Now this is one new show I am going to have to watch! There’s a new TV show on TLC which is going to highlight all of the bad drivers caught on camera. Wonder if they got me running my car into one of those yellows poles at McDonalds or the time I hit the curb and popped the two tires on the drivers side of my car! I sure hope not! Those were innocent accidents of course!
You know what TV producers love? Cheap, sensational content. That, incidentally, is the Internet’s number one export. Marry the two and you have TLC’s newest special: Out of Control Drivers. We’ll let you guess what the show’s about. If you’re a viral video junkie, you’ve likely seen a lot of these – maybe all of them – already. Still, this is can’t-avert-your-eyes stuff, as demonstrated in the two videos embedded after the jump.
The first promo is just a highlight-reel trailer for the show, designed to whet your overall appetite for vehicular mayhem. The second video is a full segment showing what happens when a sleeping driver takes an unplanned detour through a gas station. Spoiler alert: things get ugly. Fast. – AutoBlog
Check out these promo videos and check your local listings for show times.
Well, did you make these videos? I’m in the clear for now! ha ha.
A lot of people have mixed feelings about airbags but let me tell you a little story. When I was a youngin around 17, I rear ended a friend on the way to work at a yield sign. I wasn’t going more than 20 miles per hour but the bump hit the sensor just right on my car. I threw up my hands right as the airbag deployed. The airbag hit my arm, my hand hit my face. I had airbag burns up and down my arms and I successfully broke my own nose. Talk about a funny story to tell. The thing about that accident was that even though I probably wouldn’t have died without the airbags, my face would have hit that steering wheel that much harder and who knows what would have happened. I am lucky that I only had a broken nose and a tiny little hairline fracture in my wrist. I still think airbags are important to have.
What are some facts about airbags? I found this interesting article written by the folks at OnlineAutoRepair.net and I thought you would probably find it as interesting as I did. Especially if you’ve even been in an accident in your new or used car when the airbags have deployed. Maybe they even saved your life.
As you might know an airbag is much like a heavy-duty plastic balloon that inflates fully within fractions of a second during a collision. A deployed airbag protects the driver or passengers from injury by limiting and cushioning movement during a crash.
One of the biggest things to remember is that the airbag was designed to be used in conjunction with a seat-belt. The seatbelt holds the person in place so that the airbag provides maximum protection.
These restraint systems have been around for quite some time and therefore vary greatly in the types of technology they use to deploy the bag.
Also when airbags started to be used back in the late 80s they where only placed in front of the driver and mounted on the steering wheel.
Nowadays these supplemental inflatable restraint systems will include side and passenger deployment systems to protect many if not all passengers. Even the driver side airbag in most cases now has an added knee diverter or sometimes referred to as the knee bolster bag.
AIRBAG SAFETY AND SERVICE
Now that we have a brief review of the overall airbag picture let’s talk about what to do after a collision when it comes time to replace the deployed units to assure that they are ready to do their job again once all vehicle repairs are completed.
It is highly recommended to replace airbag system components with original equipment manufactured replacement parts. Aftermarket parts may appear to be less expensive and yet interchangeable, but internal differences may result in inferior occupant protection.
The factory installed fasteners, screws and bolts used to fasten airbag components have a special coating and are specifically designed for the airbag system. Your body shop should use the specialized fasteners and they should not be substituted for regular or standard grade fasteners.
You should make your body shop aware that you expect all of your airbag components to be replaced with brand-new parts that were made by the vehicle’s original manufacturer.
Failure to make your shop clear on this might make them think its okay to use recovered junkyard parts or less expensive and possibly inferior aftermarket airbag parts.
As part of the repair process an interior detail is usually performed and is recommended before the family begins to use the vehicle as usual. The Powder residue emitted from a deployed airbag can cause skin and sinus irritation. This is especially true for people that are sensitive to airborne irritants.
When you get back in your vehicle and turn the key from the off to the run position your airbag or SRS light should light up maybe even flash and then go out. This is a bulb check and a self-diagnostic routine that is performed by the body computer.
If there are any problems with the supplemental inflatable restraint system the indicator light may show a malfunction by staying on. You can visit my other website Auto-Facts.org for more information about airbag warning lights.
What do you think? Helpful info on airbags? Have any stories on how your airbag deploying saved your life?
Ok ladies and gents this one is a doozy. Another one of those silly human errors while driving. A woman in Dallas was leaving the Dallas Fort Worth International airport a little intoxicated and decided she wasn’t going to pay her toll to get out of the airport. So what did she decide to do? Jump the toll booth!!! Luckily enough no one was hurt. She even got out of her car and tried to make a phone call as the car caught fire. All I have to say is please don’t try this in your new or used cars Cincinnati! We are not all stunt men from the Dukes of Hazzard and we certainly don’t all drive the General Lee!! Ha ha. Watch the video it’s quick but it’s funny! Thanks to AutoBlog for sharing this one with us all.
Have you guys heard this yet? I saw this on the news the other night and then today I found this story that lays it all out. I thought I’d share it with you so that when you are driving around Cincinnati in your new or used car you can be a little more vigilant about your speed. Tickets are a pain in the bum.
Or, as the man in charge of police training standards for the entire state puts it, “dead reckoning.”
New police officers in Ohio receive no scientific training in estimating speeds of drivers in basic training. There’s no timing of cars over fixed distances, no special methods of determining an actual speed, nothing with stopwatches.
There is just a repetition of watching cars go by and guessing speeds, then seeing how the guesses matches up with what the radar says.
“There is no formula to apply,” said Robert Fiatal, executive director of the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission. “It’s kind of a dead-reckoning kind of thing.”
An Ohio Supreme Court ruling Wednesday made a police officer’s visual estimate of speed enough to make a speeding ticket stick. Though that had been the case in most of the state, the appeals court covering Cuyahoga County had required more than an officer’s guess: radar readings or comparing a vehicle’s speed to the speedometer reading in a police cruiser.
The court ruled that an officer’s estimate can hold up all by itself if an officer is trained by the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy or a similar academy and has experience gauging speeds.
The number of states that use that standard could not be determined Wednesday. Pennsylvania and Nebraska require more than just a visual speed estimate, though officers in those states have leeway to say a vehicle was traveling at an unsafe speed.
The Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission sets standards that all students in the more than 70 police academies in the state must meet to graduate. Officials from the police academies in Cleveland Heights and at Cuyahoga Community College each said they use the state curriculum.
Cleveland Heights Lt. Larry Shaffer said officers are taught to track – follow behind — vehicles suspected of speeding to determine speed, but the required state training allows a reasonable estimate.
“Before you would be certified you have to be fairly accurate with the naked eye,” he said.
Visually estimating the speed of vehicles is only a small part of a five-hour unit on speed, which also includes lessons on stopping distance, benefits of speed enforcement, types of speed laws, how to track a given vehicle and how to fill out a traffic ticket.
Traffic radar used to be part of basic training for all officers, but each department now trains its own officers in using the radar or laser system it owns.
State standards call for students to use four principles to estimate vehicle speeds: their own knowledge and experience in watching traffic, watching vehicles move past stationary objects, seeing if a vehicle is moving in an unusual way like bouncing or the driver is driving erratically.
But the required curriculum doesn’t tell students how to determine a specific speed using those principles.
Instructors must take students to areas with different kinds of traffic and have them estimate speeds. The instructor would use radar on the vehicle so the student can compare results.
“You just refine that and refine that by looking at the radar,” Fiatal said.
Standards call for students to estimate speeds of 20 vehicles and the instructor to calculate the difference between the estimate and the actual speed. Students pass if the average difference is five miles per hour or less.
Fiatal said that training is “certainly a start” for new officers to learn to estimate speeds. He said when they learn to use radar they will have more chances to measure their impressions against radar readings. As they gain more experience, guesses will be more educated.
What do you guys think? I want to hear your opinions.
We all know how important it is to buckle up when driving. Every single time, no matter this distance, front seat or back seat, it is imperative that you buckle up. Consumer reports have come out with a new study, which shows that Americans wearing their seat belts is at the highest statistic, ever. When you are out and about in your new or used car with your friends and family just remember click it or ticket. Ticket fines are becoming increasingly more expensive. Always remember this….your kids will mimic what they see mom and dad doing so if you don’t wear your seat belt then you can’t expect them to when it’s time for them to drive.
Seat belt use among Americans is at its highest level ever—84 percent. While that is good news, there is still that other 16 percent who need to get the message to buckle up. May 24 through June 5 is the Department of Transportation’s annual “Click It or Ticket” mobilization campaign aimed at delivering the safety message through a law enforcement blitz and crackdown around the country. Police will be out in force and at check points to make sure drivers and passengers are following their state’s seat belt laws.
A number of states have a usage rate below 70 percent, including Massachusetts, Wyoming, and New Hampshire, which is the only state without any seat belt law. Currently, 19 states do not have a primary law, which allows drivers to be pulled over for failing to wear a seat belt. Four of those states have a primary law only for teenagers and younger. The worst offenders of the seat belt law are men aged 18 to 34.
The seat belt is considered by many to be the most important automotive safety invention, and it is simple to use. Don’t wait for a campaign to buckle up, just do it now and make it a habit.
Who would you think would be the better driver? The experience slow paced senior or the fast paced cell phone gabbing teenager? I think you’ll find the results a little astonishing. Most people young or old think they are great drivers. I am confident enough to say I am not the best but I wonder if I’ll be better when I’m older or if I was better in my teen years. Check out this article from the USA Today and when you’re purchasing a new or used car for your parents or your teenager remember this blog. It may help define what car is best for them.
Picture this: You’re out on the road, driving in mixed traffic with your choice of drivers to follow. One is a gray-haired senior puttering along in the right lane and the other is a fresh-faced teenager moving briskly in the left lane.
Statistically speaking, which driver is safer to follow? Kirk Seaman of AOL Autos’ blog asks whether it’s older driver with the slower reflexes, poorer vision and cautious driving style, or the younger driver with faster reactions, better eyesight and driving with the flow of traffic?
Seaman’s answer: Stay in the right lane, behind the oldster, and let the teenager go on his way. According to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the safest drivers are in the age group between 64 and 69 years old. And studies of the data reveal that teenage drivers — especially male teenage drivers — are the most dangerous drivers on the road.
Here’s Seaman’s report on why:
“In every motorized country around the world, teenage drivers are disproportionately involved in crashes,” said Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Institute. “The seriousness of this problem has been recognized for decades. Only in the last few years have public policies such as graduated driving licenses been enacted to address the situation. And those laws seem to be working, but fatalities are still high.”
In 2008, 5,864 15- to 20-year-old drivers were involved in fatal crashes. That’s the bad news. The good news is that number is down by 27% since 1998. Driver fatalities for this age group also decreased by 20% in the same time period.
However, motor vehicle crashes still remain the major cause of death for teenagers. In 2008, 2,739 15- to 20-year-old drivers were killed and an additional 228,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes. Sixty percent of deaths among passenger vehicle occupants ages 16-19 were drivers.
Senior drivers, like teenage drivers, have higher crash rates per mile driven, especially when it comes to fatal crashes. But seniors don’t drive as many miles, so a better measurement of their susceptibility to accidents can be had by comparing crash rates on a per capita basis. Looking at the numbers in this way shows senior drivers have much lower crash rates. Despite their increased risk of crashing per mile driven, relatively few elderly drivers are involved in accidents because of their lower rates of exposure. In addition, the rate of fatalities per capita among seniors has decreased 40% since 1975 and is now at its lowest level during this period.
Let’s look at the numbers. In 2008, 15- to 20-year-old drivers made up 8.5% of the U.S. population, yet accounted for 12% of occupant deaths among all ages in passenger vehicle (cars, pickups, SUVs, and vans). Per mile driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are four times more likely than older drivers to crash. Drivers from 65 to 69 years old made up 3.7% of the population, but accounted for just 3.2% of all fatal crashes.
Major risk factors contributing to teenage crashes are those you would expect, including:
Lack of experience. Teens are more likely than older drivers to underestimate dangerous situations or not be able to recognize hazardous situations.
Poor judgment. Teens are more likely than older drivers to speed and allow shorter headways (the distance from the front of one vehicle to the front of the next).
Low seat belt usage. Compared with other age groups, teens have the lowest rate of seat belt use. In 2007, 61% of all 15- to 20-year-old passenger vehicle occupants killed in fatal crashes were not wearing seat belts.
“Almost all states have adopted some form of graduated driver licensing,” said McCartt. “These laws are proving effective in reducing teenage crashes.”
Graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems are designed to delay full licensing while allowing teens to get their initial driving experience under low-risk conditions. Research suggests that the most comprehensive of these programs are associated with reductions of 38% and 40% in fatal and injury crashes, respectively, among 16-year-old drivers.
“When parents know their state’s GDL laws, they can help enforce the laws and, in effect, help keep their teen drivers safe,” said McCartt.
What do you guys think? Do you think the senior is better or the teenager? I’d like to hear your opinions!
I recently saw a story on the news about an elderly man accidentally hitting the accelerator instead of the brake and plowing through a convenient store window front and it got me thinking…. My parents are getting up there in age and they still drive. They are still very smart, bright people but my concern was on the cars. Are those cars safe? How do we keep our parents and grandparents safer? Not because they shouldn’t be driving. They need to be able to see the speed limit they are driving, the GPS better, be comfortable etc. What kind of cars or SUV’s are better for older people to drive? I came across a story from Consumer Reports and was more than happy about the information they gave me regarding cars for older drivers. When searching for a new or used car for your older parents or family maybe these tips will help you.
Here’s the story from Consumer Reports for you to read:
Recent data on how the US population will “age” significantly in the next 40 years or so and how to keep that aging population driving safely makes certain aspects of any new vehicle purchase for this older age group particularly important.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) offers a resource that outlines smart features for mature drivers. Specifically this resource addresses a number of afflictions that may impact an older person’s driving ability and comfort behind the wheel, and outlines vehicle features that may best address those afflictions.
Not surprisingly, items such as ease-of-access, larger displays and controls and good visibility that AAA suggests shoppers look for in a safe and comfortable car for an older driver are also ones that we focus on in our suggested vehicles for that same age group.
The list below summarizes features to look for when buying a new vehicle for an older driver, as well as specific suggestions of vehicles that meet those criteria. We strongly urge any older drivers looking for a new vehicle, or who may be facing some “aging issues” within the life of their next vehicle to take a look.
Lets face it, many of us aren’t that far away. Here are some features to look for:
Stability control–Stability control is a must for anyone and will be standard equipment for all vehicles starting in the 2012 model year.
A full set of airbags – choose a car with side and curtain airbags in addition to front airbags. The best ones have control systems that deploy airbags with the appropriate force depending on the size of the passenger and position of the front seat. Also look for:
Good visibility–make sure to check the rear and sideward visibility in addition to visibility forward. Also consider views from both inside and outside mirrors.
Power seats–to make adjustments for comfort and safety. Consider seat comfort items such as lumbar support and seat heaters as well.
Easy access–look for seat heights that don’t require too much bending, climbing or ducking and lower sill heights (lower step over).
Adjustable pedals or a steering wheel that both tilts and telescopes–either can help maintain a comfortable driving position while keeping a safe distance from the wheel mounted front airbag.
Easy to see and read controls–look for controls that are mounted closer to eye level and have larger knobs and buttons and easy-to-read contrasting displays.
Visor coverage or visor extensions–these can help eliminate glare particularly for those with vision issues.
The following vehicles are Consumer Reports recommended, meaning they perform well in our more than 50 tests, have average or better reliability, and have performed well in government and/or insurance industry crash tests.
What do you guys think? How important is it to know that your parents or grandparents are as safe as they can be and in a car that has an impeccable crash test rating. Better yet is this the vehicle you want you teenagers driving as well? Just food for thought.
There are things that you can do on your own to improve your own safety when you’re driving. The streets of Cincinnati are busy and you can be proactive in keeping you and your family safe. Here are a few tips.
Click it or ticket. Seriously put your seat belt on. Regardless of if you are in the backseat or front seat you should always where your seat belt. Approximately 35,000 people die in motor vehicle crashes each year. About 50 percent (17,000) of these people could have been saved if they were wearing their safety belts.
Say NO to drinking and driving. Try getting a designated driver or calling a cab. The last thing you would want to do is hurt yourself, your passengers or someone else on the road. Drinking and driving is no good for anyone. Ever.
Ignore those distractions. Driving while distracted is a factor in 25 percent of police reported crashes. Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent. Put your hands on the wheel and put down the cell phone, makeup, food, CD’s etc.
Go the speed limit. You should always try to drive at the posted speed limit in optimum driving conditions and slow down when weather conditions such as fog, wind, rain, snow, or ice can make driving dangerous.
Know your car. What would you do if your car suddenly accelerated on it’s own? Would you know what to do? You should be prepared for anything and be able to react quickly and correctly whether it be driving on black ice or loss of brakes.
Watch out for your tires. In order to avoid blowouts on the highway you should keep your tires properly inflated. If your tires are balding that is dangerous too and you should get new tires.
Be careful out there. We care about your safety! If you have any other tips you’d like to share let me know.
As your children hit the streets of Cincinnati and surrounding areas you are most assuredly thinking, I hope they are safe. Most new drivers will listen to their parents about driving safely. But every little bit helps. Teenagers think they are invincible and they need to realize that they have to be safe, proactive, and focused when behind the wheel of a car. If you’re a way to talk about driving safe with your kids here is a video that was done by students for students and should help stimulate some conversation with your children. It’s short, clear and focuses on the basics.
It’s a simple message but right to the point. What you’ve done to stimulate conversation with your kids about driving safely? I’d like to hear from you.
No matter what kind of car you drive any and every car or truck can have issues with acceleration. Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Acura, GM, you name it. Would you know what to do if your car or truck accelerated out of control? In doing some research we found a very good video from Consumer Reports that will give you all of the necessary tools on what to do if this were to happen. It’s probably a good video to show your teen drivers as well.
Just remember don’t slam on the brakes but instead try pumping the brakes firmly. Or Put the car into neutral and pump the brakes firmly. Steer to a safe location and try your best to come to a complete stop and finally turn the ignition off and take the keys out. Do not attempt to drive this vehicle again until you find the source of the problem and it is fixed.
The Superior Automotive Group and Mike Albert Direct have been serving Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky since 1928. We care about you, your cars, your safety, and our community.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask and any suggestions are always welcome at SuperiorAutomotiveGroup@gmail.com
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Now this is one new show I am going to have to watch! There’s a new TV show on TLC which is going to highlight all of the bad drivers caught on camera. Wonder if they got me running my car into one of those yellows poles at McDonalds or the time I hit the curb and popped the two tires on the drivers side of my car! I sure hope not! Those were innocent accidents of course! 
