AOG

6 tips on how to handle a tyre burst....

1. Start with maintaining a safe driving speed; there are just no two sides to this. The lower your speed, the higher your chance of survival. A blowout at 80–90 km/h will be far less dramatic than one at 140–150 km/h.

2. Do not slam on the brake pedal.Hard braking is actually the worst thing you can do as it will further imbalance the vehicle and throw it out of control.

3. Don’t abruptly take your foot off the accelerator. Do it slowly and gradually. The deceleration force from a blown tyre is so strong that your car will anyway slow down rapidly. If you have engaged cruise control, be sure to disengage it immediately.

4.Try your best to keep the vehicle pointed straight. Cornering or turning with a blown tire will greatly upset the car’s composure. This is critical, else you risk drifting into the road divider or worse still, the opposite lane.

5. Do not attempt to over-correct. The key is to maintain the vehicle’s stability. Even when you have gained control and are slowly moving to a safe parking spot, do so with the mildest steering inputs possible.

6. Allow the vehicle to gradually coast to a stop. Use engine braking if necessary. Lightly engage the brakes only when your car has decelerated to a slow speed and pull over safely off the road, do not stop in the middle of the road.