How to drive safely in winter

Winter Driving Experience instructor Andrew Waite demonstrates the stability control function before participants try it out in their own vehicles. Photo / Dan Hutchinson

Taupō Motorsport Park’s Winter Driving Experience instructor Andrew Waite has all the tips when it comes to winter driving.

By Dan Hutchinson

Number one on the list of driving tips covered off in his half-day theory and practical course is the importance of looking at the spot you want to end up when in an emergency situation.

Andrew says it’s no different to a rugby player keeping their eyes on the ball.

“They're not looking into the crowd trying to find their mates when they're trying to catch the ball. Same on the road, look to where you want to end up, not a hazard you may end up hitting. 

“What's happened is I've gone around the corner, I've seen the hazards in that power pole, I don't want to hit that, but naturally because they're looking at it, that's where they end up driving towards.”

The right position

Steering and seating position is another important one. Position your seat so your back is against the seat and wrists sit on top of the wheel with arms outstretched. When your hands are in the correct 9 and 3 o’clock position, you then have a full range of turning and you can reach the brake easier.

“You see so many people sitting in the complete wrong seating position in their car. You see people laying back … While for some generations it may look cool, trust me, it is not cool when you start losing control of your car because you have nowhere near as much control of your vehicle if you aren't sitting in the correct position.”

The reason for this is that the steering wheel is on a slant, so if you are leaning back too far, holding the bottom of the wheel, you physically can’t reach the top.

“That's when we see people shuffling with the steering wheel in their hands. And we like to refer to that as the Nana Shuffle, because it's just so much slower that if something goes wrong you've got nowhere near as much control.”

The 9 and 3 o’clock positioning on the steering wheel is not a hard one to remember because that’s where most modern cars have the various controls.

“Obviously manufacturers want you to hold it down there. That's why they've got all the buttons and everything in that location as well. They don't want you holding the steering wheel up the top like this, like a forklift.”

ABS brakes

The next tip is to understand how your ABS works. If you need to stop fast and avoid something at the same time, you should apply full pressure to the brakes until you come to a stop.

The ABS is designed to give you steering control while you are braking and makes hundreds of adjustments each second on each of the four brakes to ensure you ensure you end up where you are aiming for.

“This is such an important thing that it is scary how few people know what this does, how it works, and how much it can actually save your life if you're in an emergency situation.”

The system is designed to stop the wheels from locking up in an emergency situation.

“So you can press the brake pedal as hard as you possibly can, you'll start hearing and feeling all these horrible sounds through your brake pedal. It sounds terrible but … it's just completely designed to be able to handle what's going on.

“All that crunching, all that horrible feel through the pedal is basically a vibration of the pedal coming on and off to allow the wheels to keep turning. The reason you want the wheels to keep turning in an emergency situation is that it allows you to then be able to turn and stay hard on the brakes at the same time.”

“Because if you lock up, if you have a car without ABS, and you're hard on the brakes and you're trying to turn, the car will just go straight ahead.”

Stability control

Next, if you have stability control in your vehicle, and most post-2015 cars do, don’t ever turn it off. There are very few situations where that would be of benefit.

Waite is a race car driver and says he would never turn his stability control off when he’s driving on public roads – it’s just better than a human could ever be.

A common mistake people make is to think they have turned their stability control on, when they have actually turned it off.

“It'll never turn off on its own. I've had people go, ‘oh, yeah, you know, every time I go up a mountain, I always turn my stability control on’ … It's done the opposite. It's scary how many times I've heard people do that.”

Andrew says there are few situations where stability control is unhelpful; perhaps if you are stuck in mud or on a slippery surface.

“I've had it up on the snow roads and things where sometimes it gets just a little bit slippery. You've got to turn it off. I'm hovering over that button to turn it back on as soon as I can because, again, it's better than any professional driver.

“It was banned in motorsport over 20 years ago because it was already better than professional drivers back then.

“I still get people who say, ‘oh, I know what I'm doing, I don't need it’. Trust me, you don't have four brake pedals to control each individual brake to be able to help you in an emergency.”

For example, if a car or pedestrian steps in front of you and there is no time to brake, swerving is the only option.

“All of a sudden, you're now on the wrong side of the road and you've got a truck coming towards you. You've got to swerve back the other way. Chances are all that weight shifting is going to cause the car to step into a slide”

The stability control calculates the driver’s steering position in relation to the angle of the vehicle and individually applies brakes to the appropriate wheels to help pull the car back in the direction the driver is steering towards.

“That is, again, why that vision is so important … just focus on where you want to end up, look at it.”

He says many people will have avoided a serious accident without even realising it and if the light (usually with tread mark symbol) has ever come on, that means the stability control has come on.

“I will just pinch a little brake and pull you back straight to where you need to go”

Ice

The subject of how to handle ice, has no “silver bullet” answer.

By far the best thing to do is to avoid the situation, if you encounter ice slow down, if it’s too treacherous, don’t continue, turn back or wait for someone else to go first.

If you do hit ice, even ABS brakes and stability control will be ineffective. Don’t panic, stay off the brake, wait and wait until hopefully you ride over the ice to a safe patch.

If all else fails and you are going over the edge hit the brake as a last resort and try and punch through the ice.

Andrew lives in Queenstown and commutes across a gorge to work at Highlands Motorsport Park.

He says black ice is a frequent occurrence on that stretch of road in winter and he is always nervous about it.

“I'd have tradies fly by me through the gorge, all these different cars fly by me. I'm nervous as a driver driving through the gorge at night and there's a chance of black ice because I know the repercussions.

“I let that tradie go. He can go off and I'll find him in the ditch later … just because they think that they know what they're doing.”

Keeping the speed down and using a lower gear to minimise braking on downhill sections is a good idea.

“This sounds terrible if you're up the mountain … you're not sure, just sit there … wait for someone else to go down.

“If I've got my kids in the car, at the end of the day it's about number one, making sure that you are the safe person.”

He says it is important not to panic when sliding on ice because most accidents are caused by people adding a whole lot of turns to the steering wheel, then when they do gain traction on the other side of the ice, the wheels are at an angle and the car slides straight ahead.

Winter tyres

Another thing to consider is winter tyres – they’re more expensive but the grip they afford on ice and snow is worlds apart from a normal tyre.

Unlike some places overseas where specialist snow and ice tyres are fitted in winter, winter tyres that are sold in New Zealand are designed for normal road conditions plus snow and ice.

“They are a lot softer, but … if we put a set of New Zealand rated snow and ice tyres on your car, you wouldn't notice a difference on normal everyday driving. The only thing you'd notice is your tyre bill would go up because they wear out a lot faster.”

The tyres are softer and have little slits cut across the tread which provide incredible grip on icy surfaces.

The tyres are so good, Andrews says chains are usually surplus to requirements, for example when they are testing cars at the Cardrona Snow Farm.

“We only stop and put chains on because (of the road regulations). We actually get to the snow farm and take them back off because we just don't need them because they work that well.”

Fitting chains

Fitting chains is another area people can help themselves out, by practising in a safe environment at home before heading up to the ski field.

When a road does get too difficult to traverse without chains, motorists shouldn’t pull over at the first dangerous spot, if they can help it because chances are the next vehicle through will slide into the car.