2005 Pontiac Montana SV6 Owner's Manual - Page 287

Braking {CAUTION: Drinking and then driving is very dangerous. Your reflexes, perceptions, attentiveness, and judgment can be affected by even a small amount of alcohol. You can have a serious - or even fatal - collision if you drive after drinking. Please do not drink and drive or ride with a driver who has been drinking. Ride home in a cab; or if you are with a group, designate a driver who will not drink. Braking action involves perception time and reaction time. First, you have to decide to push on the brake pedal. That is perception time. Then you have to bring up your foot and do it. That is reaction time. Average reaction time is about three-fourths of a second. But that is only an average. It might be less with one driver and as long as two or three seconds or more with another. Age, physical condition, alertness, coordination and eyesight all play a part. So do alcohol, drugs and frustration. But even in three-fourths of a second, a vehicle moving at 60 mph (100 km/h) travels 66 feet (20 m). That could be a lot of distance in an emergency, so keeping enough space between your vehicle and others is important. And, of course, actual stopping distances vary greatly with the surface of the road (whether it is pavement or gravel); the condition of the road (wet, dry, icy); tire tread; the condition of your brakes; the weight of the vehicle and the amount of brake force applied. Avoid needless heavy braking. Some people drive in spurts - heavy acceleration followed by heavy braking - rather than keeping pace with traffic. This is a mistake. Your brakes may not have time to cool between hard stops. Your brakes will wear out much faster if you do a lot of heavy braking. 4-5 Control of a Vehicle You have three systems that make your vehicle go where you want it to go. They are the brakes, the steering, and the accelerator. All three systems have to do their work at the places where the tires meet the road. Sometimes, as when you are driving on snow or ice, it is easy to ask more of those control systems than the tires and road can provide. That means you can lose control of your vehicle.