ADVICE RATING |
  3.69 (May work) from 12 votes (164 Visits) |
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Cruise Control & Wet Pavement NOT A HOAX |
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by eteachey  (October 2007) (rank 500+) |
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" 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 stunned by what had happened.
When she explained what happened to a police highway patrolman, he told her something that every driver should know.
That is: never drive in the rain with your cruise control on.
She thought she was being cautious by setting cruise and maintaining a safe, consistent speed in the rain.
But the highway patrolman told her that if cruise is on and your car begins to hydroplane, it will accelerate and take off like an airplane.
She told him that was exactly what had occurred.
The Highway Patrol estimated her car was travelling through the air at 16km/h to 23km/h 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 other person the woman found, who knew this (besides the patrolman), was a man who had had a similar accident, also totalled his car and sustained severe injuries."
You may have received this email once or twice via a chain-mail letter or just a friend trying to be nice and inform you of this "danger". Some people read it and think oh its just another one of those hoax's [urban legends] and delete it. But some check it out on snopes.com or any of the other sites that filter the facts from the fiction. The story itself may be false, but the information given is fact. I don't understand why we are not taught this by our drivers ed instructors or the car manufactures themselves [maybe on that strip on the visor that warns about airbag deployment like it states above] but consider this your warning :)
Please next time you are driving on wet pavement take notice to not put on your cruise control. STAY SAFE :)
