Opinion ID: 1788754
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Significance in Accidents

Text: Purposely made acceleration scuffs are rarely produced by vehicles involved in accidents. But sometimes at the scene of an accident, especially on rural roads, there may be acceleration scuffs which were there before the accident. These may be confusing (Exhibit 37) if you do not recognize them at once for what they are. It is possible for vehicle accelerators to be stuck wide open and so make acceleration scuffs; but this is less common than acceleration scuffs made when a driver mistakes the accelerator for the brake and floors the gas pedal to try to stop the vehicle. Then you have the often difficult task of trying to determine whether tiremarks on the road were due to acceleration or braking. Driver skill. Race drivers, trying to make the best possible speed on sharp turns, sometimes steer a car into a yaw on purpose and then accelerate toward the inside of the curve after the car is headed sufficiently in that direction. But most truly skillful drivers do not let themselves get into situations where quick turning may produce a yaw because that is how a driver starts to lose control. When a yaw begins, steering in the direction of the rear wheel slide to straighten the vehicle out will, if not overdone, correct the situation. But many drivers do not have the experience and skill to know just how much to correct, with the result that they overreact. At slow speeds correction is not difficult, but at high speeds, the road is too narrow and the swerve too quick to correct an overreaction and put the vehicle back on course. Then the vehicle goes off the road, partly sidewise.