I HAD believed the anti-lock braking system (ABS) on my car made driving safer and provided some sort of guarantee against uncontrollable skids. So I was disconcerted to find this view challenged recently (New Scientist, 2 March, p 3 and p 9). It seems that far from making driving safer, ABS could be encouraging drivers to go faster and to brake harder, effectively causing more accidents. I asked David Jamieson, the junior minister at the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, for a comment.
Jamieson said that the DTLR’s view is that ABS has many benefits. It…
