ROAD AND WORKSHOP by HANDYMAN
Page 45
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An Unusual Driving Hazard
TRANGE as it may seem, probably the safest place nit the roads today is the thick of a city traffic jam. Hardly sugh sPeed is reached to :break a lamp ss and, despite the countless thousands vehicle movements per Minute. rarely : mistakes made. Therefore. it may be little difficult to visualize danger in 3ther form whilst in such close and
riarently.safe company.
Yet an incident during the cold weather t January drew'attention to an entirely as hazard: Collection or delivery of tres in the larger towns and cities today calls for die smallest vehicle possible to cope with limited space. parking meters. and so on. and the general choice is the 3-5-cwt. van or dual-purpose vehicle.
During January. one particular Van driver underwent a rather peculiar phase. in which he would return from town suffering from a hears. headache and Was apparently ' all in “. On two occasions he complained of sickness. and both times, he called on his doctor in the evening. Yet' nothing wrong could be found with 'him. and he was completely lit. the next day. This condition returned on several More occasions during the month and began to trouble the driVer considerably—enough to rmike him have doubts regarding his ability to stand town driving.
However. quite by chance one late afternoon he picked me up on his rettirn From town and in due course we were inching our way nose-to-tail towards the suburbs. Tucked in behind a 3.4 Jaguar. it was not long before I realized that for some reason or another we were inhaling the ear's exhaust gases and the small van was quickly turning into it gas-tilled container. But because of some nasal
trouble my driver was completely unaware of the intrusion.
There had to he a reason and it was not too hard to find. The car heater was a normal enough type and a lever had three positions--" off ", "screen " or "car ". At this time the lever was at " screen " with the fan motor running. On this model there is a 31-in. doct from the healer to a point behind the radiaton. grille and, with the fan motor on and the screen setting selected. any gases in front of the radiator are drawn into the duct and passed inside the car.
Switching off the fan stopped the heavy inward flow, but the only cure was to move the lever to either "cat " or " off ". It was clear front the amount of exhaust gas trapped in the car altar only a few minutes. that a man inhaling the mixtore for a longer period could he in trouble and might well pass out, particularly if his sense of smell was defective.
The main point of this particular aspect of traffic motoring is the need to learn the make-up of the heater system. and how to avoid putting staff or oneself in this dangerous situation.