accident

LAS VEGAS -- A cell phone battery spontaneously caught fire today, burned through a Defcon attendee's back pants pocket, and fell on the floor, creating burn spots on a carpet and leaving a burn-hole in the attendee's chair.

The man, who asked not to be identified, was not harmed but his trousers were ruined. He told CNET that he was sitting in a mid-day session at Defcon when he started to smell something burning and felt some heat underneath him on his seat. He stood up to find that his back left pocket was on fire.

"I … Read more

In Tom Clancy's sensationalist novel "Debt of Honor," a disgruntled pilot decides to avenge his lost honor by crashing a fuel-laden 747 directly into the U.S. Capitol, causing the giant building to explode and collapse. The scope of that fictional disaster was hard to fathom prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

But even before 9/11, anyone who had been in Lakehurst, N.J., on May 6, 1937, would have had a pretty good sense of just how big an explosion Clancy had in mind. Because that day, the Hindenburg, a German zeppelin … Read more

A certain safety feature in cars could cut the number of fatalities in single-vehicle accidents by almost half and by 20 percent in multi-car crashes, studies have shown.

Car crashes cost $300 billion a year, according to a recent AAA study, and the human cost is even greater. Consumer Reports says a technology known as electronic stability control can dramatically lower the number of deaths in car accidents. Not all vehicles are equipped with the safety feature; in the past, it was often offered as an upgrade. But starting with the 2012 model year, all cars must come with ESC. … Read more

Remember when exchanging information at the scene of an accident on the side of a road involved a pen and paper with barely legible names and phone numbers? Well now there's an app for that.

Bisnar Chase, a personal injury law firm in Newport Beach, Calif., released its Car Accident SideKick app for iPhone, which will help drivers figure out what to do and whom to contact in the event of an automobile accident.

In addition to an accident checklist, the free application can connect the mobile phone owner to 911 emergency responders or direct them to nearby hospitals. … Read more

Toyota and Microsoft head for the clouds, 2010 the safest year ever on U.S. roads--the technologies behind that, what Lexus has up its green sleeve in New York, and we hit the road in the 2011 Chevy Volt.

• 2011 Chevy Volt review and video

• Microsoft and Toyota team on telematics

• New way to monitor where all the bad accidents are

• Largest automotive lithium ion battery plant completed

• CNET's LOLCars gallery!

Are you the proud owner of a new iPad 2? Let's talk warranty.

Apple backs the tablet for a year, of course, and for $79 you can add an AppleCare Protection Plan that extends the coverage to two years.

However, neither policy covers the most likely scenario: accidental damage. I'm talking dropping the iPad in the bathtub, rolling over it with the car (don't laugh--it happens), getting sand in the dock connector, spilling your coffee on it, and so on.

Enter SquareTrade, which offers an extended warranty that includes "accidental damage from handling" (or ADH). … Read more

For an unlucky few, a severe accident will indeed be a learning experience. And the Audi Accident Research Unit puts these lessons to good use.

Audi's team of researchers recreates and deconstructs accident events, taking more than 400 photographs of the vehicle and logging approximately 1,300 technical details in its database to improve safety systems. The carmaker has formed a partnership with the AO Foundation, and Audi's accident database will now be available to the organization's global association of orthopedic surgeons.

The partnership will be a new link in the accident research chain. A case isn'… Read more

Over this past weekend, Denny Hamlin managed to upstage Nascar golden boy Jimmie Johnson at the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway as part of the current Nascar Sprint Cup chase series. Yeah, Hamlin's probably not going to win the championship this year (my prediction is Mr. Johnny Obvious aka Jimmie Johnson--look at the points advantage!), but still it's a career-highlight victory that stakes his claim as one of Nascar's stars. But while most drivers have their moments of brilliance, they usually also have at least a few moments in their career they'd rather forget … Read more

Jimmie Johnson's victory at the Autism Speaks 400 wasn't the only big news coming from the racing world two weekends ago. The FIA Formula One World Championship held its annual Hungarian Grand Prix that same weekend, and while Lewis Hamilton picked up his first win of the 2009 season at this race, perhaps the biggest news concerned the horrific accident that befell Brazilian F1 driver Felipe Massa on July 25 while attempting to qualify for this championship race.

I was only able to locate one web video of the accident, and while it isn't of the highest … Read more