Wheels_17_Dec_2015

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Cars n i e d ma Ghana PAGE 6

ASH CAR SALES

December 17, 2015

Witness

Dealers in Superfine Exotic and Sports Cars Tel: 033 345 1971, 033 342 4717 Fax: 033 342 2900 - www.ashcarsales.co.za

WHEELS

2015 Mercedes Benz AMG GT4.0 V8 coupÉ 500kms, Petrol, Auto, 19 Inch AMG Wheels, Grey AMG Brake callipers, DataDot, PDC, Xenon lights, F1 Style Paddleshift, Keyless Entry, A.con, Black and Red leather AMG Sport seats, SpeedoCruise, Heated Seats, Balance of M/Plan

R1 850 000

Contact Ash on 083 786 3377 (PMBurg)

550 Church Street, Pietermaritzburg 3201 PO Box 8390, Cumberwood 3235

FOR THE BEST READ ON ALL THINGS WHEELED IN KZN, EVEN WOODEN VEHICLES ­ PAGE 2

Four ways not to die in December When GP plates clog our roads, it’s time for locals to go take nice photos somewhere else ALWYN VILJOEN WITH seven days to Christmas, our beloved Gauteng is in the process of sending not a single president in an impeached tree, but a lot of empty bottles with a partridge on the side. These empty bottles over the festive season mean drunk driv­ ing awaits, which will make driv­ ing on our already dangerous roads like playing Russian rou­ lette with cars. But as the stats show, four of the chambers are loaded. Last year saw 1 376 people die on South Africa’s roads during December, according to Trans­ port Minister Dipuo Peters. KwaZulu­Natal had the high­ est number of road deaths at 284 people from 237 crashes, most of them in the last two weeks of De­ cember. The only way to avoid this an­ nual lemming rush on our roads is to stay off the roads, but be­ cause that is not possible, we asked South Africa’s top forensic crash analyst, Greyville­based Craig Proctor­Parker, what not to do on our roads in order to avoid becoming an ancestor. The first piece of advice is to know with absolute certainty that there are at least two drivers on the same road who are out to get you and your family. The only way to dodge the ter­ minal traps these drivers are set­ ting behind and in front of you is to drive slowly and defensively, taking breaks often to help your concentration in this battle of the brakes. The danger behind the hill Proctor­Parker said that year on year, KZN remains among the top two provinces for risk of be­ ing involved in a serious acci­ dent. He said slow overtaking over solid lines and on blind rises and blind corners is a massive problem in KZN, and counselled all visiting drivers to be aware of this danger, especially where a heavily loaded vehicle is ever so slowly trying to overtake anoth­ er, slightly slower, truck. “This leads to the extremely high number of partial head­on type accidents that we see, which is the most dangerous type of ac­

cident — our and all stats show these as the highest by far,” Proc­ tor Parker told Wheels. It is not just the terminally stu­ pid who overtake on blind hills, but also the holiday driver who cannot understand why her or his trusted little car now sudden­ ly cannot accelerate or brake as fast as it always does with no load on the daily commute. The result is a wide­eyed Gautenger stuck on the wrong side of a wall of steel made up of two, slow­moving trucks and a fast­approaching line of cars from the front. Proctor­Parker said he has an­ alysed the remains of many a family where inexperience led to a driver in a heavily loaded vehi­ cles with no acceleration failing to complete an overtake in time. The wobbly sidewalls Commenting on another issue which visiting drivers often for­ get about — under­inflated tyres due to overloading and more dense air pressure at the coast — Proctor­Parker said the stats worldwide and most particularly here in SA, show that most driv­ ers ride on under­inflated tyres. Bike riders know there is no such thing as a tyre pumped too hard. While harder tyres do give a bumpier ride, the sidewall of a tyre pumped a little too hard will deform less in extreme situa­ tions, wear down slower and of­ fer lower rolling resistance for better fuel consumption. Proctor­Parker said he has seen many crashes due to too­ soft tyres carrying heavy loads made up by passengers and their extensive holiday baggage, and counselled drivers to pump those tyres. He also warned that plugs in tyres often cause a de­ lamination of the tyre where the vehicle is overloaded or the tyre is under pressure. Time those runs to safety Lemmings rush at the same time and humans are no different, which makes for an easy way to avoid the bigger waves of termi­ nally stupid holders of steering wheels — just stay off the roads when they are on them. According to the stats of Proc­ tor­Parker, the top three most

dangerous times for accidents by far are shown to be: • before or during dusk between 4 pm and 6 pm; • during or after dawn between 6 am and 8 am; and • the morning rush between 8 am and 10 am. These periods are not only when KZN’s many unroadwor­ thy vehicles with poor brakes, smooth tyres, old suspensions and smearing windscreen wipers will be on the prowl for a crash, but also when the drivers in fast new cars who have all the best intentions but the poorest judg­ ment will be driving. Proctor­Parker said human er­ ror remains the biggest cause of accidents, which typically in­ cludes: • inexperience in driving a heavi­ ly loaded passenger car; • lack of maintenance of the ve­ hicle, such as driving vehicles with smooth or under­inflated tyres; and • travelling at speeds well in ex­ cess of the speed limit, which ef­ fectively reduces the time availa­ ble to react to a danger and per­ haps most problematic, causes severe control issues when a tyre failure does occur. Slow down and win a prize Many drivers boast they can drive from Johannesburg to Durban in less than five hours. First off, the average speed cameras will get them. Second, every truck driver doing just 80 km/h will tell you these fools will always pass them twice, be­ cause they have to stop to fill up. And third, these fools miss the whole point of a holiday in KZN, which is to change the pace, to slow down, even to pull off and smell the roses. What’s more, travellers who take a photo of that rose (or any other object) in the most photo­ genic setting, stand a chance to win one of several cash prizes of thousands of rands in the annual N3TC photo competition. • Details of the R15 000 prize money that awaits top photos from KZN are on www.n3tc .co.za/photographic­competi­ tions. • Reach Proctor­Parker on accidentspecialist.co.za

A photo by Abigail West that won this year’s scholar category in the N3TC’s annual photo competition. Families driving to KZN will do well to slow down and live the journey. PHOTO: N3TC.CO.ZA

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407 GReYlING sTReeT, PIeTeRMaRITZBURG PH: 033 345 2326 “The helpful guys”


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