Driving in snow and Ice
You’ve seen it on the news. You’ve heard your co workers moan. Driving in the snow is a skill no one appears to know. Cars just dumped where they finish skidding to, people pushing cars with wheels just skidding over the ice. There is no reason for it, everyone should now how to drive in snow, so here are my tips for safe driving in snow.
Driving safely on icy roads
- Decrease your speed and leave yourself plenty of room to stop. You should allow at least three times more space than usual between you and the car in front of you.
- Set off in second gear, Forget about 1st gear.
- Brake gently to avoid skidding. If your wheels start to lock up, ease off the brake.Try and use engine braking where possible.
- Turn on your lights to increase your visibility to other motorists.
- Keep your lights and windshield clean. ALL YOUR WINDSHIELD. NO SNOW AT ALL.
- Use low gears to keep traction, especially on hills. but watch out for too much power being sent tp the wheels.
- Don’t use cruise control or overdrive on icy roads.
- Be especially careful on bridges, overpasses and infrequently traveled roads, which will freeze first. Even at temperatures above freezing, if the conditions are wet, you might encounter ice in shady areas or on exposed roadways like bridges.
- Make slow, deliberate moves. Steer gently
- Don’t assume your vehicle can handle all conditions. Even four-wheel and front-wheel drive vehicles can encounter trouble on winter roads.
- Watch out for idiots who are driving like nutters and especially those who have not cleared their windscreen
If your rear wheels skid…
- Take your foot off the accelerator.
- Steer in the direction you want the front wheels to go. If your rear wheels are sliding left, steer left. If they’re sliding right, steer right.
- If your rear wheels start sliding the other way as you recover, ease the steering wheel toward that side. You might have to steer left and right a few times to get your vehicle completely under control.
- If you have standard brakes, pump them gently.
- If you have anti-lock brakes (ABS), do not pump the brakes. Apply steady pressure to the brakes. You will feel the brakes pulse — this is normal, if somewhat unnerving
If your front wheels skid…
- Take your foot off the gas and shift to neutral, but don’t try to steer immediately.
- As the wheels skid sideways, they will slow the vehicle and traction will return. As it does, steer in the direction you want to go, release the clutch, and accelerate gently.
If you get stuck…
- Do not spin your wheels. This will only dig you in deeper.
- Turn your wheels from side to side a few times to push snow out of the way.
- Use a light touch on the gas, to ease your car out.
- Use a shovel to clear snow away from the wheels and the underside of the car.
- Pour sand, kitty litter, gravel or salt in the path of the wheels, to help get traction.
- Try rocking the vehicle. Shift from forward to reverse, and back again. Each time you’re in gear, give a light touch on the gas until the vehicle gets going.
Estate Agents
Estate Agents. Don’t you love them? Take a couple of photos of the property, add some standard hyperbole description, think of a price that will give them the most commission, place an advert and then wait for the buyer to come to them. Once a buyer is found, pass it to the solicitors and wait for the money to roll in. You’ll only hear from them after that if they start getting anxious that they’re going to have to wait too long for their commission.
So my phone rings and I answer it. A lady with a really thick Indian accent speaks and announces she is from my Credit Card company. I owe them a payement and am slightly over my limit.
This is rougly how the conversation went.
Call Drone: “Can I take your date of birth for security?”
Me: “No.”
Call Drone: “I need to take you through security sir, to prove I’m talking to the account holder”
Me: “Thats fine, but how do I know who you are, you phoning me from abroad, my phone number is public knowledge, and the fact I hold a credit card to your company is easy to get. Can you tell me the last 4 digits of my card number, the date of my last payment and amount?”
Call Drone: “Sir, I cannot tell you without first taking you through security”
Call Drone: “So you expect me to release information to prove who I am, but you cant prove who you are until I do?”
Call Drone: “That is correct”
Me: “Ok, whatever you need to say, please put it in writing. bye bye”
About 3 minutes later they tried again. Unfortunately, I could not understand a word this one spoke, his accent was just to thick. I deal with alot of banks in my job, and if you deviate from the answers they expect to their scripts, they get lost flusterd and dont quite know how to proceed. It can be quite funny at times. Other times it can be quite sad.
Facebook at it again
So faceslap are changing their Terms and conditions again, this time, giving the right to send your personnal information to “Partner” websites.
I for one dont like that change in anyway at all. Information, your information is to sent left right and center and you will have no say in the matter
That would mean that if you’re logged into Facebook and then visit a third party website, that site will be able to access the following:
- your name
- your profile picture
- your gender
- your friends and connections
- your userid
- any content shared using the “Everyone” privacy setting
In other words, you might visit a website and discover that it already knows who you are, your date of birth, where you live, who your friends are. All, without ever having given the site explicit permission to access that data.
Moor information can be gained from The Register
