By Duncan Mighty
In the event of the unfortunate death of Nigeria’s minister of state for labour, James Ocholi, due to an accident occasioned by a tyre blowout and the fact that in Nigeria these days, we have many untrained drivers, it has become pertinent for me to write this.
There are six simple steps to take within a maximum of two minutes and you will be safe. These by the grace of God I have been familiar with for decades. They are as follow:
(1) DON’T PANIC in the event of a blowout, calm yourself down fast because your car will start misbehaving and you need to take charge.
(2) Hold FIRMLY to your steering wheel with both hand, NO VIGOROUS TURNING, as you concentrate on the road and your mirrors, in seconds study the movement pattern of the car. Your car will naturally swerve to the direction of the burst tyre.
(3) Take off your foot from the accelerator, DON’T EVER ATTEMPT TO PRESS THE BRAKES, IF YOU DO, YOU HAVE A 95% CHANCE OF A SOMERSAULT. The car will decelerate gradually while you concentrate on the road to avoid collision with any other road user.
(4) Disengage the gears of the car by shifting to neutral (N) as you still maintain a firm grip on the sheering wheel and put your eyes on the road.
(5) After a while depending on your initial speed, your car come to a speed less than 60km/h when it is now safe to GRADUALLY apply the brakes and navigate to the side walk
(6) Ultimately, it is now safe to put the car to a complete stop and turn off the engine. You have just saved yourself and passengers from untimely death.
Meanwhile note that SUVs are not speed cars. If there is a burst tyre it flings itself up as high as it can go before landing back on the ground and thus somersaults.
NOTE:
Of course, everyone in the car will be in a panic mood BUT this is NOT THE TIME TO LISTEN TO THEM, it is TIME TO CONCENTRATE!”