Ok, so I find it unbearably funny, that people still don’t understand why it’s important to drive safely.  Now, understandably, there are people who can reserve the right to drive any way they choose, however, as many of our posts have covered….MOST people should think twice before getting behind the wheel.  Let alone owning and operating a motor vehicle.  So I’m browsing through various news bits when I read this:

Cellphone Curbs May Not Decrease Car Crashes…

WASHINGTON—Laws that forbid motorists from using hand-held phones or texting while driving don’t appear to result in a significant decrease in vehicle crashes, according to a new study by the Highway Loss Data Institute expected to be released Friday.

The study, expected to be released at a conference in Washington, D.C., Friday, comes amid stepped-up efforts by federal highway-safety regulators to ban texting while driving and curb other forms of driver distraction. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood earlier this week announced rules to forbid commercial truck and bus drivers from text messaging while driving. Mr. LaHood has said he would ban all texting while driving if he could…Read the rest here.

So, riddle me this….

If driving isn’t enough of a distraction and we’re going to try and disprove the fact that just about anything you do, outside of paying attention to the road poses as a distraction…how do we explain crap like this?

If anything, we should be telling people how much everything you do is a distraction and how they should pay attention to the road, that’s why we impose crazy laws…because people abuse our freedoms.

After I saw this, I went to shop for better auto insurance, and found some pretty  cheap auto insurance quotes on a site named Cheap Auto Insurance…go figure.  Put in my zip, got a listing of top providers in my location, and was happy to find that my insurer was listed already.  Since I tend to drive fast, I like to get quotes every 6 months ($$$ save that money for sweet upgrades to my Solara!)

It makes me scared that nutjobs like these are out there spouting statistics that don’t make logical sense.  Don’t drink and drive, buckle your seatbelt…and most of all….lol, make sure you’re driving legal.  The license suspension and hella fines are totally not worth it!

Popularity: 9% [?]

Because it’s only Tuesday and as Americans we find great joy in laughing at the misfortune of others, here is a little clip of what happens when two idiots in a Ford Fiesta try and navigate the black ice covered roads of an English village.

Golly, winter driving blows.

By K. Fitty Ditty

Popularity: 7% [?]

From a very young age, most children are enthralled with the concept of driving. Even though they are years away from fully experiencing what life is like behind the wheel of an automobile, most children are drawn to anything with a steering wheel and tires. Christmastime is an excellent time to satisfy your child’s hungry for peelin’ out and kickin’ up dust on the back roads of your neighborhood. When I was a kid we had big wheels:

Times have changed, however, and the modest, do-it-yourself nature of the big wheel has been replaced. Nowadays, children’s toys that represent driving are more fancy and sophisticated. Take the $25,000 Neiman Marcus Cupcake Car, for example. For what amounts to more than most Americans pay for their family car, you can choose the toppings of your little motorized cupcake which you sit in and can zip around town at about the same speed as a grocery store Rascal Scooter.

Let Mr. David Letterman, host of The Late Show, demonstrate:

By K. Fitty Ditty

Popularity: 9% [?]

Adam and Jamie of the Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters are not impervious to busting bland, uninteresting myths. But for the most part their program promises exciting explosions combined with an attention to detail and excellent craftsmanship. But nothing, and I repeat, nothing can match what results when a rocket sled crashes into a car at 650 mph, sandwiching it into a wall. Basically what you get is a pancake of melted steel not unlike the pancake of melted butter and syrup you had for breakfast this morning.

Watch in awe:

By K. Fitty Ditty

Popularity: 13% [?]

Science. It’s a flammable object meeting fire and going boom and it happens all the time at gas stations all over the country to those who aren’t careful. It can happen by the most commonsensical means like smoking a cigarette while pumping. Cue video below of two jack asses tryin’ to look cool at their local gas ‘n go.

Moving on to a more sympathetic victim of gas station disasters, here is a video of a poor chap falling victim to the silent striker known as static electricity.

Not all causes of gas station explosions are easily explained. Take cell phone use for example: the Petroleum Equipment Institute found that there is no concrete evidence supporting the claim that cell phone use while filling up can cause an explosion. However, there is still some speculation on whether or not cell phones can inadvertently cause a fuel station fiasco. Take the following video as an example:

So, remember kids: keep your cigarettes in your shirt sleeve, your cell phone in its holster, and your friction to yourself and you will give yourself the best chance at staying flame-free while filling up.

By K. Fitty Ditty

Popularity: 17% [?]

Anyone who drives knows that purchasing auto insurance is a gamble. We’ve all been there when trying to decide whether to go with the cheapest, bare bones liability coverage and assume that accidents and theft happen to other cars, not yours. Hell, comprehensive and collision coverage is a lot of extra money that could be spent on more fruitful endeavors like Bell’s Oberon baby kegs and taking your kids to the zoo.

However, the fact of the matter is collision damage and non-collision damage can happen to anyone. One of the most uncommon, straight out of luck types of non-collision damage is that inflicted by Mother Nature herself. Yes, with all the dozens of cars parked on your street that giant oak tree that was uprooted from the ground while you were sleeping last night decided to land squarely on the hood of your Kia.

Your car can be damaged by flood, hail, high winds, and just about anything else that Mother Nature decides to ruin your day with. Even an earthquake? You bet:

Maybe a 12-pack of Pabst and kids-get-in-free Sundays at the zoo are in your future. Yes?

By K. Fitty Ditty

Popularity: 20% [?]

When it comes to your future and career and all that jazz the phrase, “Lookin’ out for number one” gets tossed around a lot and, with a few exceptions, rightfully so. You should be concerned primarily with your moves and actions and how those moves and actions will affect your financial future. However, when it comes to almost all other aspects of life, looking out for others and treating others the way you would like to be treated is a mantra that gets forgotten about all too often.

Hit and run accidents are a travesty that occur far too often and are a glaring example of humanity at its worst. There is absolutely no excuse to strike another human being with your automobile, intentional or not, and then drive off fearing your legal repercussions and assuming them greater than the life of another human.

Perhaps it is easier to deal with (forget about) hit and runs being a common occurrence by not having to witness them first hand. However, with the emergence of surveillance cameras at intersections, the horrors of the road have become ubiquitous in news broadcasts. Take this gem for example:

Count the number of cars that drive by that motionless body in the middle of a busy street during peak hour and then count the number of bystanders and gawk from a distance and try not to shake your head at humanity.

But hey, humanity ain’t all bad. I mean, there’s habitat for humanity and pro football players giving back to their communities and charity car washes for high school cheer leading teams.

By K. Fitty Ditty

Popularity: 21% [?]

Kids these days are a wild and wacky bunch. They get their rocks off playing these newfangled video games and one of the most popular franchises, Grand Theft Auto, puts the player in the body of an ex-con. No, this ex-con does not donate his time to the local soup kitchen or help old ladies across the street. In fact, he cuts the old lady to shreds with a chainsaw then steals her Buick LeSabre.

But it’s only a video game, right? I mean, anyone with half a brain can dismiss the correlation between violent video games and such terrible tragedies as the Columbine Massacre. Regardless, grand theft auto is a very relevent crime these days that seems to grow more and more popular with each passing year. Here are some videos of some funny/boneheaded/just plain head scratching videos of auto theft taking place sans chainsawed old ladies.

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Ask any street racer and they will tell you that the feeling they get from doing what they do is not very different from the feeling a heroin addict gets from shooting up or the feeling an alcoholic gets from downing a bottle of bourbon. Adrenaline is the body’s very own drug that, when abused, can have a similar addictive effect as some of the most dangerous and criminally enforced drugs.

Street racing is illegal for several very important reasons. First off, it endangers the lives of not only its participants but also innocent bystanders and drivers; not to mention city property which is upkept by the funds provided by you and I as tax payers. If these reasons aren’t enough to deter any prospective street racer from taking to the asphalt in his or her souped up ride, the following videos might do the trick.

Drive safe on this Happy Wednesday!

By K. Fitty Ditty

Popularity: 28% [?]

As we’ve covered here in the past, car crash videos on YouTube are fun on a number of different levels. First, you get a voyeuristic view into something catastrophic that always seems to happen 10 minutes before you drive by in real life; making it just in time for a gawker-filled traffic jam. Then there is the joy in trying to figure out whether the video you are watching is real or was choreographed by two people with entirely too much time on their hands. Have fun viewing the following videos and try to enjoy the destruction at hand while also trying to decide whether or not what you are watching is acting or reality.

This collision seems all too real to be fake but the fact that the victim hops right up and starts pacing around in a fury after the crash is a bit alarming. If this were real then he would be grabbing at his lower back while dragging his left leg behind him in an attempt to further his case for the greenest most American money of all: lawsuit money.

A typical surveillance camera in a highway tunnel is bound to catch an accident or two from time to time. But the rate at which these cars (and buses and trucks) go barreling into the walls and each other is so obscene that it almost looks like the set of a blockbuster action movie with a big car chase scene involving drunks and parapalegics.

I realize that assuming this driver is a woman just because the video description describes it as such even though you cannot tell by watching the video what gender the driver is could be classified as a gross breach of journalistic ethics. However, just watch that and tell me it isn’t a woman behind the wheel.

You are a part of a impressive legion of Ferrari’s all peeling out in the street in succession on a beautiful sunny day and you’re the idiot that can’t handle a left turn with no oncoming traffic? That’s like rear ending the hearse in a funeral procession. Embarrassing.

Although this isn’t a traditional car crash it could be classified as the number one entry in the soon-to-be burgeoning trend of video taped collisions: grandma vs. car. Clearly grandma gets the win in this the inaugural battle and it could not be over a more worthy recipient than this: the sunglasses-wearing, Merecedes-Benz driving douche who gets a mouthfull of airbag. I wonder if grandma was packing bricks in that bag or maybe she was just bringing her grandson a peach cobbler. You decide.

By K. Fitty Ditty

Popularity: 55% [?]