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If ever blessed with the opportunity to attend some sort
of driver training programme; usually under the guise
of corporate upskilling or by virtue of being on the
clientele list of some premium marques, please proceed
to release anything in your grip as if the temperatures
were exceeding the threshold of your tolerance and
sign up for that course.
Equipping yourself with the necessary skills to emerge
unscathed from the warzone that we call Malaysian
roads is notoriously underrated and alarmingly so.
The undermining issue at hand that has permeated the
minds of the majority of drivers here comprises one of
two points.
First is the unfounded belief that if they stick to the
speed limit, use their indicators and eat all their
vegetables nothing will happen to them on the road.
Secondly; and the one that tends to be the spark
behind most road res, is the misplaced condence that
they’re the reincarnation of Aryton Senna and could
put the stunt crew of The Fast & Furious franchise on
unemployment benets.
Regardless, both fail to comprehend the gravity of
attending driver safety courses to be better prepared
for evasive action or regaining control of the vehicle in
the event of a loss of traction.
It goes without saying that being able to do that can
make the difference between seeing your loved ones
again or attaining statistical status on the list of road
deaths in a year.
Passive and active safety features have now come a long
way and although having stability control as standard is
the ultimate logical target, we’ll have to make do with
airbags and ABS.
Proton has done a remarkable job with their recent
compact models such as the Iriz, Saga and Persona by
introducing stability control in the agship variants.
Although not available throughout the range, the
pricing of the premium trims still make those cars the
most affordable new cars with stability control and a
ve-star crash rating (Iriz and Persona).
One thing to point out though is that most driver safety
courses nowadays focus on guiding drivers to make use
of the ABS and stability control for evasive manoeuvres.
Most of the modules consist of evasive action or hard
braking in a corner; both of which will inadvertently
cause the ABS and stability control to kick in.
Now, given that these active safety features are
becoming increasingly available in all vehicles,
educating drivers on how to safely maximise their
effectiveness is paramount. You can now brake hard
and steer without worrying that the tyres will lock up
and cause understeer.
Furthermore, in the event of evasive action such
as simulated by the Moose Test, the stability control
will prevent the car from understeering and then
oversteering during the aggressive lane change.
All this is well and good. Most drivers are generally
unprepared or uneducated enough to place their trust
in these systems. However, the caveat is that physics
isn’t magic and if you’re driving well over the speed
limit or not keeping a safe distance from the car in
front, science will not save you.
Which brings us to the argument that some basic nonassisted
driving skills should be compulsory as well. Take
Finland for example. Taking your driver’s license there
includes some skid pad training that teaches them to
control the car without the aid of stability control.
Sure you can argue that snow there necessitates a
higher level of skills but in general, being equipped with
more skills is never a bad thing. Some basic oversteer
and understeer control would make a huge difference
although there is the possibility of the safety systems
intruding and causing further complications as it tussles
with the driver’s inputs to stabilise the car.
This argument can go on till the bovine come home but
building the skills of drivers will always result in more
positives than negatives, regardless of the amount of
safety tech in the vehicles.
Having said that, if you’re buying a car I implore you
try and get one with stability control if your budget
permits.