Ikenna351: If you are here to learn how to drive on highway, then you should go back to driving school and start from there.

The topic simply means how to drive on highway. You dont learn driving by reading. Its a skill you learn by frrquent practice. The more you drive in the city as a beginner, the more you become skilled enough, an expert. A non expert behind the wheel or an inexperienced driver has no business with highway motoring.

I can understand why number of half baked drivers is increasing in Nigeria, since the introduction of auto transmission in today driving school. A learner will buy a car today, drive it in the city the next two days, and drive the car on highway the 3rd day. After all, he can accelerate, brake and steer the car from an object. Isn't that what driving is all about?

Learning driving with manual transmission forces one to actually imbibe the driving skill. A lot of learning takes place when a leaner is driving a manual tranny car, subconsciously. It will force you to drive as a leaner for a very long time in the city, which involves a lot of brain activity: mastering clutch engagements, when to shift to a higher and lower gears, when to use wheel brake or engine brake, etc. Unlike the auto trans that you will have only the accelerator and steering wheel to control, leaving you as dummy. The two weeks you spent in driving school are not enough to master these things. Dont expect an instructor to teach you skill he learnt after 20 years of driving in just 2 weeks.

Highway is not some exams where you read and write. It takes minutes to act on city roads, but it takes seconds for highway. You dont think on highway, you just act. Because you dont have that time to think, unlike the city driving. Its your subconscious that makes you do whatever you find yourself doing in any eventuality on highway. Its something you find yourself doing, without knowing how. Because its skill. Trust me, if you see a deep pothole on top speed, you wont remember what your instructor or someone has taught you to do in such circumstances. Everything happens in seconds. Poor judgement leads you to death or hospital. Good judgement keeps you going. All the theories you gathered as a learner ends mostly on the city roads. How you perfect your driving in the cities, is what will keep you alive first time you drive on highway.

Now to the question. Not all cars will behave the same way if you jump a deep pothole or swerve out of a pothole on top speed. Some cars are designed for highway and some are not. Likewise, the unique nature of Nigerian highways are not meant for everything on 4 wheels.

What i would do if i see myself in such situation, depends on what i am driving. Not all cars can take swerving on speed more than 100 km/h. Likewise, not all cars can maintain balance when it jumps a deep pothole on speed more than 120 km/h. This where the body weight, tire sizes, suspension & ground clearance come in. This is why am strongly against people altering the factory suspension of their cars, and still expect the car to perform as designed when it meets such situation. Such things are put into considerations when designing highway cars by the manufacturers. Altering any of it, means the car is no longer fit for high speed driving. It is that simple.

If you must drive on Nigerian highway as an inexperienced driver, dont speed upto 80 km/h. If you must drive a city car (a non handler) on Nigeria highway, dont speed beyond 80 km/h. With that speed, you can easily, brake or steer out of the pothole, without finding yourself and the car in the bush.

Ikenna.

logo77: Please guys what is the best approach/decision to make when a driver suddenly sights a pothole "Death Trap" while travelling at a high speed.


Suggestions please.....

korm2me:
Excellent piece. Could b publish as an article .in safety driving.

berem: carry your car on your head and jump and pass the pothole shikena!

fapcrook: YOU ARE SO DRYYYYY

azpekuliar: If you SUDDENLY sight it, drive right into it while slowing down. Seen avoidable accidents and needless deaths occur just because the driver tried to dodge a pothole he sighted late. Better to end up with damaged rims, suspensions and shocks, than end up in the morgue.

Arctic: My advice would be:

1. Firmly apply your brakes. Make sure you don't swerve at this high speed as this may cause you to lose control of the car.

2. If there are cars behind me I would quickly put on my hazard lights at this point to alert those behind me that there is danger ahead. Otherwise they may not notice in time and may end up rear ending you.

3. If above 100 kph then swerving in an attempt to avoid the pothole could be even more dangerous as you could end up losing control of the car completely.

4. Take your feet off the brakes just before you enter the pothole. This is to try and see if your momentum at this point (remember your physics) will carry you across the pothole,

I guess the worst that could happen if you navigate it succesfully as above would be a damaged suspension and undercarriage.

However trying to avoid it at high speed could result in a nasty accident.


Artic

redsun:

Common sense is highly endangered in nigeria. If people can just think of the consequencies of their actions before they act,d whole country will sit up. The man that is incharge of keeping the road safe will know to use the monies to fix the road for his own safety,rather than stealing it and dying untimely of car crash.

azpekuliar: If you SUDDENLY sight it, drive right into it while slowing down. Seen avoidable accidents and needless deaths occur just because the driver tried to dodge a pothole he sighted late. Better to end up with damaged rims, suspensions and shocks, than end up in the morgue.

toba: this is tricky. its either u apply ur brake and then enter the pothole or u check ur mirror, if both sides re free, then u can swerve to either side.
just as stated above, trying to avoid traps like that has caused several more fatal accidents than anticipated.

my two experiences i would share. sometime in 2003, i was returning from vgc via the lekki epe expressway. just before the chevron roundabout around 9pm i didnt sight the gallop on time at a speed of 120km/hr, i applied my brake softly and then passed over at high speed. thank God nothing happened but may if applied a forceful brake, something might have happened. only God knows.

The other happened same yr just by the MRS filling station along the owonronsoki expressway whilst going to ikeja. the guy in my front saw a pothole, decided to apply his brake all of a sudden and stopped completely. i had no choice than to hit him from behind and the commercial bus behind me also hit me. it was some how fatal but no casaulties.

lesson: applying brake isnt the solution

tunapawizzy: increase ur speed to like 160km/hr

apach4ever: Heard if you see a pot hole while driving at speed hold your steering tight and ride it, unfortunately when faced with the practical I failed woefully tried to swerve, lost control and skidded off the road slamming into some tractor equipment. Luckily I wasn't hurt but as for the car... Well let's say I'm getting a lot of excersise done walking nowadays. The point is there are somethings only experience can teach you and I pray when faced with this situation you make the right choice.

Okija_juju:


DUDE!! What do you know about ABS?! ..

Pls, note these points carefully:
(1) Know your car's handling capabilities. A BMW can sucessfully avoid the pothole but a Honda or Toyota might crash. (2) Press your breaks to slow down but never hold it into the pothole. Release it just b4 u enter to reduce d impact. Some potholes are less felt when enterd with speed. (3) Never break and turn ur steering wheel sharply at the same time. (4) B aware of traffic behind u.

adanny01:

Best Advice.

In addition, just before entering the death trap, give up braking and swerving actions and any other ideas not executed. Any other action, apart from holding the steering firmly in a straight position will make matters worst.

A classmate of mine in the Uni almost kill me and our other mate. We were to research on the same material so we had to travel to source it. We borrowed a friends car, but my friend who i never saw driving went to collect the car. I knew he was not good soon after we departed. On the way, being more experienced, i sighted marks of screeching tires and diversion off the asphalt but before i could say jack, we were in front of a large pothole that spanned the entire width of the two lane. He suddenly slammed the brakes while swerving left then right but no were to go. We went in, took off from the ground, by the time we landed we were heading for the median because he turned the steering. He swerved again, which started our stunt. We did 360 degrees 3 times without somersaulting before stopping. All tires were flat with no scratch on the car.

We were lucky. After fixing the car, the guy came to drive i told him fu...ck off. Our other classmate refused to enter the car until i assured her it was ok. She unfortunately died later during service year.

azpekuliar: If you SUDDENLY sight it, drive right into it while slowing down. Seen avoidable accidents and needless deaths occur just because the driver tried to dodge a pothole he sighted late. Better to end up with damaged rims, suspensions and shocks, than end up in the morgue.

apach4ever:
Heard if you see a pot hole while driving at speed hold your steering tight and ride it, unfortunately when faced with the practical I failed woefully tried to swerve, lost control and skidded off the road slamming into some tractor equipment. Luckily I wasn't hurt but as for the car... Well let's say I'm getting a lot of excersise done walking nowadays. The point is there are somethings only experience can teach you and I pray when faced with this situation you make the right choice.