Category: Auto

If you’re like most people, you believe you’re pretty well versed when it comes to protecting your car from thieves.  If that were the case, the FBI’s National Crime Information Center wouldn’t be reporting these chilling statistics:

 

• Every 27 seconds, a motor vehicle is stolen in the United States.
• The odds of a vehicle being stolen were 1 in 196 in 2000.
• The odds are highest in urban areas.
• Only 14.1 percent of thefts resulted in arrests during 2000.
• The FBI’s 2002 Uniform Crime Report, released October 27, 2003, indicates there were more than 1.2 million motor vehicle thefts in the United States in 2002 with an estimated value of approximately $8.4 billion dollars.
• Only 65 percent of stolen vehicles were recovered in 2002.

 

These statistics paint a serious picture that reminds us not to take our vehicles for granted.    Many times we forget basic prevention techniques that can put our cars in jeopardy.

For example, when you leave your car, never leave the motor running – even if you think you will only be gone a couple of minutes.  Those few minutes are all it takes for a would-be car thief to easily drive away in a new vehicle.

When you park your car, be sure to roll up the windows and lock the doors.  There are no exceptions to this rule, even if you park in your own driveway.  It’s not uncommon for thieves to try a door handle of a car in driveway because they assume that it was probably left unlocked.  If you have a garage, park your car in it and lock the garage door, even if you intend to use the car later on.  It may seem like a lot of trouble if you are planning to leave the house again soon, but it’s better than going to the garage only to find your car missing.

When you park at your destination, turn your wheels sharply toward the curb.  This makes it very difficult for thieves to tow the vehicle.  Always put on your emergency brake and leave the transmission either in park or in gear.  If a valet parks your car, only leave the ignition key with the attendant.  It goes with out saying that if you park at night, park in busy, well-lit areas.

Think about equipping your car with various anti-theft devices.  Ask about car insurance discounts for anti-theft devices such as alarms, window etchings, and anti-hot-wiring devices.

Finally, when you buy car stereo equipment, be sure to choose items that can be removed
and locked in the trunk.  Nothing is more tempting to a car thief than to see if he can make that expensive audio equipment his own.

Teenagers and fast cars are a Hollywood legacy that dates back to James Dean. The “Rebel Without A Cause” and his Porsche 550 Spyder were the ultimate symbols of teenage rebellion during the 50s. Despite all the Hollywood hype surrounding a teen’s need for speed, the problem with teenage reckless driving has serious consequences that reverberate beyond the drivers themselves.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s report Fatality Facts: Teenagers 2003, the risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among 16- to 19-year-olds than any other age group. In fact, per mile driven, teenage drivers are four times more likely than older drivers to crash.

As if those statistics weren’t bad enough, the Automobile Club of America (AAA) Foundation for Traffic Safety published a study that shows the majority of people killed in teenage driver crashes are people other than the teens themselves. The Foundation study analyzed data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) from 1995 through 2004.

The research data indicates that young drivers represent a little more than one-third of all fatalities caused by crashes in which they were involved. However, almost two-thirds of those killed in crashes are other vehicle occupants and pedestrians.  Between 1995-2004, crashes involving 15-, 16- and 17-year-old drivers took the lives of 567 people in Minnesota, of which 212 or 37.4 percent were the teen drivers themselves. The remaining 355 or 62.6 percent included 171 passengers in the cars driven by 15- to 17-year-old drivers, 155 occupants of other vehicles, and 29 non-motorists. The AAA of Minnesota is using this data in their lobbying efforts to beef up state driving laws.

As a result of their findings, the AAA is suggesting a two-pronged approach to solving the problem. The first is a graduated licensing law (GDL). Graduated licensing requires that a new driver be given driving privileges in three stages: a learner’s permit, a probationary license and finally full driving privileges.

The AAA made it their goal in 1997 to pass GDL laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This goal was finally achieved when Wyoming and Montana enacted laws in 2005. The legislation requires teens to obtain more supervised behind-the-wheel driving experience as well as phased-in driving privileges. However, not every state’s GDL laws are as comprehensive as they should be.

The second part of their approach involves educating parents. Parents are encouraged to prevent their teenagers from riding with other teen drivers, or transporting other teens during the first year of driving.  To help parents overcome any awkwardness about enforcing these rules, especially if other parents may not be following the same track, the AAA has designed a new parent discussion guide. It encourages parents to work as a team to ensure their teens gain driving experience in the safest driving environment possible during that first year. For more information, log on to http://www.aaapublicaffairs.com/Main/Default.asp?CategoryID=14.

The Battle of the Sexes has raged from the time Eve showed Adam she was not about to play second fiddle when she tempted him to bite that notorious apple. Since then, women have proved that they are not just a product of male spare parts. One of the most cherished arenas in the male-female competition is the ability to handle a car. Men have always felt that automobiles are in the masculine domain, pretty much like arc welding and plumbing. Women, of course, have taken a somewhat different view. Now the Chrysler Group has come along to confirm that men and women do not see eye to eye when it comes to rating each other’s driving skills.

According to its Bad Weather Driving Survey, men believe that they are better drivers than their mates. Out of 1,000 adults surveyed, sixty-eight percent of the men expressed this opinion.  Forty-nine percent of women polled think they are just as adept at driving as their male significant others. Twenty-six percent, more than one in four women, responded that they are better drivers than men.

Men and women may have rated their driving abilities differently, but the genders agreed about driving in bad weather conditions. Eighty-four percent of the men and eighty-six percent of the women chose icy roads and pouring rain as the two most difficult weather conditions to drive in. Only seven percent of the drivers surveyed chose heavy snow as the most difficult weather condition for driving. Four percent of those polled chose sleet as the most difficult condition, while three percent chose strong winds.

Oddly enough, the same situations that make male drivers uncomfortable also make female drivers nervous. Seventy percent of both men and women said the possibility of losing control of your car or having to swerve because of something unexpected in the road were the two most frightening driving situations.

Whether you are male or female, knowing how to adapt to changing road conditions can save your life. Consider the following tips:

 

• Slow down and leave wider space cushions between you and other drivers when you encounter bad weather, glare, narrow/twisting roads, and low light conditions.
• Remember that, even with headlights, it is extremely difficult to detect pedestrians, bicyclists, and others. Use your headlights between the hours of sunset and sunrise. For the best visibility, use your high beams when you are over 500 feet from oncoming vehicles or 300 feet behind the vehicles ahead.
• When driving under foggy/smoky conditions, turn on your low-beam headlights and fog lights (if your vehicle is equipped with them). Be prepared to stop suddenly. If the fog or smoke becomes so thick that you cannot see well enough to keep driving, pull completely off the pavement and stop. Turn on your emergency flashers.
• Remember that roads are extra slippery at the start of a rain shower because oil, which has risen to the road surface, has not had a chance to wash away. Heavy rains will cause more problems because your tires can begin to hydroplane, like water skis. In this case, the key to keeping your tires in contact with the road is to simply slow down. Also, keep your headlights on when it is raining at any time of day.
• An important skill to learn in snow and ice is the controlled slide. If your vehicle begins to slide, take your foot off the gas pedal. If you have anti-lock brakes, apply them firmly. Otherwise, avoid using brakes, pumping them gently only if you are about to hit something. Steer the car into the direction of the skid to straighten out the vehicle. Then steer in the direction you wish to go.

 

With rear end collisions, there is always the possibility of the victims suffering from whiplash. That’s why head restraints are so important to your safety provided they function properly.

Although the primary purpose of a head restraint is to prevent injury to your neck during a rear end crash, there are significant differences in the way head restraints are made. Some are adjustable, while others remain in a fixed position. Some adjustable restraints can be locked into position, but others are not manufactured to lock. There are also variations in height as well as the distance from the back of a person’s head.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently conducted a study of the seat/head restraint combinations in 44 current model SUVs. Only six of the models tested received a passing rating for protection against whiplash injuries in rear end crashes.

According to the study, if a seat/head restraint is well designed, it should keep the head and torso moving together during a rear end collision. When a car is struck in the rear, the seats push the occupants’ torsos forward. If the occupants’ heads are not supported properly, they will remain behind as the torso moves forward. This difference in motion between the two body parts results in the neck being snapped back. The faster the torso moves, the more sudden the movement, and the greater the forces exerted on the neck, which makes the possibility of whiplash more likely.

A head restraint needs to extend at least as high as the center of gravity of the tallest occupant’s head. A restraint should be located close to the back of an occupant’s head so it can provide support at the point of impact.

The Institute evaluated the seat/head restraints with a two-part test. First, the restraint geometry was measured to determine its height and distance from the head of an average-size man. Seats/head restraint combinations that flunked the geometry test were immediately given a poor rating because they cannot provide protection for enough different body types in rear-end crashes.  If the seat/head restraint combination was rated either good or acceptable for its geometry, it was then tested to see how it performed while in motion. The testers used a movable platform and a dummy to measure forces on the neck. This test, known as a sled test, simulates a collision in which a non-moving vehicle is struck in the rear end by a vehicle of the same weight traveling at 20 mph.

In general, the researchers found that four out of five SUV seat/head restraint combinations tested were marginal or poor in terms of whiplash protection. This was the first time the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety had tested SUV seats using a dummy to measure forces exerted on the neck during a rear-end crash.

The SUVs whose seat/head restraint combinations received an overall good rating were the Ford Freestyle, Honda Pilot, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Land Rover LR3, Subaru Forester, and Volvo XC90.  SUVs with poor ratings included such popular models as the Chevrolet TrailBlazer, Ford Explorer, and Toyota 4Runner.

We all remember the experience of first learning to drive. You couldn’t wait to get on the road, so you quickly learned the driving rules to show your parents you were prepared to take your driving test. When the day of your road test finally arrived, you dutifully went through the prescribed paces, making sure to use turn signals so the test administrator would evaluate you as a safe, reliable driver. But when a driver’s license was placed in your eager hands that seemed to be the end of any need for turn signals. Or so says a survey conducted in August 2005 by Response Insurance, a national car insurer.

According to the National Driving Habits Survey, fifty-seven percent of American drivers admit they don’t use turn signals when changing lanes. The numbers revealed men as the main culprits: sixty-two percent of men don’t use signals when changing lanes, while only fifty-three percent of the women who responded admitted the same. Drivers in the 18 to 24 demographic lead the pack with seventy-one percent failing to signal. Only forty-nine percent of drivers in the 55 to 64 age group admitted to this behavior.

Despite their shared behavior, respondents admitting to non-use of turn signals often shared different reasons for this pattern. The researchers categorized drivers into groups based on their rationale for ignoring the use of signals:

 

• Impulsive: At forty-two percent, this category represented the largest group of guilty drivers. Their reason for ignoring the use of signals is a whimsical approach to lane changing, doing so whenever the mood strikes them. They feel they don’t have enough time to both predict and then signal their impending lane change.
• Lazy: Accounting for twenty-three percent of non-signaling drivers, this group couldn’t offer any reason other than honest laziness for failing to signal a lane change.
• Forgetful: Seventeen percent of respondents fit this description; these drivers said they don’t use a turn signal because they forget to turn it off after the lane change.
• Swervers: The zigzagging twelve percent in this category admitted they spend their time on the road constantly changing lanes. Their lane changes are so frequent, they felt they would be continually turning signals on and off.
• Ostriches: The eleven percent in this group believe signaling is simply not an important act when changing lanes.
• Followers: This category had eight percent of the guilty respondents; they believe when other drivers don’t signal, they shouldn’t have to either.
• Dare Devils: The smallest number of drivers fell into this category. Seven percent of those who don’t signal said this style of driving adds excitement to driving.