Smart Motorist

Some road rage incidents don't occur on a roadway. You are just as likely to encounter an aggressive driver while parking your vehicle, especially in suburban parking lots. Parking lot confrontations can result in violence.

If your teenager has just gotten a driver's license, chances are he or she is looking forward to driving to school this fall. It may be hard to imagine handing them keys to your brand new car, but that may be the smartest vehicle to choose.

Cosmetic repair parts (often called crash parts) include fenders, door skins, bumper covers, and the like. In the continuing debate about whether such parts from aftermarket suppliers are as good as cosmetic parts from original-equipment manufacturers, the issue of safety keeps cropping up.

Safety should be your most important consideration when looking for a new or used motor vehicle. I strongly recommend that you visit Crashtest.com early in the car-buying process, to get the safety rating for the cars you are considering. Every year they publish crash-test results from the Federal Government's New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). 

There are several things that are good to do and many things are NOT so good to do if you are stopped by an officer.

One of the most frequent topics that I have been asked about concerns being pulled over in your car. As a traffic officer for the past several years, I can tell you that there are several things that are good to do and many things are NOT so good to do if you are stopped by an officer.

New drivers lack the ability to divide their attention between control and safety functions. Teen-age drivers in particular, perceive safety as being in direct conflict with their ultimate goal - mobility. Their choice of enhanced mobility, derived from driving at greater speed or in a more daring style, is made more attractive when the risks of detection by the police or involvement in a collision appear small. New drivers have a tendency to underestimate reaction time and braking distance.

The dictionary defines accident as "an unexpected and undesirable event, a mishap unforeseen and without apparent cause." Strictly speaking, most accidents are not accidents at all: they are collisions that could and should have been avoided. So, what causes them, and how can you avoid them?

When children are properly restrained in a child safety seat, booster seat or safety belt, as appropriate for their age, their chance of being killed or seriously injured when in a car crash is greatly reduced. Strong safety belt and child occupant restraint laws - with no "gaps" that leave some children uncovered - are the most effective way to increase child passenger restraint use and reduce traffic deaths and injuries to children. 

Vehicle seats and seat belts are built for the comfort of adults, not to secure a child car seat correctly. Some seat belts need a different buckle or a special locking clip to safely secure a child car seat. Some child car seats cannot be used safely in certain seating positions. Air bags can cause serious injury or death to infants in REAR-FACING child car seats.

Good Weather - During daylight with good, dry roads and low traffic volume, you can ensure you're a safe distance from the car ahead of you by following the "three-second rule." The distance changes at different speeds. To determine the right following distance, first select a fixed object on the road ahead such as a sign, tree or overpass.

In the next 20 years the number of elderly drivers (persons 70 & over) is predicted to triple in the United States. As age increases, older drivers generally become more conservative on the road. Many mature drivers modify their driving habits (for instance to avoid busy highways or night-time driving) to match their declining capabilities. However, statistics show that older drivers are more likely than younger ones to be involved in multi-vehicle crashes, particularly at intersections.

I live in Seattle and my two daily commutes last about 45 minutes. (That's when I'm lucky; sometimes it's more like two hours each.) This has given me an immense amount of time for watching the interesting patterns in the cars. Boredom led me to fantasize about the traffic being like a flowing liquid, with cars acting as giant water molecules. Over many months I slowly realized that this was not just a fantasy. Why had I never noticed all the "traffic fluid dynamics" out there? Once my brain became sensitized to it, I started seeing quite a variety of interesting things occurring. Eventually I started using my car to poke at the flowing traffic.

Admittedly, parents find this a common problem because seat belts are specifically designed for adults and the shoulder part could actually do more harm than good were it wrapped around the child's neck on impact. The alternative, of course, is properly installed and approved child's car seat. 

A simple error on a clear day, by a novice driver on a straight stretch of road, cost two men their lives and left three young boys fatherless. Every day in America good drivers, obeying speed limits and the rules of the road, are nonetheless injured or killed by careless, drunk, inexperienced or reckless drivers.