found out the hard way
when I was working on the road in the late 80's. I was following a
flatbed, and when it went around the curve, my steering wheel no
longer worked.... I ended up in the ditch with a sore head and $3K
worth of damage to the company car..... I aquaplaned.... and had the
cruise on at the time....

Allan


>

[Pete Masterson]

At 3:44 AM +0000 1/4/06, Jon wrote:
>NEVER KNEW THIS BEFORE.
> I wonder how many people know about this?
>
> A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks
> ago and totaled her car.

I hope we can avoid spreading urban legends through the list. It's
usually best to check these out before passing them on. You can get
the full story about this story at this link:
http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/wetroad.asp

Snopes.com indicates that the danger is, essentially, true --- but
the circumstances described are probably incorrect. When a vehicle
hydroplanes, it does not "fly" and it doesn't "gain speed" ... (these
are impossible under laws of physics). It does, however, lose
effective directional control and the action of typical cruise
control devices can interfere with the necessary immediate reactions
required to bring the vehicle back under control. Here's an excerpt
from the linked article:

Origins: We began seeing this cautionary tale turn up in inboxes in
November 2002. Although these accounts are probably "real" in the
sense that they indeed reflect someone's attempt to describe an
automotive mishap that actually happened to him, the explanation
about a hydroplaning car's suddenly accelerating and "taking off like
a rocket" due to the use of cruise control is a garbled one probably
reflecting the author's misunderstanding of what had occurred.

Nonetheless, the warning inherent to the tale - don't engage your
vehicle's cruise control on slippery or wet roads is - well worth
heeding. Snow, ice, slush, or even rain can cause wheel-spin and loss
of control, situations to which drivers must react quickly. Although
cruise control can generally be cut off by the driver's simply
tapping the brake pedal, the extra reaction time required for a
motorist relying upon cruise control to recognize the danger of the
situation when his wheels begins to spin or slide on a slippery
surface, bring his foot up off the floor to the brake pedal, and
disengage the cruise control can be crucial (especially for drivers
lured into a hazardous level of inattentiveness on long, flat
stretches of road).

--
Pete Masterson -- pete@...
Book Design and Production: A Guide for Authors and Publishers
Voice & FAX: (510) 222-6743 -- 9AM to 5PM M-F Pacific Time
Visit my web site at http://www.aeonix.com for publishing hints
P.O. Box 20985, El Sobrante, CA 94820-0985