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14/06/2009
By EWAN KENNEDY
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I would like to talk about soft and fluffy things this week. Soft and fluffy toys are wonderful things in their correct place, kids of all ages love to play with them. They can make great displays in bedrooms, sunrooms and suchlike locations. I love them there and admire the displays that are put together at times. But the soft and fluffy things have to be in the right location and that's not in the potentially dangerous environment of the motor car.
 Years ago I did one of many excellent advanced driving courses available to Australian motorists and was surprised to see the instructor in a bad temper. I won’t mention his name, but there’s a good chance you will have heard of him. He is normally one of the most tolerant, fun-loving, positive people you could ever hope to meet.
Having known him for years beforehand, I was amazed to witness him lose his cool. It happened when a female pupil turned up with a soft and fluffy cover on the steering wheel. In front of all the other students he grabbed it and demonstrated how it could come adrift during hard turning of the steering wheel. Something that’s even more likely in an emergency situation where a stressed driver invariably grabs the wheel much harder than normal.
If you can’t steer, your chances of finishing up in an awful crash, perhaps one that results in severe injury or even death are greatly increased.
Fluffy dice can be a real hazard, too. Dangling from the rear-vision mirror they may look very cute, but can block your vision momentarily. Perhaps when a young pedestrian or cyclist makes a mistake and wanders onto the road.
Even soft and fluffy toys on the rear shelf can catapult forward under heavy braking and take the driver’s attention away at just the wrong time.
So at the risk of sounding like a crabby old B, I say that soft and fluffy toys should be kept in their proper place in a car and that place certainly isn’t in any of the aforementioned locations.
ewan@marque.com.au
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