You're Driving All Wrong, Says NHTSA 756
antdude writes "This MSNBC Bottom Line story/article says that 'If you're a conscientious motorist who still does everything the way your driver's-ed instructor told you to, you're doing it all wrong. For decades, the standard instruction was that drivers should hold the steering wheel at the 10 and 2 positions, as envisioned on a clock. This, it turns out, is no longer the case. In fact, driving that way could cost you your arms or hands in particularly gruesome ways if your airbag deploys. Instead AAA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and many driving instructors now say you should grip the wheel at 9 and 3 o'clock. A few go even further, suggesting 8 and 4 to avoid the airbag mechanism as much as possible, but what formal research has been published on the varieties of hand positions suggests that this may lessen your control of the car.'" I usually hold even lower on the wheel, perhaps 4:30 and 7:30, but I also drive with my seat pushed farther forward than most people like. Drivers, what's your approach?
Re: 8 and 4 (Score:4, Insightful)
8 and 4 is pretty much mandatory in F1 cars because that's the only position that puts your fingers in the right place to hit the clutch and shift paddles properly. On those, there's also usually no wheel between 10 and 2.
I usually use left hand at about 8 or 9 with elbow on the windowsill, my right at about 5 with elbow on the armrest, or my knee at about 7 if I'm on a long stretch of empty highway. (For the narrow range of steering required at highway speeds, you'd be surprised how much control you have with just a knee.) Manual transmission, usually one hand on wheel at 9-ish and the other on the shift lever. Usually don't need much more torque on the wheel than that.
But I've got about 500k+ miles under my belt, so i'm a little more casual than some other drivers..
Re:Proper position (Score:5, Insightful)
"Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. "
Albert Einstein
Re:Don't honk the horn (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:One hand, 12 o'clock ... (Score:5, Insightful)
From what I observe, regardless of hand position most drivers are doing it wrong. Tailgating, cutting people off, never use turn signals, not accelerating before trying to merge on to a highway, running stop signs. I see almost all of this every day on the way to work, and it's only 17km. Hand position is the least of their problems.
An admirable goal... (Score:4, Insightful)
Wrong - Slam the ABS Brakes (Score:4, Insightful)
Modern ABS responds fantastically fast. All you feel is a pulsing brake pedal as the car quickly stops without skidding. My car is 5 years old. On the way home, I often engage ABS for fun, especially when about to pull into my driveway. Weeee!
Slam on the brakes and steer. That's what ABS are for. They almost always lead to shorter stopping distances than cars without ABS, and you can avoid the deer on the road.
Some cars now have a system that senses a panic stop and fully depresses the brake pedal to get the quickest stop. Drivers were not getting the most out of their brakes, leading to accidents.
Re: 8 and 4 (Score:5, Insightful)
Is what most professional race drivers have done for decades, for several reasons.
Professional racecar drivers let go of the steering wheel entirely when things go pear shaped,
otherwise they might break their thumbs or wrists due to a sharp jerk of the steering wheel.
This is the most recent example I can recall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K1CpII2yJM&t=77s [youtube.com]
Re:Don't honk the horn (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:One hand, 12 o'clock ... (Score:5, Insightful)
YMMV
Re:I've had an airbag go off... (Score:4, Insightful)
And performance driving instructors have been advocating push-pull steering (rather than hand-over-hand) for a very long time. Not because of the airbag, but because it provides better control. Whether it makes a difference on the road or in the mall parking lot I doubt.
This,
9/3 is not about airbags, people having a go at airbags in this thread have no clue as to their use, they're meant to stop your head from going into the wheel in the event of an impact, not provide 100% safety.
Push-pull steering is a much better way to steer. You should never cross your arms when turning. To turn left, your right hand should drop to 4 or 5 and push the wheel up whilst your left hand goes up to 10 so it can pull the wheel down when the right hand reaches 2, your right hand then drops back to 4. Once you get the hang of this, it's very fast to go to full lock (1 and1/2 turns of the wheel).
Re:One hand, 12 o'clock ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed wholeheartedly. But i don't blame drivers at all -- I blame the idiots who gave them the plastic that says they can drive.
I drive over 50Mm a year (that's 50 thousand km or about 30 thousand miles for the metric impaired) for work all over the province of Ontario up here in Canada, and there seems to be about 1/6 of drivers who are either clueless or distracted (head down fetching a CD, fixing hair in mirror, etc.) and about 5% who are genuine jerks with no thought to external consequences. I watched a small Honda cut in front of a full length transport truck with all his wheels down. One of us was smart enough to check how many wheels he had on the road and know he needed distance ... and one of us was in a rush and cut in front of him almost causing a jack-knife.
I have no respect at all for complete idiots on the road endangering others -- and I'm a bit of an aggressive driver myself but I signal, I leave room, and I watch my mirrors to understand traffic flow behind me. I also only drive in the left lane when moving faster than those in the lanes to my right.
The question is, why do we do road-side license suspensions (we do that in this province) for speeding when the guy eating soup while driving a truck is more of a hazard due to his inability to react to changes in the grid?
Re:One hand, 12 o'clock ... (Score:3, Insightful)
How is this modded "interesting" when it is "wrong". In the US, seatbelts are madatory (if there is a state where it isn't, that is the exception), airbags are NOT designed/meant to protect an unrestrained driver (we even have annoying yellow warning labels saying exactly that), and airbags have been "weaked" recently to protect smaller/lighter drivers (read: the risk of one-size fits all engineering rears its ugly head).
Babies in front seats ... are you telling me that a baby in a european front seat will not be harmed when the airbag goes off? Regardless, the safest place for a baby seat is in the back seat, airbag or not.
Now as for people CHOOSING to not wear a seat belt (regardless of the law) I can't speak to that; if people want to be stupid let them (I don't like a nanny state). Of course I agree with you that others should not have to suffer to protect the stupid. But as I said above, our airbags are not designed assuming an unrestrained driver. You'll also have to try hard to prove to me that no one in europe is dumb enough to drive without a seatbelt because dumb is dumb no matter where you live and by definition half the population is below average. No, your average is not higher than ours, nor lower either.