More people are talking about Ford’s new Curve Control Safety System, planned for release in 2011.

Last week CarGurus.com was worried about the potential safety risk of this system, designed to adjust the speed at which drivers take curves. Ford hopes this will help to eliminate some 50,000 mishaps every year. T Griffith at Car Gurus is worried that the system will misinterpret the driver’s intentions and intervene when it should have left well enough alone. A valid worry: read his article to get the full picture.

Today, Automoblog has offered its opinion. Instead of talking about the risk, they seem to think this is most
beneficial to people who maybe shouldn’t be driving in the first place. Check out their candid and rather funny comments here. If nothing else, it’s a great example of typing while muttering under your breath.

The Car Talk guys have a discussion going on their Website, asking people to contribute their best summer driving tips.

If you — like a lot of us — have any kind of road trip ahead of you, check it out. See what tips others have provided and leave a few of your own.

If, however, your plans involve more commuting than traveling, you might make better use of Automoblog’s “Trivial Traffic Travels,” good advice to make your drive to work more pleasant. Or just more tolerable.

And forget the old saying: sometimes free advice is worth more than you pay for it.

Stop signs are everywhere. Their 8-sided shape is unique among road signs and so recognizable that every driver recognizes them. Their meaning is simple: stop your car.

#7 Stop Signs

So how is it that a stop sign was a factor
in more than 23,000 car collisions in 2008?

Enough crashes to make a stop sign factor #7 on the list of Top 10 Contributing Factors in auto collisions in Texas.

The reason for this is that either drivers don’t really know what to do when they come to a stop sign. Or they know what to do, but they aren’t doing it.

KNOWING WHAT TO DO
Because we’re basically teachers at Comedy Guys Defensive Driving, let’s start with that first possible explanation and discuss exactly what to do when you pull up to a stop sign.

Come to a complete stop. Not a pause. Not a “rolling stop.” Not a slight hesitation before going about your business. Your car needs to stop moving and stay put for at least two full seconds. And if you’re so rushed that you think a two-second delay will eat away at your precious time, how much time will it cost you if you get pulled over? Or crashed into?

Stop with your bumper behind the sign or behind the line on the pavement, if there is one. That lane marks the edge of the intersection, and if you cross it before stopping, you’ve stopped with your car in the intersection, which can be dangerous to you, inconvenient to others, or both. Even if there’s a crosswalk, stop behind the line and leave the crosswalk clear for pedestrians.

Stopping behind the line sometimes means that you’re too far back to see down the cross street. To deal with this, after you’ve come to a full stop you can move slowly forward far enough to see, provided the front end of your car is not in the way of traffic.

RIGHT OF WAY
The question of who gets to go first is often a problem at stop signs. Here are the basics:

• First come, first served. The car that arrives first gets to go on first.
• If two cars arrive at the intersection at the same time and one is turning, the car that is not turning gets to go first.
• If two cars arrive together and neither is turning, whichever driver has a car to his left should let that car go first.

Remember always that drivers should not take right-of-way. The other drivers have to yield it, and it’s not really safe to keep going if the other drivers aren’t going to yield to you. Even if you’re sure that it’s your turn, make sure the way is clear before you drive on.

ACTUALLY DOING IT
We mentioned above that people may not know what to do, or that they may know and just aren’t doing it.

There’s not much we can do about that second possibility. Like Comedy Guys teaches in our defensive driving classes, the only driver you can control is yourself. And if some other driver is determined to take stupid risks and treat stop signs like inconvenient suggestions, there’s really no way to make them do otherwise. To keep yourself safe, look out for drivers like this and stay out of their way if you encounter them.

If you’re one of those drivers who take chances at stop signs — pausing without really stopping, stopping in the intersection, or ignoring them altogether — you really need to rethink your habits. Those red 8-sided signs are not just time-wasting devices put there just to inconvenience you. Like other road signs, that stop sign wouldn’t be there if there wasn’t a real need. Traffic is expected to stop there because it’s not safe to do otherwise. Respect the danger and keep yourself safe.

Changing lanes is something most of us do every day, so it’s easy to get blasé about the dangers. We’ve done it so many times that we think nothing about moving from one lane to another.

#8 Changing Lanes When Unsafe

But the dangers are very real and need to be taken seriously. If it weren’t dangerous, it wouldn’t be the 8th most common factor contributing to auto collisions, a factor involved in almost 23,000 car crashes in Texas in 2008.

Let’s look at the process from beginning to end and see how to make changing lanes safer.

FIRST, DECIDING TO CHANGE LANES
This is a bigger deal than you might realize. When behind the wheel of a car, you shouldn’t do anything without a good reason, and that includes moving from one lane of traffic to another.

So why do you want to change lanes?

If you need to get over to exit, make sure that you decide well ahead of time so that can change lanes safely. If you know your exit is coming but you don’t know exactly when, stay in or next to the exit lane so you won’t have to make a mad dash at the last second.

And don’t let yourself get surprised at the last second. Pay attention to where you are and what exits are coming up. If that means putting down the cell phone or asking your passengers to hold the conversation for a bit, do it: no conversation is worth your safety, and your passengers should understand. After all they’re only as safe as your driving.

If you’re changing lanes to pass someone, why do you want to do that? Are they really going that much slower than everyone else, or are you just being impatient?

One of the most dangerous aspects of changing lanes is when you move into a lane where traffic is going the opposite direction, such as passing someone on a two-lane road. This is where many of these lane-change collisions take place. You really need to know the road ahead is clear for a safe enough distance. If there’s even a small chance that you don’t have enough clear space, don’t try it.

When it comes to passing, remember what Comedy Guys teaches in our defensive driving classes: you should only try to pass someone if it is safe, legal, and necessary. Don’t take foolish risks; don’t break the law, and don’t do it unless the car you’re passing is going at least 10mph under the limit. Any less than that, and you won’t be able to pass them without breaking the speed limit yourself.

You need to know your vehicle, too. How fast can it accelerate? Can it get around that other car in plenty of time? Is it running smoothly? When you in the other lane with a truck headed toward you is definitely not the time for your engine to stall.

SECOND, SIGNALING YOUR INTENTIONS
This isn’t just for politeness, though that is important. It’s for safety. We’re safest when we know what the other drivers around us are going to do, and until we get vehicular telepathy worked out, turn signals are the best things we’ve got to work with.

And – as if we needed it – here’s another reason to not drive with a cell phone pressed to your head: with one hand on the wheel, you’ll need the other hand to work the turn signal. How many times have you been surprised by another driver who couldn’t signal because they were yacking away on their cell phone? Well, don’t be that person to someone else.

Put the signal on at least 100 feet before you change lanes. If you’re on a highway, just count the number of painted stripes on the road: four stripes and the spaces between them is safely more than 100 feet.

Here in Dallas (and probably in other big cities, too), there are many drivers who treat driving like a competitive sport. As soon as they know someone is trying to pull in front of them, their petty little egos get offended and they’re determined to shut that car out. To drivers like these, a turn signal is just an invitation to be a jerk.

But you can’t stop other drivers from being jerks, so don’t even bother. Signal your intentions anyway because it is safest for you and courteous to others. If one driver sees it and speeds up, you’re probably better off not driving in front of someone like that anyway. And for every ego-case who deliberately cuts you off, there’s another generous driver who’ll let you in.

(By the way, this is a good time to remind you to be one of the generous drivers. When you see someone signaling a lane change, give them some room and let them in. It’ll cost you maybe a second or two on your drive time and may prevent a lot of trouble for them and you if you contribute to a crash.)

THIRD, CHECKING ALL AROUND YOU

• Look forward, backward, and all around.
• Check your car’s blind spots. Don’t just glance in your side mirrors: physically turn your head for a split second.
• Check out other drivers. Are they maybe planning to pull into the same opening you want? Is anyone signaling? Does anyone look like they’re about to move without signaling?
• Check your car’s blind spots again. Seriously. They’re called “blind spots” because the danger is hard to see. It’s worth looking again.

And if you have passengers, ask them to help you look. People in the back seat can see spots you can’t and they have more freedom to take their eyes off of the road ahead than you do.

THEN
sure that changing lanes is necessary and safe, and having signaled clearly to the other cars, and having checked and re-checked that the way is clear, change lanes.

And make sure to turn your signal off, ’cause that’s just annoying.

I spent last weekend at a race event for the Texas division of National Auto Sports Association (NASA) at the Texas World Speedway outside of College Station.

NASA is an association that promotes auto racing, organizing events and providing training for amateur drivers who want to improve their skills and pit them against other drivers in direct competition.

And while I was there, I took the opportunity to ask some of the drivers a question: “With all your extra training, what one thing do you know about driving that you wish every driver on the road knew?”

Almost without exception, the drivers gave me the same answer: pay more attention to what’s going on around you.

We tell people the same thing in our classes. Because driving is such a common activity, it’s very easy for a driver to get complacent or even careless about it, but driving safely involves many more factors than most people realize and requires more concentration than it’s given by too many of us. These drivers, who are trained to go faster and get much closer to each other than the rest of us, know how important it is to focus their attention on their own driving and the conditions around them.

A bit more of that kind of attention would help to make us all safer drivers.

— Wes Williams

Beginning March 1, first-time drivers between the ages of 18 and 24 must take a six-hour driver education course before they can receive a license. This is a result of several new laws that went into effect in September 2009, and this one in particular is a response to the growing number of teenagers who avoided “driver’s ed” by waiting until they were 18 to get a license.

But with almost 20 percent of car crashes in Texas involving 18- to 24-year-old drivers, it was obvious to lawmakers that more training was needed. The law that went into effect this week has closed this loophole.

The six-hour course covers topics such as road signs, driving rules, insurance, and drunk driving. Students must pass a written test in addition to the DPS driving skills test to get a license.

This increased training is still less than what is required for those under 18, who must take a 32-hour driver education class, plus seven hours of practical training behind the wheel.

Though ComedyGuys Defensive Driving is not yet one of the schools teaching the new six-hour driver training, our curriculum and certainly our goals are the same.

Anything that makes Texas drivers safer is good for all of us.

Source: Dallas Morning News

Insurance.com – which ought to know a little something about risky drivers – recently published a list of which professions make the most dangerous drivers. The report, called The Top 10 Most Dangerous Drivers by Profession, was created by correlating the number of accident claims with the profession of the person making the claim.

But enough about methodology. Let’s see the results…

The #1 spot went to the legal profession. According to the study’s results, 44% of the judges and attorneys seeking an insurance quote reported having had a previous collision. Compare that to the two lowest ranking professions, homemakers at 24% and professional athletes at 17%.

Coming in at #2 were financial professionals.

Insurance.com VP Sam Belden offered an explanation for these results: “Professions that demand multi-tasking – being on the phone, moving fast on a tight schedule – are prone to more distractions and, from there, more accidents.”

Completing the Top 10 list were
3. government workers
4. bartenders/waiters
5. business professionals
6. dog groomers
7. marketing/advertising professionals
8. barbers/stylists
9. coaches
10. nurses

The common factor here seems to be busy people who are likely to be rushed and distracted while they’re behind the wheel.

If you’re part of one of these groups, ComedyGuys.com Defensive Driving can help: our driving safety classes can make you aware of the bad habits that make you a danger to yourself and others. And we can help make you safer even if you’re not on this list: our classes, whether live or online, include strategies for reacting to the foolish things other drivers might do.

It’s all part of our mission to make a safer driver out of everyone who takes our class.

Source: insurance.com

Amazing, huh? Winter arrived with gusto around the nation over the past couple of weeks, and large parts of Texas — the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex especially — didn’t miss out on the fun.

It seemed like the entire nation shut down at different times — and for good reason. After all, perhaps the most shrewd driver’s safety tip for surviving such storms comes courtesy of The Weather Channel: “The best advice for driving in bad winter weather is not to drive at all, if you can avoid it.”

But let’s say you can’t stop living and working every time Jack Frost hits town. Here are just a few basic tips for safely driving the snowy and icy streets. It all comes down to five (mostly common sense) rules:

1. Stay vigilant and in control. No drinking. No smoking. Drive with your lights on. Avoid cruise control. Be extra careful on overpasses and bridges (dual air currents make them freeze more easily).

But the best way to keep command over your car is to…

2. Slow down. Give yourself more room to stop, and you’ll have more time to regain control should you first lose it. You should try to triple the normal amount of space you leave between your car and anything ahead.

Slowing down should also help you…

3. Avoid slamming on the breaks. Soft braking reduces likelihood of skidding. In addition to reducing your speed, try driving in a low gear — this should help you avoid the temptation of zipping along, and let your car slow down without locking up the wheels.

But if you should happen to lose control and start to skid…

4. Don’t panic. It’ll only make things worse. Keep a good grip on the steering wheel. Let the gas pedal up, but don’t touch the brake pedal.

If it’s your rear wheels, steer in the direction you want your front wheels to go. As you begin to recover, steer slightly right and left as needed to point the car in your intended direction. If you have anti-lock brakes, apply steady pressure. If you don’t have anti-lock brakes, press the peddle firmly and hold it, but release the pressure if you feel the car getting out of control. This is safer than “pumping” the brakes like they used to tell us.

If it’s your front wheels that are skidding, put the car into neutral until you regain traction. Then calmly steer into the intended direction, and slowly accelerate away.

Still, you might need to…

5. Be prepared. If you do happen to slide into a snowbank or get stuck in deeper-than-anticipated snow, you’ll be glad to have a few basic supplies with you. Keep an extra blanket in the car along with some bottled water and snacks just in case you need to wait for help. Kitty litter, sand, gravel and salt can all allow you to lay down some traction, ease your way out (don’t spin the wheels — you’ll only dig in deeper), and drive away normally.

And if you so happen to get into an car accident and worry that your insurance rates will go up, if your insurance company gives a discount for taking a defensive driving course , our course will qualify. Contact your insurance company to learn whether it gives this discount or not.