Home  News Latest SCSU professor creates a 'Skid Monster'
|
|
SCSU professor creates a 'Skid Monster' |
|
|
|
By Patrick Dilger
New Haven Register, February 21, 1995
New Haven - Negotiating a cone-lined parking lot in a dumpy little car with an oddball set of rear wheels appears easy until the first turn.
Then...chaos!
Even at a tortoise-like 10 miles per hour, the Chevy Citation whips into one, two, three spins as the driver grapples with the wheel and pounds the brake. Having crushed a cone - each representing a pedestrian - and clipped another, the car winds up backward and partly off its course, the operator red-faced and sweaty-palmed.
Say hello to the "Skid Monster" an invention by Fred Mottola that simulates the effects excessive speed has on a vehicle entering curves and turns.
"Traditionally, skid control training just concentrates on how to get out of a skid," said Mottola, a professor of traffic safety education at Southern Connecticut State University. "The best way to learn about speed control is to learn the consequences of too much speed. I want my students to feel in their guts that they went too fast."
The "skid" is created by two small tires linked to a rim and bearing assembly that is bolted to the rear axle of a front- wheel drive car.
The vehicle will perform in a conventional manner while the rear wheels are locked in place. But when the wheels are unlocked, the tires will rotate whenever the car deviates from a straight path.
"The first time I tried it, it was impossible to control...it was like driving a car on sheer ice." said Joe Brady, a drivers' education teacher from Winsted who tackled the Skid Monster as part of SCSU's drivers' safety education program last year.
"I think it's an extremely useful tool for bringing home the message about skids to an inexperienced driver," Brady said. "And even for an experienced operator it can be a bumbling experience."
Mottola, who has created a number of driver safety devices, including a convex side-mirror to eliminate blind spots, has three patents for the Skid Monster.
In the last year, he has used it to train students ranging from police instructors to school bus drivers.
The Skid Monster provides drivers with an opportunity to experience the effect speed has upon their ability to control a vehicle while entering curves and turns, Mottola said.
The real key, however, is simple, Mottola said. Before entering a turn or a curve, slow down.
|
|