Cadillac 2010 CTS Sport Sedan Owner's Manual

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8-4 Driving and Operatingspinal cord, or heart. This meansthat when anyone who has beendrinking — driver or passenger — isin a crash, that person's chance ofbeing killed or permanently disabledis higher than if the person had notbeen drinking.Control of a VehicleThe following three systems helpto control the vehicle whiledriving — brakes, steering, andaccelerator. At times, as whendriving on snow or ice, it is easy toask more of those control systemsthan the tires and road can provide.Meaning, you can lose control of thevehicle. See Traction ControlSystem (TCS) on page 8‑37.Adding non-dealer/non-retaileraccessories can affect vehicleperformance. See Accessories andModifications on page 9‑3.BrakingSee Brake System Warning Lighton page 4‑26.Braking action involves perceptiontime and reaction time. Deciding topush the brake pedal is perceptiontime. Actually doing it isreaction time.Average reaction time is aboutthree-fourths of a second. But that isonly an average. It might be lesswith one driver and as long as twoor three seconds or more withanother. Age, physical condition,alertness, coordination, andeyesight all play a part. So doalcohol, drugs, and frustration. Buteven in three-fourths of a second,a vehicle moving at 100 km/h(60 mph) travels 20 m (66 ft).That could be a lot of distance inan emergency, so keeping enoughspace between the vehicle andothers is important.And, of course, actual stoppingdistances vary greatly with thesurface of the road, whether it ispavement or gravel; the condition ofthe road, whether it is wet, dry,or icy; tire tread; the condition of thebrakes; the weight of the vehicle;and the amount of brake forceapplied.Avoid needless heavy braking.Some people drive inspurts — heavy accelerationfollowed by heavy braking — ratherthan keeping pace with traffic. Thisis a mistake. The brakes might nothave time to cool between hardstops. The brakes will wear outmuch faster with a lot of heavybraking. Keeping pace with thetraffic and allowing realistic followingdistances eliminates a lot ofunnecessary braking. That meansbetter braking and longer brake life.