Posted on 09/22/2010 8:22:03 AM PDT by Lorianne
How to achieve good vision while driving during a heavy downpour.
We are not sure why it is so effective; just try this method when it rains heavily. This method was told by a Police friend who had experienced and confirmed it. It is useful....even driving at night.
Most of the motorists would turn on HIGH or FASTEST SPEED of the wipers during heavy downpour, yet the visibility in front of the windshield is still bad......
In the event you face such a situation, just try your SUN GLASSES (any model will do), and miracle! All of a sudden, your visibility in front of your windshield is perfectly clear, as if there is no rain.
Make sure you always have a pair of SUN GLASSES in your car, as you are not only helping yourself to drive safely with good vision, but also might save your friend's life by giving him this idea..
Try it yourself and share it with your friends! Amazing, you still see the drops on the windshield, but not the sheet of rain falling.
You can see where the rain bounces off the road. It works to eliminate the "blindness" from passing semi's spraying you too.
Or the "kickup" if you are following a semi or car in the rain. They ought to teach that little tip in driver's training. It really does work..
This warning is a good one! I wonder how many people know about this~
A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago and totaled her car. A resident of Kilgore , Texas she was traveling between Gladewater & Kilgore. It was raining, though not excessively, when her car suddenly began to hydro-plane and literally flew through the air. She was not seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden occurrence!
When she explained to the highway patrolman what had happened he told her something that every driver should know - NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON . She thought she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain. But the highway patrolman told her that if the cruise control is on when your car begins to hydro-plane and your tires lose contact with the pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed making you take off like an airplane. She told the patrolman that was exactly what had occurred.
The patrolman said this warning should be listed, on the driver's seat sun-visor - NEVER USETHE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR ICY, along with the airbag warning. We tell our teenagers to set the cruise control and drive a safe speed - but we don't tell them to use the cruise control only when the pavement is dry.
The only person the accident victim found, who knew this (besides the patrolman), was a man who had a similar accident, totaled his car and sustained severe injuries.
NOTE: Some vehicles (like the Toyota Sienna Limited XLE) will not allow you to set the cruise control when the windshield wipers are on. If you send this to 15 people and only one of them doesn't know about this, then it was all worth it.. You might have saved a life.
(SNOPES.COM says the first hint is as yet undetermined. The second hint about cruise control is true and verified. Just FYI, folks.)
Does anyone have a source or backup for this info?
Anyone tried the sunglasses in the downpour idea and does it work?
How about “PULL OVER TIL THE STORM PASSES AND IT IS SAFE TO DRIVE AGAIN”?
I’m just sayin’...;-)
To an extent, it does. I used to have polarized prescription sunglasses and yes, they do help cut through mist and increase visibility. But, if it’s heavily overcast, they also darken things up to the point where it can be hard to see. If it’s not too dark outside, polarized sunglasses will help you when there’s a lot of spray thrown up.
}:-)4
Here’s my advice.
If it hasn’t rained in weeks or even longer as soon as it rains (within the first 5 to 10 minutes) the roads are as slick as ice as all the oil on the roads creates treacherous conditions. This happened this morning. We hadn’t had rain in 50+ days, it rained, accidents everywhere, most people are unaware of this condition, in fact, the news media doesn’t even understand it. But if it hasn’t rained in a long time, then it rains, watch out ...
Unfortunately pulling over in a heavy rainstorm along side the road is great way to get yourself killed.
Good tires (lots of tread depth and open blocks to allow water to exit both from the sides and front and rear), Slow down, keep greater distance from others, Rain-X windshield washer fluid ans fresh w/w blades.
I wonder if you need to use polarized sunglasses for this to work??????
To clarify...they never increased visibility in a hard downpour for me, but they did reduce the effect of spray or mist thrown up off the road by other cars. A good Southern frog-drowner thunderstorm would still cut visibility to near zero. They’re not a miracle solution like this email makes them out to be, but they’re useful when the road’s wet and a lot of mist is being kicked up.
}:-)4
One of the best things you can do on any car with a plastic dash is clean the inside of the windshield when you clean the outside of it. It's amazing how much glare the film on the inside produces.
Agreed. I’ve been using it since the late 70’s. The stuff is amazing.
I’m pretty sure they need to be polarized. I used to have Photogray auto-tinting on my prescription glasses and they never did a thing in rain. As soon as I got a separate set of prescription shades with polarization, I was surprised to see that this really does work. I should get another set, I haven’t had sunglasses for years.
}:-)4
I had to do that a while back in Pasadena Ca, Hail storm white snow blindness could only see under the bridges. Scarry
Truck stops, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, etc. all have parking lots. But I know what you mean, if it’s a 2 lane freeway, with very thin sidings, better to keep going, just slow down! I think one of the biggest causes of accidents is people just zooming along on slick roads when they should just slow down.
Man, when/if it finally rains here this coming weekend, the roads will be like goose grease...........thanks for the reminder............
Seriously?! I've always known this and never use cc on wet roads.
A trick I’ve used for years for driving in very heavy rain is this: Steer using the rear view mirror! Yes, the rear windshield never gets nearly as much rain on it as does the front windshield; so it’s much easier to see where you are by looking backward from time to time.
It came rain as hard as it wants to, but using this method I have never had to pull over(which is very dangerous under such conditions).
My drivers ed teacher told us about cruise control in High School. She also said the slipperiest part of a storm was the first ten minutes, so just wait a bit before starting your trip.
Rain-X works best. I can drive through southern thunderestorms at freeway and racing speeds (once the rain tires are on) and never need the wipers except when someone splashes mud on my windshield.
Correct on turning off the cruise. If you start to hydroplane, the car doesn’t know it and if you hit a deep puddle, it will slow the car’s speed and the crusise will assume you are going up a hill and drive the car faster making the planing worse.
On the sunglasses, I will only wear Serengeti Drivers. Part of the lens technology I learned about while snow skiing. With these specs, I could easily see the moguls on a bright and sunny day. Driving in the rain, it cuts the refractive glare so it does not have the blue out effect of all the mist. It works especially well around semi’s.
What you really have to worry about are those drivers who think cruise control takes care of the steering too.
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