The Mail-Journal, Volume 12, Number 41, Milford, Kosciusko County, 5 November 1975 — Page 10

Blonde, blue-eyed and headed for trouble

Our heroine, age 15, is saved from potential disaster at roadside check point

She was 15, blonde, blue-eyed and headed for trouble If the above sounds like the beginning of a Grade B Hollywood thriller, at least the locale is correct. The setting was California, but the circumstances were not what one might suppose. The young lady in question was driving her bright yellow. 1966 Mustang along a highway outside a major California city. She was ordered by a state highway patrolman to pull into a roadside vehicle inspection station. That’s where her trouble began FirM. lireMMFirst of all. being underaged. she had no license to drive the car. 'Only the fact that a front-seat pas-

(lanadian exixrls . . . Wouldn "t skid you

To the motorist who lives in cold, snowy winter weather, getting a car out of a skid is hardly more than a routine annoyance However, motorists used to driving on normally dry pavements can run into problems should they be traveling in frigid areas or be confronted by a freak snow’ storm at home. Therefore, the Rubber Association of Canada shares its experience in

■ """"""""""""""""" ■■■■ A NOBODY O I That's Right, NOBODY Can I Sell You A New Or Used Car Bl'' I chuck For Less Money Than JOHNL,BERTI I C. S. MYERS HM| FORD, I WJ And We'll Prove It. 7 II I M B| Fords II | For Over zm ■■ || BUZZ KECK, S*»« MT- V oa ~. TOM SWART *' S ”“ ** Sr | Wawasee VBage 40 Years Downtown II I S y rocuse *57-4116

senger was holding a small baby in her lap prevented the police from impounding the car.) The vehicle itself was as lethal as a letter bomb from a terrorist. Most of the lugs holding the wheel to the axle were missing. Thus, the paper thin tires were listing at an oblique angle to the road Shock absorbers weren’t functioning, brakes w’ere defective, the exhaust system leaked, lights did not work and the engine was missing practically every emission control element including the air cleaner In total. 18 violations of safety and anti-emission codes were found. While the random inspection program responsible for the above scene has been dropped by Cal-

safe driving on bad roads. Should you start to enter a skid, take your foot off the gas pedal, stay off the brakes and steer in the direction of the skid. When the car is straightening out. pump the brakes gently to slow down. The association offers these tire care tips to help avoid trouble. Keep the tires inflated properly. Unequal pressure in the front tires promotes instability on bad roads.

ifornia in a budget slashing move, results show the need for inspection in that and other states. Safety defect* spotted Os the 1,518.698 vehicles checked last year (11.5 per cent of California’s total) nearly a million safety defects were spotted. In addition 1.2 million cars were checked for emissions and 23 per cent of them exceeded allowable limits. As far as safety was concerned, about half the cars had defective lights. / about 15 per cent had noisy or leaky exhausts and another 15 per cent had unsafe tires or wheels. Other common defects were bad wiper blades (84.000), unsafe brakes (36.000), obstructed glass (30.000), defective steering (20,000), and inoperative suspension (19,000). Pilot involiiiK Last July, California began investing all of its vehicle inspection funds in an emissions check program in the southern part of the state. First phase of the program will be a pilot project in Riverside County. Eventually six counties in the Greater Los Angeles area will be included. According to Jack Dolan who will be supervising the program, “Six counties may not seem like a lot, but 53 per cent of all cars in the state operate in that area. There are more vehicles (nearly six million* in those six counties than in all but a few other states in the country.”

Dolan added, “The benefits of the emission inspection program in California will do more than clean up our air. We expect that

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maintenance that will result from keeping emissions low will also save enormous amounts of gasoline.”