What are some small facts that might save your life one day?

1. Go slow with the brakes on your car. I am not a physicist. However, cars follow laws of physics inevitably and perfectly. And cars know even less about physics than I do. Bottom line: Hit your brakes hard when traveling at low speeds (below 20 mph or 30 kph). Hitting your brakes hard at high speeds will most likely kill you and anyone within hundreds of metres of you. People think that the brakes stop a car. They don't. They help to slow down the car. And they help to lock the wheels of the car.  Imagine driving a car whose wheels are locked in a certain direction, while traveling at 100 mph (160 kph). Good things don't happen, generally.

2. Driving in light rain or immediately after light rain. This is way worse than driving in pouring rain or through flooded streets. You will not see the moisture on the road and you will believe it is safe to drive at high speeds. Your car will literally fly (hydroplane) if you are traveling at a high enough speed as soon as you hit a bump or even if the road just dips a little. Brakes, steering, gears, and accelerator will all fail simultaneously, at this point. Drive very cautiously. Tap your brakes (VERY lightly) every few minutes to make sure the road is truly dry, especially when you see the road curve and/or dip, ahead of you.

3. Driving over grit and/or oil. Your car may go into an uncontrollable spin. Don't try to straighten out. Keep a death-grip on your steering wheel. The car will go in circles and then stop, after a few seconds. The wheel may break if you try to steer 1,000 lbs. to 3,000 lbs. of metal against the direction it wants to take. A car without any steering is not a happy camper.

4. Stuck accelerator. Switch off the engine. Tap the brakes (slowly), several times. Turn the wheel at a very slight angle. All of these things will slow down the car and bring it to a stop (in a few seconds).

5. Hitting a wall. If your ONLY choices are hitting the wall head-on or hitting it sideways, hit it head-on. The engine-block will absorb more shock than your door will. Of course, you will destroy your engine. But you may get out of the car alive. Hitting the wall with your door will save your engine. But it may not save you.

6. Approaching large  animals who won't move. A good rule of thumb is to think of a car as a kind of a bullet. Only, you are sitting inside the bullet. One bullet won't kill any large animal. So be humane and stop. You may end up saving two lives -- the animal's and yours.

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