How To Drive A Motorcar
A Key To The Subtleties Of Motoring

V CHAPTER I Training the Eye THE welfare of the public must always be the first consideration in the mind of the driver who is in charge of any vehicle which is inherently capable of causing damage to persons or pro- perty. It is perhaps a trifle obscured in the mind at times, as the habit of driving becomes so much a matter of routine that when one goes out day after day, and returns safe and sound again in the evening, the possibility of danger to other people is inclined to become a forgotten leading consideration. Nevertheless, it should not be so. One must remem- ber that even a small car of, say, 10 h.p., and weighing about 15 cwt., has in it, when running at even the legal limit of 20 miles an hour, a stored-up energy (which we term momentum) capable of inflicting serious bodily harm and causing considerable damage. Far be it from us to raise any undue ideas of danger. It is, however, the possession of a complete and thorough knowledge of the potential power for damage which a considerable weight, such as a car, possesses at a good speed, which enables one more accurately to guard against the possibility of losing control over that power, or failing accurately to direct it. There is undoubtedly a certain trust imposed upon the driver of a motor vehicle. He is the guardian primarily of the safety of other road users, and, secondarily, of his own well- being and that of his car. The statements are, per- haps, a little stale, but even an apparent truth is some- times lost sight of through its very familiarity. We have then the fact, which we trust the reader has now carefully absorbed, that the driver is in charge of a vehicle which is a potential means of causing damage, and that he is responsible for its safe conduct. How 3 a2