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Letters to the Editor
Brake less or shift to lower gear in Fern Gully
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Dear Editor,
I saw the letter on February 6 about an unfortunate woman who experienced brake failure driving through Fern Gully.
I had the same experience driving a Volvo a few years ago. I sympathise greatly with Sandra Norton and her relatives and wish to offer an explanation and maybe a solution. Fern Gully is about a mile downhill into Ocho Rios and constant application of the brakes causes them to overheat, and in some cars fail completely.
This was my experience coming out of Fern Gully.
A roadside mechanic cracked up laughing when I told him what happened. He reassured me and said that if he set up a shop outside Fern Gully, he could as he said "put his pot on fire" because every day several cars experienced the same brake failure because of overheated brakes.
Since then I always downshift and rarely use my brakes in Fern Gully. I think that this bit of advice will help several people. Many people who drive automatic cars do not know that they can shift to a lower gear.
Michael McFarlane
Kingston
mecmcf@yahoo.com
 
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2/15/2012
Umm ...
gearing down instead of riding the service brake when descending hills is a BASIC principle of driving. What is being described here is DRIVER FAILURE not brake failure.
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