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A Lesson in How to Handle the Steering Wheel That Might One Day Save Your Life

You'd think that steering wheel manipulation is something everyone should know after getting their driver's license, mostly because it's fairly simple but also extremely important.
Steering wheel handling 5 photos
Photo: YouTube screenshot
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And yet every time you go out for a drive, you can see people doing all sorts of things with their hands that have nothing in common with what they should be doing behind the wheel. An overwhelming percentage of drivers don't know how to hold the steering wheel or can't be bothered to do it correctly, which is worrying as the growing number of in-car phone-fiddling cases.

"Oh, but maybe they do know how to hold the wheel, they just don't see it necessary when cruising through the city at low speeds." That may very well be the case, but as the guy in the video says, it's all down to creating a habit, and the only way to do that is by continuous practice. You can either develop a good habit or several bad ones, with varying severities. There are no two ways about it.

Let's look at things in a different way. Let's say, and I do hope you will all agree, a correct steering wheel handling and hand positioning are two safety features, just like the airbags or the ABS. Would you be just as casual if you knew the car made a habit of disengaging these features whenever you were going under a certain speed or driving under specific conditions? My guess is that you would write a letter to the manufacturer, and it would be a pretty angry rant.

The guys at Tem O'Neil Rally are just as intrigued about this tendency as we are and so have gotten into their Ford Focus and came up with an explanatory video. It only takes a little over eight minutes, but it could ultimately make you a better and safer driver. Give it a go and if you know you're one of the offenders when it comes to proper hand positioning, make it a mid-2017 resolution to address that. You'll be doing everybody a favor.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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