Friend e-mailed me this, how true do we think it is?
A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago. It was raining, though
not excessively when her car suddenly began to hydro-planeand literally flew
through the air. She was not seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden
occurrence!When she explained to the Police Officer what had happened, he told
her something that every driver should know
-
·
· NEVER
DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL
ON..
·
· She thought
she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and maintaining a safe
consistent speed in the rain....
· But the Police
Officer told her that if the cruise control is on,your car will begin to
hydro-plane when the tyres lose contact with the road, and your car will
accelerate to a higher rate of speed making you take off like an aeroplane. She
told the Officer that was exactly what had occurred. The Officer said this
warning should be listed, on the driver's seat sun-visor
-
·
· NEVER USE THE
CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE ROAD 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 road is
dry.
·
· The only
person the accident victim found who knew this, (besides the Officer), was a man
who'd had a similar accident, totaled his car and sustained severe
injuries..
·
· NOTE: Some
vehicles (like the Toyota Sienna Limited XLE) will not allow you to set the
cruise control when the windshield wipers are on.
Might have believed it if it didn't say the car "literally flew through the air" and I suspect a cop would be more likely to refer to "Aqua-planing" rather than "Hydro-Planing", which is more normally used in respect of certain types of boat.
The story might be a little made up, but I was in the US in September and the weather was a little wet at times due to tropical storms and they were warning you on the news not to use cruise control in 'heavy' rain...
No need for concern, if the car starts to aqua-plane on cruise control, the ESP will simply deactivate the cruise control and slow the wheel speed enough to regain traction, and it will probably do this before you've even realised what as happened.
Given that this urban myth has been around for years and has been thoroughly debunked, I believe this thread should be either closed or deleted by a moderator so as not to give credence to this crap any more than necessary?
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