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Your green light to talk traffic
Another online urban legend? Posted by Charles E. Brown at 3:33 PM Q: A staffer in the Seattle Times' newsroom recently received this e-mail from a friend: "A 36-year-old female had an accident several weeks ago and totaled her car. A resident of Kilgore, Texas, she was traveling between Gladewater and Kilgore . It was raining, though not excessively, when her car suddenly began to hydroplane and literally flew through the air. She was not seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden occurrence. "When she explained to the highway patrolman what had happened, he told her to never drive in the rain with her cruise control on. She thought she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain. But the highway patrolman told her that if the cruise control is on when your car begins to hydroplane and your tires lose contact with the pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed, making you take off like an airplane. "She told the patrolman that was exactly what had occurred. The patrolman said this warning should be listed on the driver's seat sunvisor: Never use the cruise control when the pavement is wet or icy, along with the airbag warning. Some vehicles (like the Toyota Sienna Limited XLE) will not allow you to set the cruise control when the windshield wipers are on." A: Well, Sgt. Kristene O'Shannon in the Washington State Patrol's Olympia office said she'd been unable to locate any information that a vehicle will accelerate when hydroplaning due to the cruise control. But she found plenty of (internet) sites that explain that because the vehicle is at a constant speed on cruise control, when it drives across a body of water or ice there is an increased chance of hydroplaning. O'Shannon points out that when a vehicle starts to hydroplane, most drivers instinctively put on the brake, which can cause them to lose control of the vehicle. O'Shannon says she tracked some of her information online by typing in "use of cruise control in inclement weather". Bob Calkins, also with the State Patrol in Olympia, suspects part of that hydroplaning tale could be another case of Internet hoax, forwarded from person to person. He's especially suspicious of the "flew through the air" part. But then, who knows? By the way, a local Toyota service technician says it is possible to set the cruise control on their vehicles, even when the windshield wipers are on. Online urban legend or no, something in that e-mail may be worth noting. 
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