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| Saturday, July 29, 2000 |
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FOR a driver to be fully aware of the road, he must use the rear-view mirrors. Some cars come with two outside rear-view mirrors. More often than not, they are folded shut. The manufacturer has gone to great lengths to provide you with an invaluable aid for safer motoring. Use it. One of the most common type of accidents is a rear-end collision. It happens when a car changes lanes and the driver of the car coming from behind has no time to brake, so he ploughs into the car that has changed lanes. It happens when you don’t check your exterior rear-view mirror. It is mandatory to check your rear-view mirror at regular intervals. In Canada, to pass a driver’s test, you must check the rear-view mirror plus twist your head to see behind you. If you don’t make these two moves, you will fail the test. To make full use of the other driver’s rear-view mirror, flash your lights. |
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Don’t blow horn. Flash your lights. A car horn is one of the prime reasons for noise pollution. We can cut it out right now. The handling of the lever that helps you flash lights is one of the most driver-friendly operations. The first advantage of a flash of headlights is that it can be seen from a great distance. A horn can’t be heard over the same distance. And, of course, there’s no noise. If the exterior mirror is positioned at a correct angled and you are looking ahead, the headlights flashing in the rear-view mirror will draw your attention to a car coming up behind you. There will be no nasty surprises, no rear-end collisions. If you are in a car with a film on the windows, A/C on, music turned up, you may not hear the horn, but you won’t be able to ignore the flash of headlights behind you. Another time to flash headlights is when the highway changes from a four-lane road to a two-lane one. This happens all the time on NH 1. A sign for a diversion makes you change lanes and suddenly you are facing traffic head on. Chances are the other driver is not aware of the diversion. A flash of lights will alert him. It would not be a bad idea to keep your headlights on for the duration of the diversion. Flashing lights is also a friendly gesture. A horn is not friendly. It is loud, angry-sounding and necessarily means "Move, fool!". Often it is used as a door bell. You pull up outside your friend’s house and instead of ringing the door bell, you blow the horn to announce your arrival. This is not done. Keep in mind, India is rated as the worst country in Asia for air, water and noise pollution. On rainy, foggy and misty days, drive with headlights on. It will make you more visible to other road users, drivers or pedestrians. You may have good vision and see ahead and behind if the rear-view mirror is used, but the other driver may be inattentive, tired, with poor vision. Make your presence known. And do follow that sterling advice: "Use dipper at night." Happy motoring! |
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We
read free advice every day. "Use dipper at night" and
"Blow Horn". The first bit of advice is extremely useful, but
generally ignore it. The second advice is useless, but we religiously
follow it.