The Mail-Journal, Volume 7, Number 14, Milford, Kosciusko County, 6 May 1970 — Page 20

Canadian ‘Skid School’ is Helping Save Lives

Drivers Who Exercise Wheel Control Will Have Much Better Chance Os Avoiding Accidents Henk de Vries' business is on the skids and he couldn’t be happier. Nor could the growing number of Canadians who patronize Henk’s and thus stand a better chance of staying alive. De Vries conducts the BP Skid Control School in Oakville, Ontario near Toronto. A native of Holland, he puts students through the skids on a private 300-foot-long highway which simulates treacherous driving conditions. The course is sealed with a plastic top coat, soaked with a soluble oil and flooded with water, simulating treacherous summer driving conditions. Water on an oil-slicked road can be even more dangerous than glare ice.

Why? De Vries points out that the average motorist driving on ice is alert to the danger and proceeds more carefully. The driver does not expect to skid in summer and when he does he may not know what to do. Cites Baric Rule De Vries takes his students, who've paid $lO for the IV4 day course, on the special roadway and puts the car into a violent 360° spin. This action familiarizes the student with the terrifying feeling of panic a bad skid produces. He then demonstrates the ways to get out of the most common types of skids — the front wheel skid, the rear wheel skid and the four wheel skid. Says De Vries. "The basic rule in any skid is to get the wheels rolling nonhally again. Stay off the brakes! This locks the wheels and makes normal steering Im-

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possible.” The teacher says, "Once into a skid, there is no time to think. You have to make corrections by reflex action.” Taught Race Driver* De Vries told of a world champion race driver who took the course in its original Dutch location, Zandvoort. His first three atteiqpts to handle the skids were unsuccessful. The course also includes lessons on various other emergency situations. When de Vries first operated his school in Holland, Dutch insurance firms reduced rates 10 percent to graduates. While no such action has as yet been taken by Canadian insurers, successful students at the Oakville facility feel they have a more valuable type insurance.

I 1I a I Hl 1 i I lil L-it 1 11 a HlwWt ■II -- A Brtb “Skid School” students are taught wheel control on this private highway made treacherous by Moaking with soluble oil and flooded with water to simulate treacherous summer driving conditions. Water on an oil slicked road can be even more dangerous than glare ice, says Henk de Vries who heads the school in BP’s complex, Oakville, Canada, near Toronto.

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