Chevrolet 2005 owner manual Loss of Control, Skidding

•Check your mirrors, glance over your shoulder, and start your left lane change signal before moving out of the right lane to pass. When you are far enough ahead of the passed vehicle to see its front in your inside mirror, activate your right lane change signal and move back into the right lane. Remember that your right outside mirror is convex. The vehicle you just passed may seem to be farther away from you than it really is.

•Try not to pass more than one vehicle at a time on two-lane roads. Reconsider before passing the next vehicle.

•Do not overtake a slowly moving vehicle too rapidly. Even though the brake lamps are not flashing, it may be slowing down or starting to turn.

•If you are being passed, make it easy for the following driver to get ahead of you. Perhaps you can ease a little to the right.

Loss of Control

Let us review what driving experts say about what happens when the three control systems — brakes, steering, and acceleration — do not have enough friction where the tires meet the road to do what the driver has asked.

In any emergency, do not give up. Keep trying to steer and constantly seek an escape route or area of less danger.

Skidding

In a skid, a driver can lose control of the vehicle. Defensive drivers avoid most skids by taking reasonable care suited to existing conditions, and by not overdriving those conditions. But skids are always possible.

The three types of skids correspond to your vehicle’s three control systems. In the braking skid, your wheels are not rolling. In the steering or cornering skid, too much speed or steering in a curve causes tires to slip and lose cornering force. And in the acceleration skid, too much throttle causes the driving wheels to spin.

A cornering skid and an acceleration skid are best handled by easing your foot off the accelerator pedal.

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