Emergency Driving Procedures (1972)

at one time or other every driver has faced or will face emergency situations they are frequent and predictable in every way but two we don't know when and we don't know who will be involved oh [Applause] [Music] the Professional Driving staff at the GM Proving Ground has developed a course in emergency driving procedures it has been carefully planned to develop and train proper responses on the part of the driver the whole course is based on a simple premise if you know what your car can do if you know what can happen then you can prevent certain things from happening taking the course today is Allison Potter a 19-year-old girl who's been driving for just 3 years she's alert and a good driver but this is her first chance to learn from the experts well how do you think I'm going to do well I think you'll do all right you're young you've got good reflexes you've had a little Driving Experience I think you'll find a lot about the car today why we get in the car and go through the course okay all right Alison I want you to adjust the seat now the mirrors put the restraint system on I want you to place your hands at the 93 position on the string any special reason to put them at 9 and three well the reason we use a 9 and three it gives us the opportunity to get a full 180° steering input into the car without moving our hands plus it's a balanced hand position that is any side movement of your body the movement straight through the steering wheel doesn't affect your steering I don't want I don't want you to start the car all right put it into drive now we're going to move straight out here towards the surface course okay I want you to stop right in line with these cones that you see in front of you okay that's good straighten it right up all right and bring the c a nice easy Stu this is is the serpentine the purpose of this exercise is is three full one to give you practice in a 93 hand position making left and right St reverses and two to give you practice holding a steady accelerator in this case about 20 miles per hour and three a little space reference as to where your car is in relationship to home now what we're going to do here is we're going to run a SLO you know what a SLO is yeah I on skis I do all right this is just like a SLO on skis you're doing with a car and I'll help you through by telling you when to turn the first time through okay all right start on the left hand side put the car in gear move forward all right it all lined up that's it nice and easy good and right and left and right and left and right and left I now turn around to the right and go back up to the head of the course and this time I want you to do it again and work on your hand position you're letting your hand slip out of the 93 and work on your timing and holding accelerator steady it's hard to hold my hands there not it takes practice it takes practice but uh it'll come with practice and that's why we're starting out with this exercise I turn around right here this time you make the run without me queuing you time yourself all right pick your speed up I'll watch it pick it up start now start now pick it up up up up up that's good steady right there that's it you're a little close I should be about in the middle eh well you're a little tight you had your time off just a little bit with that cone all right up to the beginning of the course and we'll run one more time and this time we'll run our speed up a little higher up up up up up up up up up up steady right there oh that was a little close yeah it's all right you just missed it you know you thought was close it was a lot smoother this time you kept your hands in the right place oh that's good not bad not bad at all all right we go on up to where we started all right Alison this is the evasive exercise what I want you to do is proceed down the course when we get down to the Q zone I'm going to yell right or left what I want you to do is no brake no gas steer the car either side of the barrier to the right or to the left I'll watch your speed all you have to do is watch the queue don't try to anticipate me just concentrate on the Queue I put it in gear and let's start down the lane pick up your speed I'll watch your speed for you okay pick it up up up up steady right there keep your accelerator steady ease off a little bit you're still accelerating all right nice and easy that's it right oh all right all right remember what I said once you commit the car keep going I called right you went left you saw what happened you hesitated yeah and now we've got four or five cones down you hit the barrier because you tried to change your mind all right we'll go on down the head of the course turn around and try it again all right Alison let's make another run at it put the car in gear start down the lane okay I'll make it just a little faster this time pick it up pick it up pick it up up up up up up up up up up steady right there hold it he's off the accelerator you're still accelerating a little bit that's it and counter quick you didn't get enough steering into it see you didn't get enough left steer into it all right turn right around you still caught that corner jeez you got to steer all you can to the left that barrier you still want to move your hands a little bit on the steering wheel want to try to hold the 93 all right let's go B back up and make another run all right Alison let's try it again now put it in gear your speed remember just try not to anticipate wait for my command okay pick it up pick it up pick it up pick it up up up up steady right there speed steady setting ease off the accelerator a little bit little more little more right that's it that's better that's better much better all right slow the car up turn around to the left okay this is the offro recovery exercise Allison now ordinarily if you would drop two wheels off the pavement you would slow down gain control of the car come back up on the pavement it's safe to do so but a lot of times you don't have the ordinary circumstances your path may be blocked by hitchhiker a brid and or some other vehicle on the fa side of the road so what you're going to have to do is you're going to have to come back now when people do this or attempt to get the car back on quickly two things happen one is they hear the gravel underneath the car and they get excited they put an enormous steering input into the car and when the car does come back up in the pavement they can't recover in time the other thing they do is many times if the difference between the pavement and the shoulder is four to six in due to road poor roadside maintenance so what they do they try to ease the back up in the pavement and they get the tire scrubbing like this oh yeah then it takes more and more steering effort to get the car up and when it does come up it shoots across the pavement so fast it can't con what I want you to do is drop two wheels off the pavement straddle the pavement give the wheels room to work using the 93 hand position a little 90° steering input as soon as you feel or hear the tire impact the curve straighten the car up go on and make down your Lan maintain your position okay all right any questions no no question all right then we're going down here turn around and you're going to try okay pick it right up pick it up pick it up pick it up pick it up pick it up up up up up up up up up up steady all right drop two wheels off now center of the car all right now bring it back up now that's it little straggy yeah I was all right all right slow the car down stop and turn around and we'll make another run okay all right Alison I want you put the car in gear I want you to do it now pick it right up pick your speed right up up up up up up up up up up up up up that's plenty that's good all right drop two wheels off that's good center of the car all right now bring it back on now counter steer oh you didn't quite you want to take your steering out a little too early wait till you feel that wheel impact the curb then break that counter steer all right slow up stop turn around all right Alison let's try it again now put it in gear spe really think about it okay think of that's right you got to think what you're doing pick it right up up up up up up up up that's good drop two wheels off center the car now bring it back on now that's better that's better good this is a control braking exercise Alon I want you put the car in gear and slowly go down this 12T L okay now the purpose of this is to teach you to use the brake sensibly as is to the point of just before lock up and still maintain steering control now you're coming down this 12T Lane you see your path is blocked just like a car suddenly stopped M when I say now I want you to steer to the left and start your brake get the car over the left hand lane steer back into the right hand lane and come to a complete stop without spitting the tires okay without locking okay right all right turn around the left with the back and you will run it now at full speet pick it up pick it up pick it up up up up up up up up up up up up little higher higher steady right there nice and easy now just break easy little more break little more break right in there get the car completely straightened up see you didn't get the car completely straightened up okay turn around okay you want to remember one thing keep the car straight up in the right hand L it straightened up okay put it in gear start right down the lane pick it up pick it up pick it up pick it up remember you want to get the car straightened up in the right hand lane this time giving me a lot to remember this time up that's all right that's it steady now break easy and back and get a straightened up and stop completely that's it that's better better you're thinking that time all right turn it around to the left and we'll try it one more time all right Allison we had a pretty good run this time we're going to try a little faster with a little more more finesse all right put it in gear and let's start down the L okay you ready I'm ready pick it up pick it up pick it up up up up up up up up steady right there good now that's it little more that's it get it straightened up come on that's it all right you didn't quite steer far enough to the left you just caught the corner of the barrier but a lot of action okay to the left oh gee keep working that's what you got to do is keep working at concentrate on what you're doing this time pick it up pick it up pick it up pick it up up up up up up up up up up up that's good steady right there now great gets it that's it that's it good not bad for a girl hey we're just as good drivers as you guys are that's true you can make a good driver if you just work at it all right turn around going back where we started from yeah that felt better good glad it did now this is a car set up with the blowout simulators which enables me to give you a front or rear Blowout at any time I so desire you're going to tell me which one no I won't because you never know which tire is going to blow so what I want you to do is drive up here and when you sense the tire goes down has a blowout I want you to steer the car accordingly well what do I do which way put off the gas no breake gain control of the car maintain your lane position you're going to have to steer the car usually away from the blowout all right steer steer that's it that's it nice and easy good slow up slow up all right now a nice gentle break and pull over to the side of the road and stop that's good all right Alison let's wait a few seconds till the tire rein plates and then we'll try another blow up okay all right fine that's good speed and let's steer it steer it that's it don't break don't break that's good nice and easy all right now ease the car right over to the side of the road bring it to a nice gentle stop well how was that one better better yes much better okay fine felt a little smoother not a little smoother you a little more confidence this time yeah okay okay Alison let's put the car in gear go back up the roadway we'll try some more blowout work okay all right pick the car right up pick it up up up up up up that's good steady that's fine hey you pulled the rear one on me that time that's all right you know I told you it could be either one I told you it could be either one it's a little different to handle especially in this particular piece of roadway yeah you can feel the back ends of the skit out from underneath that's right that's where you want to catch that little skit and then get your steering in the opposite direction in order to stay in your lane okay it didn't too too bad there just a little bit tendency you wanted to go for that break but then you thought about it and didn't yeah it's a hard reaction to overcome you just natur go for the break it's true and something happen and a brake and a blowout is the last thing you want to do all right Allison this is the skid course and what I want you to do is put the car in gear and start down this cone Mark Lane this Lane leads us into the skid surface nice and easy very slow this is a skid exercise someplace in this course I'm going to induce a skid and all I do to induce the skid is just simply push this button when you sense that skid all I want you to do is to take your foot off the gas don't touch the brake steer the car the back end of the car scars to the right you go to the right if it skits to the left you go to the left and above all be ready for a second skit if it should occur all right let's turn around start back to the head of the course and and start over again all right Alon Let's uh you try it now we going to have an actual skid this time put the car in gear enter the course I just respond 93 hand position you sense what the car is doing counter steer take your foot off the gas don't touch the brake okay nice and easy that's a good speed right there fine keep working on it keep steering keep steering all right that's fine all right we'll turn around and run another okay I wasn't expecting that noise with the water comes up just indicat Alison Let's uh go in again keep our speed up watch our hand position again get it right in there and do a good job on all right pick it up pick it up that's it a little higher that's good that's good work on it work on it slow there goes the [Music] course yes you were way slow you know steering was slow and you give up steering you got to keep at it all the time it's a lot of things to remember well it is but of course there's a lot of things to remember in this skid in real life you know those cars and everything else coming at you all right we'll try it again okay Allison uh we had a little problems last time let's see if we can correct those by steering just a little faster all right let's put the car in gear and move into the course remember you got to steer quick same speed as last time same speed got to steer quick get your foot off that gas and really work the steering wheel CU you had a couple real quick movements needed there let's get all right right in there that's good nice and easy that's it keep working keep working keep working all right all right catch it that's it okay come right on around go back that position feels funny I can't keep there well that's the place to start but remember you may have to shift your hands the hand over hand all right okay well you've had quite a day today it's been a lot of experience you've had a lot of driving experiences today and you didn't do a bad job for a beginner well I think everybody's a beginner when it comes to emergencies really well you've had the experience in control situation you just want to remember it's a little different out there in the world just think about it okay you know I think the most important thing I learned from this course was that your car will work you just got to do the right thing at the right time we've always known that Allison it's a matter of you learning what your capabilities and limitations were it's just like skiing or baseball you've got a split second to make a decision and you better make it right the first time also I'd really like to thank you for all the helpful hints you've given me and I don't think I'll ever forget anything I learned here well we've certainly enjoyed it and you can rest assured we won't forget you [Music]