Back Seat Safety

A new study shows that back seat passengers have a higher risk of injury compared to front seat passengers in the occurrence of an automobile accident. These findings are surprising as previous tests had found that back seat passengers were at less risk than front seat passengers.

The cause for this unbalance seems to stem from the fact that during last quarter century a lot of emphasis has been placed on developing safety features for front seat passengers, making the gap between the safety of those in the front and the back far more pronounced. Improvements on airbags, seat belts, and driver ergonomics has helped to improve front seat passenger ratings.

This means that more attention needs to be paid on the safety of the back seats of the cars to protect both children and adults.

Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/cars-articles/back-seat-car-safety-3511848.html#ixzz13abQ2MIC

Will Your Car Be the New Smart Phone?

A week long series by CNN on smartphones and their effects on society makes us ask ourselves, will your car become your next smartphone?

The notion really makes sense looking at new technology evolving for automobiles. Electronic companies are developing ways to enable talking and texting through the dashboard of your car. Eventually you will be able to surf the web and update facebook through voice commands while driving. Talk about multi-tasking!

Now the big question is whether or not this technology will make for safer roadways. On the one hand, this may reduce drivers from using their actual mobile phone while driving. Usage of phones while driving provides many dangers including not having both hands on the wheel. On the other hand, will people realistically embrace the new hands-free technology? Some may argue that even hand-free surfing the web and texting while driving is a huge distraction.

For more information, check out http://11thr.com/blog/?p=1332.

Get the Correct Tire Fitting for Safety Purposes

Avoid tire failure or poor handling performance by selecting the proper tires for your vehicle. Check your owner's manual or consult a tire technician specialist for size, weight limits and inflation rate before buying new tires.

Considerations

Choosing the right tires for your vehicle contributes to your safety while driving. Always select tires able to carry the full weight of your car or truck. Even the best tire is not safe if overloaded and unable to respond quickly in an emergency, according to TireTrack.com. Tires too large or too small for the vehicle can affect safety and performance.

Tire Size

The tire wall has letters and numbers that signify their intended use and their size. Those designed for passenger vehicles, meaning cars, sport utility vehicles, minivans and light duty pickup trucks, are marked with a "P". The numbers indicate the diameter. When fitting a new tire to a rim, be sure the wheel diameter number and tire number match.

Correct Inflation

Of equal importance is correct inflation. Check your tires to ensure the number identified by the psi--pounds per square inch--number on the tire wall matches the number on the gauge you use. Over-inflated or under-inflated tires are not safe. Too much pressure in a tire may cause it to explode. Never inflate to pressure greater than 45 psi, as cautioned by CDX Online eTextbook.

The U.S. Department of Transportation Toughens Safety Ratings for Vehicles

The U.S. Department of Transportation Tuesday unveiled a more rigorous safety-ratings system for vehicles, one that will use “female” crash dummies in tests, as well as evaluate side-pole crashing and crash-prevention technologies like electronic stability control (ESC).

The updated system will make it much harder for automakers to achieve the “Five-Star” ratings that they have in the past, but this system does seem like it will be more meaningful and accurate for consumers, especially women.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Administrator David Strickland unveiled the “enhanced Five-Star Safety Ratings System” for new vehicles and released the safety ratings for the first model year 2011 vehicles tested under the program.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/PR/NHTSA-13-10

Safety officials stressed that for the first time, the ratings system will use female crash test dummies to simulate crash scenarios involving women, not just men. The new system will also simulate hitting a pole on the driver’s side.

“More stars equal safer cars,” LaHood said in a press release. “With our upgraded Five-Star Safety Ratings System, we’re raising the bar on safety. Through new tests, better crash data, and higher standards, we are making the safety ratings tougher and more meaningful for consumers.”

Vehicle safety ratings range from one to five stars, with one star being the lowest and five stars the highest.

“Because so many vehicles had reached the highest rating under the old rating criteria, and because the new standards are much more rigorous, not all previously rated five-star vehicles will remain at five stars,” the transportation department bluntly said in its press release.

The new Five-Star Safety Ratings System evaluates the safety of passenger cars, SUVs, vans and pickup trucks in three broad areas — frontal crash, side crash and rollover resistance.

For model year 2011, NHTSA will rate 24 passenger cars, 20 sport utility vehicles, two vans and nine pickups under the new ratings system.

“We want consumers to embrace these new safety technologies as a way to make vehicles safer,” NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said in the press release. “We believe electronic stability control, lane departure warning, and forward collision warning offer significant safety benefits and consumers should consider them when buying a new car.”

One biggest changes to the ratings program is the addition of an Overall Vehicle Score for each vehicle tested.

“The Overall Vehicle Score combines the results of a frontal crash test, side crash tests and rollover resistance tests and compares those results to the average risk of injury and potential for vehicle rollover of other vehicles,” the transportation department press release said.

NHTSA recommends consumers consider vehicles with crash avoidance technologies that meet the five-Star Safety Ratings minimum performance tests, not only ESC but also forward collision warning (FCW) and lane departure warning (LDW).

All of the 2011 model year vehicles currently rated have ESC as standard, except for the Nissan Versa, in which it is optional.