Category Archives: Cars and Tech

What to do after a car accident

04 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by in Cars and Tech, Thats Life!

≈ 3 Comments

I recently had a major accident where I rolled my car about 5 times. The car was a mess and was written off, but by some miracle (it had to be a miracle) I climbed out of the upside down wreck relatively fine. The whiplash was one thing, but trust me, the admin that I had to deal with afterwards was quite another. It surprised me that directly after the accident, I had no idea what to do. I relied 100% on the kindness of absolute strangers who stopped on the side of the road to help me, to get medical attention and attend to immediate concerns.

To see pictures of the car after the crash see this post Changing jobs? Why I did it, and why you should do it too.

So in good, ol’ EngineerChic fashion, I am now going to share some essential advice in the unfortunate circumstance that you end up in a similar situation.

woman-accident-car

Immediately after a crash

The first thing you want to do if you’re in a badly crumpled car is to check that you are indeed okay. You may have suffered a neck injury or something else may be broken that you wont even notice because of the adrenaline in your system at that point. Only hours after the accident I noticed that my knee and neck were in some serious pain!  If you suspect that you or anyone else in the vehicle has a neck injury, don’t allow anyone but a paramedic to move them, unless of course the car is on fire or something.

If you are hanging from a seat-belt upside down (like I was), be very careful when you un-clip yourself as you may land on your head and injure your neck further. The procedure is as follows:

  • Put one hand on the ceiling (which is now on the floor and push up to take the weight of the belt.
  • Turn your head to one side and with your other hand, release your seat-belt clip. (this is literally what I had to do)
  • Try to open the door. Luckily mine opened a bit and I just had to kick it a few times to get it opened enough to escape
  • If the door wont open, try breaking the window with a heavy object. Remember that other doors may have less damage than the one that is nearest to you
  • Check and see if there is anyone else you can assist

If the vehicle is still on, TURN IT OFF and remove the keys from the ignition! The car may ignite leaked fuel or something.  This may just be an old wive’s tale, but no hurt in doing it anyway. 

So you’re out. Now what?

Okay, so you’ve escaped the smoking wreck. The thing not to do is jump back in to retrieve any valuables at this stage. In the case of my wreck, the car was still smoking and the petrol tank had spilled. Make sure the vehicle is safe before going anywhere near it. You may want to consider keeping a fire extinguisher in your vehicle – which can also be used to smash windows.

This may seem like complete crazy-talk, but trust me, you never know when something like this will happen to you!

So what you want to do (especially if you’re alone like I was) is to wave someone down. It’s very likely that people will stop. In my case, many people stopped to help. It’s absolutely amazing the kindness and compassion that absolute strangers showed me during that time. I think they were mostly shocked to see that I had survived.  You may need to seek medical attention.  If you do, then ask someone to call an ambulance or give you a lift to a hospital. This is the only good reason to leave the scene of the accident. If you are not injured, you must stay and call the police.

Reporting the accident

You need to call the local police authorities who will meet you at the scene and take down your details. In minor fender-benders with no injuries, you may want to move the vehicles out of the line of traffic after taking pictures of the vehicles positions. If someone has been seriously injured or killed, you may not under any circumstances move the vehicles involved as this would be considered tampering with evidence.

The policeman who helped me allowed me to fill out an accident report on the scene (for insurance) and I received the Accident Number in a few minutes on my cellphone.

Claiming from Insurance

The accident really brought home how important being with a good insurance company is.  I called in to their call center to report the accident. The guy on the phone could not believe how calm I was as I explained the accident and the condition of the vehicle. I was incredibly lucky! They took their time in assessing the vehicle and approving the pay-out, but they eventually did. In the mean time, I had a courtesy car to drive around in.  Luckily I had already broken even on my car repayments so I actually got a decent deposit to put towards my next vehicle.

Dealing with PTSD

Like the hero I believe myself to be, I tried going in to work the following day. By then, the adrenaline had set in and severe stiffness and pain had set in.  My project manager took one look at me in a neck-brace, starting to tear up from the pain and self-pity and sent me home to rest for a week. Do not underestimate the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. You will not believe the thoughts and questions that go through your mind after an experience such as this. Even if the accident/ incident was not as severe, you may have some serious fears to deal with! I went to stay with my aunt and grandmother for those few days and made sure I dealt with my accident properly.

Injury Recovery

As I am an avid runner, I had to take a 6-week break from strenuous physical exercise whilst attending physiotherapy twice a week for my neck spasm. Fortunately my injuries were not worse. In the end, my down-time had to be extended to 8 weeks and I started Pilates after about 4, but I am thankful that I took the time to recover properly.

In closing

Well, I sincerely hope you will never have to live through something like this, but if you do, I hop this post will help you.

I’d like to say thank you to a few people:

  • Those kind and caring strangers who went out their way to help me at the worst time of my life
  • BIG UPS to the South African Police Service and the Roosenakal Police Station for their help!
  • Thank you to the colleagues and friends who made sure I was safe and helped me in the day following the accident
  • Being surrounded by family and the outpouring of love and support from friends and family over that week was so helpful in pulling me through and I thank them all for it!
  • Thank you to my sister and mum who flew up from Cape Town and Durban to see me that week. I love you both very much!
  • Thank you to my amazing physio/ Pilates instructor/ friend who was so very supportive during this process.
  • And most of all, thank you to the higher power – what ever you choose to define it as – for keeping me safe and allowing me to emerge from such an experience. Whether it was to teach me something, or point me in a certain direction, I believe that there was a reason I survived.

The Smallest Girl in the Room

30 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by in Cars and Tech, Engineer Chic!, women in engineering

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So as you know, I am a femal mechanical engineer. Most people think this is pretty cool, and I definitely do, but it sometimes gets really annoying having to constantly prove your right to be in the room…

Now please dont think I’m just a whiney, neo-feminist, poor-me woman in the workplace. To be honest, most of the men and women I work with are just great! My team mates respect me and my superiors have put a lot of trust in me and my capabilities. But every now and then, you get one loser who insists on perpertuating the stereotype and takes us back 20 years…

Luckily, this is more and more becoming the exception, not the rule.

So whats got my panties in a twist, you may ask? Last week for instance, after an hour long meeting where a supplier (salesman, not Engineer!) painstakingly explained to a bunch of engineers some basic physics principle which showed that the equipment he was supplying wasn’t going to do what we needed it tpo under our present operating conditions. This concept was obviously one which gave him some trouble when he first tried to understand it, because he explained it about 3 times.

This was okay, but at the end of the meeting, he shook my hand to say goodbye and added in one last statement, “Rhea, I really hope you understand this. I will await your revised documents.”

I really hope you understand this??? Funny how he didn’t say this to any of the (male) design engineers in the room…only the one Client who was responsible for awarding his contract!  (Thats me by the way 🙂 ). So I was like wtf dude? But had the good sense not to say what I was thinking at the time. I just shot the mechanical design engineer a look, which was returned, equally surprised at the nerve of this guy. Well anyway, it looks as if I’ll just have to cut the dude’s order in half…(what? he himself admitted the equipment wasnt going to work that ell anyway!)

Then today, I’m talking to my petrol attendant (yes in South Africa we have people who fill our gas for us),

Me:  Please don’t over-fill my tank. Just fill until the 1st automatic tank…,

Petrol guy: Most people try and fill the tank to the brim, why do you want me to stop before its full?

EC: Its actually quite bad for your car

Petrol Guy: How I can be so sure?

EC: I’m a mechanical engineer. I know these things.

Petrol guy: So have you read it in a book or can you actually fix a real car?

EC: Huh? Dude, I can open that hood and tell you what every single component is.

Petrol guy: Sorry, I didn’t mean to undermine you, just wanted to know if you know how to fix a car…

EC: Here, take this cash. I’m in a hurry.

Wow…that one really sucked. Being undermined by the guy that fills your tank! I’d love to give some philosophical advice to all the young women in the world who aspire to be/ engineers. I’d love to tell them exactly how to react to a situation like that. But to be honest, I don’t know. Its just something we’ve gotta deal with as feisty females in this industry. I don’t think its going to change anytime soon, so all you can do really is brush it off, smile your gorgeous smile, and when you get home, crack open a bottle of red, put on some Oasis and be comforted in the knowledge that you really are that good at what you do.

If you’re interested in why you shouldn’t overfill your tank, check this out: http://overfillfueltank.blogspot.com/

And one last thing (that I wish I’d said): No, I don’t know how to fix a car! I’m an Engineer, NOT a mechanic! Ha!

 

Failure Analysis

13 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by in Cars and Tech, Engineering Research - Yummy Yummy!

≈ 2 Comments

One aspect of my job that I really love is Failure Analysis.  This is the process of investigating why a piece of equipment failed prematurely. One of the first things they teach you as a mechanical engineer, is that you can’t design anything to last forever. It would simply be too expensive. (I can see the Greenies eye-balling me right now as I say this). So we design everything – a pump, a shaft, a ceramic mug, to have a certain lifespan, measured in years, number of times used or number of vibrations/ rotations. Something like a rotating shaft will be designed to rotate millions of times before failing (in the region of 10^7 rotations), but other things are designed to break after just one use (opening a coke can). 

So everything is designed to break predictably, which helps engineers plan the maintenance schedule and life-cycle costs of a particular piece of equipment. But what happens when something breaks prematurely?  Do we just go out and get a new one to replace it?  No, that would be naïve. Engineers are problem solvers, we crave solving puzzles – so figuring out why that part/ piece of equipment broke (failed) in order to fix the problem and prevent future failures is a field called failure analysis.

Now this is a really broad field, as in order to understand why a particular part broke, you have to understand the entire system as a whole. Then you need to do a thorough investigation of the ‘crime scene’ which includes taking interviews of everyone involved. The rule of thumb though, is that ‘everyone lies’, so investigating the actual material is the only way to really put the pieces together. I love it because it’s a little like CSI. Actually, it is EXACTLY like CSI!

So what you do next is collect all the fragments of the thing that broke and try and put them back together again, laying them out in their correct position. This is sometimes easy, in the case of a split drive shaft where the two pieces obviously fit in a certain orientation, but may become very complex when you have something literally blown to bits, like an airplane fuselage or any other pressure vessel.

Next you investigate the material properties of the item that broke and search for tell-tale signs to indicate where the failure originated. Different materials behave differently upon failure and it’s a learned skill to identify the origin of a failure.

Sometimes, the origin is impossible to find, so you would need to dig a little deeper and use other clues to figure out what went wrong. You may do some non-destructive testing (x-ray/ dye-penetrant) or perhaps take a sample of the material and test that its properties are what the manufacturer said it was. You may also want to look at the way the item was used or its history – this sometimes is the key to solving the problem. The other obvious cause could be an error in the design, so you will need to find all the drawings of the object and do a few calculations to check that it was sound for both fracture (brittle failure) and ductile failure.

There is a certain thrill that one gets from figuring out what went wrong – and every failure is different so it’s quite exciting.  If you’re interested in failure analysis, I suggest you take a fracture mechanics course to supplement the mechanics of solids courses standard in a mechanical engineering degree; any materials science courses including a manufacturing with materials and manufacturing processes course will also help.  Finally, you may want to look into systems analysis.  A sound understanding of electrical systems will also help a lot, and from my experience, a bit of civil/ structural design knowledge is very critical!

Learn more about FAILURE ANALYSIS here :  http://failure-analysis.info/2010/05/analyzing-material-fatigue/

What every girl should know about a flat tyre

20 Friday May 2011

Posted by in Cars and Tech, Engineer Chic!

≈ 2 Comments

I really drive a lot! Lets put it into perspective. I live 45km (about 40 minutes) from work. I work about 360km (3.5 hours) from the Johannesburg, a city I travel to frequently for work, Engineers Without Borders meetings and to see friends. I got my car in January, and in less than 5 months I have reached my first service (15 000 km)

This means that I spend quite some time in the car, and most of this time is spent by myself on rural roads, traversing the countryside, meandering along mountain passes and singing along to 5fm (which wafts in and out of signal depending on which mountain I’m behind). This can get quite lonely, and the roads are sometimes very bad, strewn with potholes and basically falling away at the edges. I accept this is part of my job, and even enjoy the peacefulness of it, but the reality is that it can also be quite dangerous.
Why you shouldn’t drive around alone at night:
Two Sundays ago, I was driving back from dinner with friends quite late at night and I somehow hit a crater with my left, front tyre. The tyre burst in two places. Luckily for me, my friends were not comfortable letting me drive home alone and insisted on seeing be back safe, so were in the car behind me when this happened. We managed to change the tyre, but the spare was a mini “mari biscuit” tyre and I was very eager to replace it. Typically, the tyre guys couldn’t find me the right size of tyre (for some reason I had very a very unique size of tyre) in this town or the neighbouring ones (or so he said) and had to order me one. 
Note: a full-sized tyre is preferable, but if you ever plan to change a tyre by yourself, a biscuit might be a better idea. If you’ve ever tried lifting a full-sized tyre out of a car, you will know why I say that. Its simply huge! Also, its a good idea to know how to use a jack and where to place it under your car so that the load is balanced. You wont know how to do this until you’ve actually tried, so when you have a free half and hour, I suggest you go outside and practice jacking up your car!
Why you should have standard-sized tyres fitted on your car:

So this meant that I had to drive around for a week with a mari biscuit and no spare up and down the very dodgy, long roads between my house and work until the day I finally went in to get my new tyre fitted. This meant I had to drive extra carefully and was incredibly anxious about picking up yet another flat! I was leaving for Johannesburg that Friday morning, so I made extra sure that the tyre guy knew he had till Thursday to get me the tyre I needed.
Note: the size of your tyre can be found on your actual tyre. It goes something like this: 185 65 R15. The tyre people will ask for this number when you call in to ask if they have a spare. Make a note of this somewhere for your records.

Why you should ALWAYS do your own research and NEVER trust a salesman!
Lo and behold, I pitch up Thursday afternoon at the workshop and I can instantly tell from the terrified look on his face that something was wrong. It turns out that the fool of a salesman had ordered me THE WRONG TYRE! I couldn’t believe it. It was almost 5pm and as far as I knew no town in the surrounding areas had the tyre I needed. After letting the salesman know exactly what I thought of him, I get into my car and take off home, (have a good cry) and call someone I knew who may be able to help. 
Note: not everyone is always looking out for your best interests. Even though I may be a mechanical engineer, women are often taken for a ride by mechanics who think they can swindle you because you don’t know any better. It can never hurt to get a second opinion!
We know you’re a strong, independent woman, but sometimes its okay to ask for help…

“Uncle R” first chides me for not calling him first, then tells me to sit tight. 5 minutes later he calls back and tells me to go to a shop in the next town, where a brand new, rightly-sized tyre was waiting for me when I got there. 
Note: Often when you have a blow-out or hit something, your car’s alignment will go off. This means that all four wheels wont be positioned right. This can cause worse problems if left unchecked, so get the alignment done as soon as you change the tyre. This costs around R225- R350 and takes about 30 minutes.

So in the end, somehow everything worked out. I do think I should be a bit more careful on the road though. As tough and independent as I’d like to think I am, I have to admit that certain situations are best avoided at all costs, and for others I will need my friends’ help. I don’t need to prove to anyone that I’m Super Woman – getting a flat tyre really put that into perspective for me, so I guess it was a good learning experience. And now I can safely say that I know how to change a tyre! 

The Search for the Perfect Car

17 Monday Jan 2011

Posted by in Cars and Tech

≈ 2 Comments

So I want to dedicate this post to all those young women out there who are looking into buying a car. Unless you know exactly what you want, this process can be really daunting and confusing. So this is how I did it, I hope it helps you! 

The search for the prefect car was definitely not easy. I needed a car that would be reliable enough for me to mission the pothole-ridden roads of rural Mpumalanga, and that was affordable and economical as I was financing it myself (although my dad did help out with a deposit).

The options seemed endless, and the biggest decision was whether to buy  brand new or used. Eventually, I settled on a brand new car since I expected to be putting quite a lot of mileage on it in the first two years and I really wanted something on motor-plan! Also, you never really know what previous owners have done to the car. Even a year-old Avis car is still a risk (I know people who do wheely’s with their rental cars!) I really couldn’t stand the thought of being stranded on a lonely Mpumalanga road at night. Roadside assist or no roadside assist!

So once I’d decided on a brand new car, the question was, which one?
My budget was around R150 000. This proved to be a little low, so I restructured my expenses and savings to allow for a more realistic amount of R200 000.  Also, I wanted to buy the car, not lease it, and I plan on trading it in after 2-3 years. So trade-in value and depreciation was definitely a priority.

So here were the options: Polo Vivo, Toyota Auris, Mazda 2, Ford Fiesta, Hyundai i20 and the Honda Jazz.
I visited all the dealerships and test-drove all the cars (save for the Polo which I decided early on to exclude due to it being a high-risk for hi-jackings). I tried to stay away from European makes such as the Renault’s and the Peugeots as in SA, the parts for these slightly more exotic models are hard to come by and rather expensive!  And here’s what I thought of them:

Toyota Auris: This was a magnificently average car. Its drive was slow and smooth and the car looked as perfectly boring as it was. Apart from that, it was incredibly overpriced and the fact that Toyota’s squeaky-clean reputation had recently taken a dive into a smelly pit didn’t help much. Compared to its predecessor the Run X, which was really cool, this car was a real drag.

Mazda 2. This was a cute,zippy little car. It won car of the year in 2008 (followed by the Ford Mondeo and Mercedes-Benz C-Class) and I actually liked it quite a lot at first. It looks really great, but is admittedly quite small. The problem is,apart from its good looks, there isn’t much else going for this car. Rumors got to me that the car was quite troublesome and gave lots of problems so I decided that it wasn’t the car for me.

That left me with my final three choices: the Fiesta, the I20 and the Jazz. In no particular order:

The Ford Fiesta: Now I really liked this car. I liked the drive, I liked the interior, I loved the look. But there was just one thing I really hated: the NAME! Who would call a car a Fiesta? What were they thinking? It dropped the ‘cool-factor’ of the car quite a few notches, although admittedly, I did start to see these cars everywhere. And yes, they did look super cool! The only troublesome thing was that its profile was very low. On the bumpy Mpumalanga roads, with all the profiles, I didn’t think it would do very well…

The Hyundai I 20: From the second I saw this car, I loved it. It was sturdy, reliable and safe. It was economical and affordable. The dealership threw in loads of great extras such as a 5 year/100 000km warranty and a special combo (smash-and-grab windows, paint scratch insurance and dent insurance) for only R100 a month (financed). The car had great resale (book-value after 2-3 years).  To be honest, I was absolutely ready to buy this car. Sure, the drive was a little machine-like, but compared to the pansy-like clutch of the Auris, it was refreshing. The only issue was this: I couldn’t get the finance! Due to me not having a credit history to speak of (duh!) the bank declined my request! What?!! I’m a graduate engineer for God’s sake! If I cant buy a car of this price, how can anyone? The finance woman at Hyundai told me to go out and buy some clothes on my Edgar’s account. It turns out that she was just screamingly useless at her job, which cost her dealership the sale. Sorry for you, Hyundai!

The last dealership I visited was Honda. I went on Xmas eve but they had already closed, so I had to come back after I got my license drama sorted out. See Rhea Gets a Driver’s License. Still, this was really strange since the Honda Civic has been my (short-term) dream-car for ages now! (My long term dream car is a Porshe 911) I guess I just wasn’t keen on the idea of settling for a Jazz when what I really wanted was a Civic. And the old Jazz was just so small and unappealing (apart from the fact that I was in an accident in one last year) that I was quite put off. But my god, was I wrong!

Honda Civic hatch

The Honda Jazz: This is undeniably a good-looking car. Its classy and much more solid than the (admittedly plastic-like) exterior of the I 20! When I got behind the wheel, I knew that this was different to the other cars I’d seen. Everything about it, the attention to detail, the little things, (10 cup holders is a bit excessive, but is useful!) just put the Jazz a cut above the rest. The most amazing feature by far was the incredibly large boot, still leaving enough space in the backseat. The back seats fold down forwards and backwards at the lightest touch and the clever mechanical designs got my engine revving even before I’d turned on the ignition! Apart from the sexy physique, the resale was about R10 000 above book-value and maintenance wasn’t an issue. Even though Honda parts are hard to come by, these cars DO NOT BREAK.

On the test-drive, I fell in love. I must say, a lot had to do with the sale’s woman, a wonderful old bird from Rustenburg, complete with BIG hair and RED nails and the sweetest personality! She was just brilliant, and took her time to make my experience with Honda simply fabulous. Everyone in the dealership, from the sale’s staff to the finance lady were equipped to help me, a young, female, first-time buyer, buy this car. It was so easy, so fast and when I picked up my car less than a week later (along with a large bouquet of flowers and champaign and gifts from the dealership), I was beamingly happy and very satisfied! I am so in love with my Jazz, its spunky and cute but a real performer when it needs to be (as it proved on the long drive to Steelpoort). In fact, it reminds me a lot of myself!

My Car. This is the exact colour and tint. (without the body-art and the sunroof that is) 

So thats my tale. The car is still awesome, but VERY dirty and every time I want to get it cleaned it rains…:( Sunshine where are you? My Jazzy jazzy jazz needs a make-over!

Updates Part 2-The License

15 Saturday Jan 2011

Posted by in Cars and Tech

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Rhea (FINALLY) Gets her Driver’s License 

I know what you’re thinking: how can she have a degree and no driver’s license? What kind of Engineer cant drive? Well, I’ll have you know, I can drive, and have for a very long time! It’s just driver’s tests that I cant do…well, not anymore apparently. I got my license on my third attempt at the Greytown License Center. And no, I did NOT bribe the instructor…although I had R200 in my pocket just in case (not that I was going to use it!) I passed this time without rolling or climbing curbs or anything! But as is the usual way my life goes, there was drama. (There had to be!) 
PC practicing his straight-drive
during my driving lesson
My test was scheduled for the 31st December: New Years Eve. I had asked the lady to book me on another day, telling her that if I failed, I didn’t want it to ruin the New Years Eve celebrations for me. But of course being the bureaucrat that she was, she couldn’t help making my life difficult. “There ther-ty ferst”, she said in her  heavy Zulu accent. So PC (Prince Charming) and I drove the two hour drive into the countryside the 30th and spent the night with family I have there. I go for one last driving lesson before the test, in a dodgy parking lot which the driving school happened to be sharing with goat vendors (Poor goats, destined to become New Years Eve feasts!) and swarms of flies. I pitch up at the testing station and lo and behold: they are closed. Of course they are closed! Its New Years Eve for God’s sake! It turns out that I’d completely misheard the bureaucrat. She had said, ‘There therd of ther ferst’, and not, ‘Ther ther-ty ferst’ after all! Sigh…life goes on.
It didn’t help that various car dealerships in Durban were all waiting (like the vulture scum they are) for confirmation that I’d got my license so they could go ahead and process my car finance! But yes, I had to drive all the way back to Durban…and all the way back to Greytown again 3 days later…But I did it, and I passed. I love leaving everything to the very last minute, just for kicks! (not really)