1994 PONTIAC BONNEVILLE Owners Manual

Notes
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Defensive Driving
Your
................
Part 4
Driving and the Road
.................................
DrunkenDriving ..................................................
'Control of a Vehicle
Bmking .. ......................................................
Anti-LackBrakes ................................................
SteeringTips ....................................................
Steering in Emergencies ...........................................
Passling ........................................................
I)rivin>g in the Rain .................................................
City Driving ......................................................
Freeway Driving ..................................................
DrivingatNight ...................................................
Before Leaving on a Long Trip .......................................
HillandMountainRoads ............................................
WhterDriving ....................................................
Towing a Trailer ...................................................
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Your Driving and the Road
Defensive Driving
The best advice anyone can give about
driving is: Drive defensively.
Please start with a very important safety
device
in your Pontiac: Buckle up. (See
“Safety Belts’’
in the Index.)
Defensive driving really means “be ready
for anything.” On city streets, rural roads,
or freeways,
it means “always expect the
unexpected.”
Assume that pedestrians or other drivers
are going to be careless and make
mistakes. Anticipate what they might do.
Be ready for their mistakes.
Rear-end collisions are about the most
preventable of accidents. Yet they are
common. Allow enough following
distance.
It’s the best defensive driving
maneuver,
in both city and rural driving.
You never know when the vehicle in front
of you is going to brake or turn suddenly.
Drunken Driving
Death and injury associated with drinking
and driving is a national tragedy.
It’s the
number one contributor to the highway
death toll, claiming thousands of victims
every year. Alcohol takes away three
things that anyone needs to drive a
vehicle:
Judgment
0 Muscular Coordination
0 Vision
Police records show that almost half of all
motor vehicle-related deaths involve
alcohol
- a driver, a passenger or
someone else, such as a pedestrian, had
been drinking. In most cases, these deaths
are the result of someone who was
drinking and driving. About
20,000 motor
vehicle-related deaths occur each year
because of alcohol, and thousands
of
people are injured. Just how much
alcohol is
too much if a
person plans to drive? Ideally, no one
should drink alcohol and then drive.
But
if one does, then what’s “too much”? It
can be a lot less than many might
think.
Although it depends on each person and
situation, here is some general
information on the problem.
The Blood Alcohol Content (BAC)
of
someone who is drinking depends upon
four things:
0
How much alcohol is in the drink.
The drinker’s body weight.
The amount
of food that is consumed
before and during drinking.
The length
of time it has taken the
drinker to consume the alcohol.
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According to the American Medical
Association, a 180-pound (82 kg) person
who drinks three 12-ounce
(355 ml)
bottles
of beer in an hour will end up witk
a BAC of about 0.06 percent. The person
would reach the same BAC
by drinking
three 4-ounce
( 120 ml) glasses of wine or
three mixed drinks if each had 1-1/2
ounces (45 ml) of a liquor like whiskey,
gin or vodka.
It’s the amount of alcohol that counts.
For
example, if the same person drank three
double martinis
(3 ounces or 90 ml of
liquor each) within an hour, the person’s
BAC would be close to 0.12 percent. A
person who consumes food just before or
during drinking will have a slightly lower
BAC level.
NUMBER OF DRINKS (as in picture)
RESULT IN A BAC OF O.O5O/o
IN THE TIME SHOWN
3 HOURS
2 HOURS
1 HOUR
100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240
BODY WEIGHT IN POUNDS
rhe law in most U.S. states sets the legal to six drinks (in one hour). Of course, as
imit at a BAC of 0.10 percent. In Canada we’ve seen, it depends on how much
he limit
is 0.08 percent, and in some alcohol is in the drinks, and how quickly
Ither countries it’s lower than that. The the person drinks them.
3AC will be over
0.10 percent after three
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Your Driving and the Road
Drunken Driving (CONT.)
But it’s very important to keep in mind
that the ability to drive is affected well
below a BAC of
0.10 percent. Research
shows that the driving skills of many
people are impaired at a BAC approaching
0.05 percent, and that the effects are worse
at night. All drivers are impaired at BAC
levels above
0.05 percent. Statistics show
that the chance of being in an accident
increases sharply for drivers who have a
BAC of
0.05 percent or above. A driver
with
a BAC level of 0.06 percent (three
beers
in one hour for a 180-pound or
82 kg person) has doubled his or her
chance
of having an accident. At a BAC
level of
0.10 percent, the chance of that
driver having an accident is six times
greater; at a level of
0.15 percent, the
chances are twenty-five times greater!
And, the body takes about an hour to rid
itself of the alcohol in one drink.
No
mount of coffee or number of cold
jhowers will speed that up. “I’ll
be careful” isn’t the right answer.
What if there’s an emergency, a need to
take sudden action, as when a child darts
into the street? A person with a higher
BAC might not be able to react quickly
enough to avoid the collision.
There’s something else about drinking
and driving that many people don’t know.
Medical research shows that alcohol
in a
person’s system can make crash injuries
worse. That’s especially true for brain,
spinal cord and heart injuries. That means
that if anyone who has been drinking
--
driver or passenger -- is in a crash, the
chance of being killed or permanently
disabled is higher than if that person had
not been drinking. And we’ve already
seen that the chance of
a crash itself is
higher for drinking drivers.
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You have three systems that make your
vehicle
go where you want it to go. They
are the brakes, the steering and the
accelerator.
All three systems have to do
their
work at the places where the tires
meet the road.
Sometimes, as when you’re driving on
snow or ice, it’s easy to ask more of those
control systems than the tires and road
can provide. That means you can lose
control
of your vehicle. And,
of course, actual stopping distances
vary greatly with
the surface of the road
(whether it’s pavement or gravel); the
condition
of the road (wet, .dry, icy); tire
tread; and the condition
of your brakes.
Avoid needless heavy braking. Some
people drive
in spurts -- heavy
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Your Driving and the Road
I
Anti-Lock Brakes (ABS)
Your Pontiac has an advanced electronic
braking system that will help prevent
skidding.
1 ANTILOCK @) 1
This light on the instrument panel will go
on when
you start your vehicle.
When you start your vehicle and begin to
drive away, you may hear a momentary
motor or clicking noise. And you may
even notice that your brake pedal moves
2
little while this is going on. This is the
ABS system testing itself. If there’s a
problem with the anti-lock brake system,
the anti-lock brake system warning light will stay on.
See “Anti-lock Brake System Warning
Light” in the Index. Here’s how anti-lock works. Let’s say the
road
is wet. You’re driving safely.
Suddenly an animal jumps out in front of
you:
You slam on the brakes. Here’s what
happens with
ABS.
A computer senses that wheels are
slowing down.
If one of the wheels is
about to stop rolling, the computer will
separately work the brakes at each front
wheel and at the rear wheels.
The anti-lock system can change the brake pressure faster than any driver
could. The computer is programmed
to
make the most of available tire and road
conditions.
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I
You can steer around the obstacle while
braking hard.
As you brake, your computer keeps
receiving updates
on wheel speed and
controls braking pressure accordingly.
Remember: Anti-lock doesn‘t change the
time you need to get your foot up to the
brake pedal.
If you get too close to the
vehicle
in front of you, you won’t have
time to apply your brakes
if that vehicle
suddenly slows
or stops. Always leave
enough room up ahead
to stop, even
though you have anti-lock brakes.
To Use Anti-Lock
Don’t pump the brakes. Just hold the
brake pedal down and let anti-lock work
for you.
You may hear a motor or clicking
noise during a hard stop, but
this is
normal.
Traction Control System
(OPTION)
Your vehicle may have a traction control
system that limits wheel spin. This is
especially useful
in slippery road
conditions. The system operates only
if it
senses that one or both of the front wheels
are spinning or beginning to lose traction.
When this happens, the system works the
front brakes and reduces engine power
(by shutting off fuel injectors and
managing spark) to
limit wheel spin.
You may feel the system working, or you
may notice some noise, but this is normal.
If your vehicle is in Cruise Control when
the traction control system begins
to limit
wheel spin, the Cruise Control will
auto~natically disengage. When road
conditions allow you to safely use
it
again, you may re-engage the Cruise
Control back on. (See “Cruise Control”
in
the Index.) The “TRACTION
OFF” warning
light
will come on when you turn the traction
control system off.
When the system is
on, this light will come
on to let you
know if there’s a problem with your
traction control system. See “Traction
Control System Warning Light” in’the
Index. When this warning light is on, the
system
will not limit wheel spin. Adjust
your driving accordingly.
The traction control system automatically
comes on whenever you start
your vehicle.
To limit wheel spin, especially
in slippery
road conditions, you should always leave
the system
on. But you can turn the
traction control system
off if you ever need
to. (You should
turn the system off if your
vehicle ever gets stuck
in sand. mud, ice or
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