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While I'm not a fan of well-intentioned attempts to make cars safer that lead to drivers thinking they have worry about fewer things while driving, I am 100% for seatbelt use and have been wearing them religiously ever since the late 70's when my brother-in-law the doctor completed his ER rotation and noted that car accident victims who came into the ER that were wearing seatblets generally were treated and released while non-belt wearers wound up with an extended hospital stay. (If you don't buckle up in my car as a passenger, the vehicle isn't moving until you do) So I'm not surprised by the NHTSA data on seatbelt use in 2009 and this statement: Seat belt use has been increasing steadily since 1994, accompanied by a steady decline in the percentage of unrestrained passenger vehicle occupant fatalities during daytime But once humans get involved, even good things can take a perverted twist as the "seat belt cell phone caddy" illustrates. God forbid you should go 10 minutes without talking to someone on the phone...

Ford said on Thursday that beginning in 2010, it planned to be the first automaker to offer inflatable rear seat belts, a technology aimed at reducing injuries to children and elderly passengers in a crash. Sounds noble enough, and I'll even give them clever on the marketing side. But when is enough going to be enough on this quest toward the "100% safe car"...

It's bad when bad things happen, but it's starting to bug me when people think that everything bad can be prevented or eliminated. We're never going to get rid of stupid. Case in point, apparently they're having a problem in Texas with people driving the wrong way on the North Dallas Tollway...

To set the scene... a traffic light in a sweeping left hand bend in the road. The road coming from the right at the intersection has a right turn lane like an exit ramp, so the shoulder is very wide just past the light and there's just a solid white line marking the right edge of the lane for about 100 yards before a curb swoops in from the right  to create of normal width shoulder on the road...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday signed into law a measure banning motorists from text-messaging and e-mailing while operating a vehicle. It's sad that we've reached a point where people have to be told that they need to drive their car when they're supposed to be driving their car...

Dear Dub, Is there any way to turn of that chime that goes off if I'm not wearing my seatbelt? Most of the driving I do is just short, local trips and it really drives me crazy! Live Free or Die Yea, aren't all those safety warnings and labels annoying?..

The ultra-tiny Smart ForTwo earned top marks in side and front crash tests, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said Wednesday. Not surprisingly, the president of Smart USA thinks this is the best thing since sliced bread. "This is important news for consumers who are looking for vehicles that offer both excellent fuel economy and safety," Dave Schembri, president of Smart USA, said in a statement...

Dear Dub, Why can't they make a normal car that gets great mileage? The extra cost of hybrids negate any fuel savings so unless those prices ever get in line with regular cars that's not the solution. My 1981 Sentra got almost 50 mpg, but my 1996 Sentra only got 36...

A lot of people dismiss auto racing as just a bunch of rich boys and their toys, but a lot of important stuff, especially about safety, is learned from racing. I guess the first lesson is to try and not hit things at high speeds, but when you look at what's left of Michael McDowell's NASCAR ride after a crash in practice and realize he walked away from what used to be that car, you have to figure that one, he's very fortunate, and two, the safety precautions did a pretty good job. We never even had a car with seatbelts until our 1966 Chrysler Newport, and actually wearing those lap belts was sort of hit and miss...

Generally I find truck drivers to be among the safer and more courteous drivers on the roads. A better way of putting that might be that I can expect them to react in a consistent manner in any given situation. I'm not sure if this is the case around the world...