Safety

No good deed goes unpunished, as they say. A man who tried to warn others of a speed trap by flashing his vehicle's headlights at motorists was ticketed by police. But a Florida judge ruled this week that flashing headlights is free speech protected by the First Amendment, according to an article in the Orlando Sentinel.

Ryan Kintner was ticketed last year for warning motorists of a speed trap waiting for them down the road. The Lake Mary, Fla., resident was at home when he noticed a police officer with a radar gun near his house, and decided to … Read more

A New Jersey judge ruled today that a person sending a text message cannot be held liable for an ensuing car accident caused when the recipient replied to it, a CBS New York article reported.

Shannon Colonna was recently named in a lawsuit brought by two motorcyclists injured in a distracted-driving accident in 2009. David and Linda Kubert each lost part of their left legs when a truck driven by Kyle Best struck their motorcycle. Best pleaded guilty to using a handheld cell phone while driving, careless driving, and failure to maintain a lane, and was sentenced to $775 in … Read more

Until supposedly safer autonomous vehicles become the norm, it's still up to the drivers to prevent car crashes. However, a few thousand drivers in Michigan will be getting a little electronic assist in staying out of harm's way.

The University of Michigan is conducting a pilot program to test a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications device that could help drivers avoid accidents, reported AnnArbor.com. This technology could prevent up to 81 percent of all vehicle crashes, according to the Department of Transportation (DOT). The school's Transportation and Research Institute is seeking 3,000 drivers in the Ann Arbor, … Read more

California is not known as a carmaking state, but every carmaker is here. And few have been in Silicon Valley longer than Volkswagen Group with its Electronics Research Lab. There they try to crack the code on loading cars up with social media, connected navigation, portable integration, and more without distracting you to death.

I spent a day with wide-ranging access to the VW lab, in conversation with its director, Peter Oel. I came away with the impression that VW, like the rest of the industry, feels the tech cat is out of the bag and we aren't going back to a day when our cars are digital ghettos. That's also because carmakers know that high-touch technology is a key way they'll clobber their competitors, but they also keep their eye on the rear view as the government makes more and more noises that sound like distraction regulation. … Read more

The first time you get into a hybrid car, it can be quite eerie.

Not merely because of the peculiar sanctimoniousness of its owner, but because when it comes to a halt, there seems to be no engine sound. At first, you think it's stalled. Then you realize that cannot be. So your innards have to train themselves for this odd sensation.

However, it seems conclusive now that this little lamb's silence is proving to be somewhat injurious.

As a very fine analysis in Slate tells me, at speeds under 35 mph, hybrids and electric cars are 37 … Read more

Two victims seriously injured in a distracted driving accident are suing not only the man looking at his mobile phone when he should have been driving, but also the person sending him text messages. A New Jersey judge will rule later this month if a text message sender can be held liable for a distracted driving accident, according to an article in the Daily Record.

In 2009, David and Linda Kubert were struck head-on by a truck as they rode their motorcycle. The driver of the truck, Kyle Best, was texting back and forth with Shannon Colonna when the vehicle … Read more

Fisker Automotive received worrying news last week when a Karma sedan burned in a house fire in Texas. The cause is still being investigated, according to the company.

The fire started shortly after a new Karma owner parked the car in a garage, according to a report in Autoweek. A fire investigator told Autoweek that the Karma, which was not plugged in, was the origin of the fire, but the cause was not known.

Fisker released a statement saying that the electric car's battery pack was intact and "does not appear to be a contributing factor in this … Read more

SEEFELD, Austria--At the Audi Winter Driving Experience, the first thing I need to do when I slide into the driver's seat is forget everything I've ever learned about driving in the snow.

I'm not at your typical winter-driving school where you learn how to stop slides. Not here. Opposite lock in an $80,000 luxury sedan while kicking up plumes of snow is taught and encouraged. Oversteer and understeer -- the moves that usually send you careening into a snowbank -- are met with an approving nod, a round of applause from my classmates, and the occasional … Read more

Cameras at intersections may curb red light runners, but detractors like to argue that any offset in traffic violations is met with an increase in rear-end accidents. Not so, says a television station that debunked a couple of red light camera myths.

Drivers running red lights caused 762 deaths in 2008, and an estimated 165,000 people are injured annually by red light crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). To combat these sometimes deadly accidents, many cities install traffic light cameras in key intersections that capture the offenders' license plates, and … Read more