1996 CADILLAC SEVILLE Owners Manual

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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 affects four things that anyone needs to drive a
vehicle:
Judgment
Muscular Coordination
Vision
Attentiveness
Police records show that almost half of all motor
vehicle-related deaths involve alcohol. In most cases,
these deaths are the result
of someone who was drinking
and driving. In recent years, some
18,000 annual motor
vehicle-related deaths have been associated with the use
of alcohol, with more than 300,000 people injured.
Many adults
-- by some estimates, nearly half the
adult population
-- choose never to drink alcohol, so
they never drive after drinking. For persons under 21,
it’s against the law in every U.S. state to drink alcohol.
There are good medical, psychological and
developmental reasons for these laws. The
obvious way to solve this highway safety problem
is for people never to drink alcohol and then drive. But
what if people do? How much
is “too much” if the
driver plans
to drive? It’s 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 Concentration (BAC)
of someone
who is drinking depends upon four things:
0 The amount of alcohol consumed
0 The drinker’s body weight
The amount of food that is consumed before and
during drinking
consume the alcohol
The length of time it has taken the drinker to
According to the American Medical Association, a
180-lb. (82 kg) person who drinks three 12-ounce
(355 ml) bottles of beer in an hour will end up with 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.
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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
somewhat lower BAC level.
There
is a gender difference, too. Women generally have
a lower relative percentage
of body water than men. 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 a collision
increases sharply for drivers who have a BAC
of
0.05 percent or above. A driver with a BAC level of
0.06 percent has doubled his or her chance of having a
collision. At a BAC level of 0.10 percent, the chance of
this driver having a collision is 12 times greater; at a
level of
0.15 percent, the chance is 25 times greater!
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine The body takes about an hour to rid itself of the alcohol
in one drink.
No amount of coffee or number of cold
showers 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 even a moderate 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, especially injuries to the brain, spinal cord
or
heart. This means that when anyone who has been
drinking
-- driver or passenger -- is in a crash, that
person’s chance
of being killed or permanently disabled
is higher than if the person had not been drinking.
I’ A CAUTION:
Drinking and then driving is very dangerous.
Your reflexes, perceptions, attentiveness and
judgment can be affected
by even a small amount
of alcohol. You can have a serious -- or even
fatal
-- collision if you drive after drinking.
Please don’t drink and drive or ride with
a driver
who has been drinking. Ride home in
a cab; or if
you’re with
a group, designate a driver who will
not drink.
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Control of a Vehicle
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.
Braking
Braking action involves perception time and reaction
time.
First, you have to decide to push on the brake pedal.
That’s
perception time. Then you have to bring up your
foot and do it. That’s
reuction time.
Average reaction time is about 3/4 of a second. But
that’s only an average.
It might be less with one driver
and as long as two or three seconds
or more with
another. Age, physical condition, alertness, coordination
and eyesight all play
a part. So do alcohol, drugs and
frustration. But even in
3/4 of a second, a vehicle
moving at
60 mph (100 km/h) travels 66 feet (20 m).
That could be a lot
of distance in an emergency, so
keeping enough space between your vehicle and others
is important.
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.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Avoid needless heavy braking. Some people drive in
spurts
-- heavy acceleration followed by heavy
braking
-- rather than keeping pace with traffic. This is a
mistake. Your brakes may not have time to cool between
hard stops.
Your brakes will wear out much faster if you
do a lot of heavy braking.
If you keep pace with the
traffic and allow realistic following distances, you will
eliminate a lot
of unnecessary braking. That means
better braking and longer brake life.
If
your engine ever stops while you’re driving, brake
normally but don’t pump
your brakes. If you do, the
pedal may get harder to push down.
If your engine
stops,
you will still have some power brake assist. But
you will use it when you brake. Once
the power assist is
used up, it may take longer to stop and the brake pedal
will be harder to push.
Anti-Lock Brakes
Your vehicle has anti-lock brakes (ABS). ABS is an
advanced electronic braking system
that will help
prevent a braking skid.
When
you start your engine and begin to drive away,
your anti-lock brake system will check itself.
You may
hear
a momentary motor or clicking noise while this test
is going
on, and you may even notice that your brake
pedal moves
a little. This is normal.
ANTI -
LOCK
-.
If there’s a problem with the
anti-lock brake system, this warning light will stay on.
See “Anti-Lock Brake
System Warning Light” in
the Index.
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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.
." .,., ;,. ., ,
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.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Remember: Anti-lock doesn’t change the time you need
to get your foot up to the brake pedal or always decrease
stopping distance. 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.
Using Anti-Lock
Don’t pump the brakes. Just hold the brake pedal down
and let anti-lock work for
you. You may hear the
anti-lock pump or motor operate, and feel the brake
pedal pulsate, but this is normal.
Traction Control System.
Your vehicle has 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 to limit wheel
spin.
The TRACTION ACTIVE message will display on the
Driver Information Center when the traction control
system is limiting wheel spin. See “Driver Information
Center Messages’’ in the Index.
You may feel or hear the
system working, 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 automatically disengage. When road
conditions allow you to safely
use it again, you may
re-engage the cruise control.
(See “Cruise Control’’ in
the Index.)
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TRACTION
CONTROL
L
This warning 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 snow. See “Rocking Your Vehicle’‘
in the Index.)
1
To turn the system off, press
the
TRAC OFF button
located inside
of the glove
box.
The TRACTION
OFF message will display on the
Driver Information Center.
If the system is limiting
wheel spin when you press the button, the TRACTION
OFF message will display -- but the system won’t turn
off right away. It will wait until there’s no longer a
current need
to limit wheel spin.
You can turn the system back on at any time by pressing
the button again. The TRACTION
READY message
should display briefly on the Driver Information Center.
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