By EWAN KENNEDY
24 November 2008

Keeping two hands on the steering wheel seems like the most basic of requirements for safe driving. Yet it’s becoming appallingly apparent that people driving with both hands on the steering is increasingly unusual. To make matters worse, having two hands on a steering in something remotely resembling the correct position is an even less common sight.

What goes through drivers’ minds when they make the vaguest contact with the steering wheel with but one finger at the bottom of it (a favourite with the ladies); or clutch the spokes tightly but not use the wheel rim at all; or rest a wrist on the wheel with their finger tips reached forward to sit on the dashboard?

How about the blokes (it usually is a male) who fold the fingers of each hand together, then lean them and their forearms around the steering wheel rim as though they are about to take a nap? An everlasting nap may well result…

And the current fashion amongst younger drivers for leaning their seat so far backwards they can barely reach the steering wheel. Preferably with the driver’s seat as close to the floor as possible to make seeing out of the car tricky as well.

A very common mistake is to put the hands inside the rim of the steering wheel in an upside down position when cornering. By doing so they lose almost all their ability to rapidly change direction if something unexpected happens.

Try this test of the palms up method – turn an imaginary steering wheel as far as you can in one direction and then the other without removing your hand from the wheel. Now do it with your hand in the correct driving on the outside of the wheel rim. See what I mean? It can move almost four times as far when grasped in the correct position.

Are people really so uninterested in driving that they can't be bothered to hold onto the steering wheel properly? Which, for many who have forgotten, means one hand on each side of the wheel in a position somewhere equivalent to ten-to-two or a quarter-to-three, perhaps even twenty-to-four, on a clock face.

Any other position gives you reduced control of the car and the time needed to sort out your hands and grip the steering properly can literally mean the difference between life and death.

When I say the hands should be at ten-to-two, perhaps I should also explain that the right hand should be on the right side of the steering wheel and the left hand on the left. A sarcastic remark? Unfortunately not, I did see one guy with his hands otherwise in the proper position, but the right hand on the left side of the wheel and vice versa. Unbelievable, but true!

Think back to the days when you were doing your driving test, sweating nervously as the driving examiner watched your every move. Remember where your hands were then? I though so - and that's exactly where they should still be when you drive today.

ewan@marque.com.au