January 11th, 2007 by admin
How Keeping Your Car Healthy Can Save Gas
According to the US Department of Energy, one of the ways you can save gas – and money when gas prices are high – is to keep your car in tip top shape.
This involves four main tips.
- Use the right grade of Motor Oil. This can improve mileage by 1 – 2%.
- Check and replace your air filters. It can protect your engine as well, and yield an amazing 10% improvement.
- For another potential 40% difference, get your car tuned up regularly, though on average it will be closer to 4%.
- Keep your tires properly inflated for an average improvement of around 3%.
Of course, these differences would be most likely to result from a correction of a problem. In other words, if you’re already keeping your tire pressure right, more frequent checks will only make a marginal difference.
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January 10th, 2007 by admin
Using fuel more efficiently can help prevent breakdowns that result from running out of gas.
As awareness of the many issues of petroleum-powered vehicles become more widespread sources of controversy, many US motorists have become more curious about how to use less gas when driving. Reasons range from environmental to political concerns.
The United States Department of Energy gives a special series of tips on how to improve your fuel efficiency. In the next few articles, we’ll be covering their advice on the four main methods of reducing gas expenditure. Those four methods are:
- Keeping Your Car Healthy
- Better Trip planning
- Choosing to Drive More Efficiently, and,
- Choosing a More Efficient Car
Each way to reduce the amount of fuel you use comes with its own list of best practices, which we’ll detail in the next few articles.
Whether it is the price, environmental effects or possible political concerns of gas use that makes this an area of interest, there can also be safety concerns. We often forget that getting the best mileage out of your car can also prevent us from accidentally running out of fuel as well.
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January 7th, 2007 by admin
Part three of a series about airbags and airbag safety
This is the conclusion of a series on air bags and air bag safety, facts ten through fifteen.
15 Facts About Airbags, Part Three
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommends drivers sit with at least 10 inches between the center of their breastbone and the center of the steering wheel – this minizmizes the risk of injury from an inflated air bag.
- A rear-facing infant car seat should never be placed in the front seat of a vehicle that has front air bags – it could cause serious, even fatal injuries to the infant.
- Air bag injuries are rare, and nearly all air bag related deaths have involved improper seat belt use, or complete lack of seat belt use.
- Air bags, used properly, reduce the probability of head injury in an accident by over 90 percent.
- All of these tips apply to front air bags, as side air bags are not regulated by the NHTSA.
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January 4th, 2007 by admin
Part two of a series about airbags and airbag safety
This is a continuation of a series on air bags and air bag safety, facts five through ten of fifteen.
15 Facts About Airbags, Part Two
- Air bag sensors measure deceleration. Therefore, damage to a vehicle or vehicle speed is not a correct indicator of whether or not an air bag should deploy.
- Sometimes an air bag can deploy because the car has struck an object protruding upwards from the road level.
- Most airbags deploy in case of a fire that reaches above 300 – 400 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent the explosion of the inflator unit.
- After an air bag deploys, it immediately starts to deflat, as the fabric the bag is made of has built-in ventilation that expels gas.
- Dust in the form of cornstarch or talcum powder may be present when an air bag inflates. It’s normally a minor irritant, but it can trigger an asthma attack for asthma sufferers if they remain in the vehicle with no ventilation after the bag has deployed.
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January 3rd, 2007 by admin
Part one of a series about airbags and airbag safety
When most of us think of air bags, it isn’t with a great deal of curiousity. We know the basics of what they are, and what they do, and they’re just another part of modern life.
There are many facts that the average motorist doesn’t know about air bags and air bag safety that may change the way we drive, or even improve our chances of surviving a potentially fatal accident.
Over the next few articles, we’ll be discussing some of that information. These facts are gathered from a presentation by the National Highway Safety Administration, where you can get more facts about airbag safety.
15 Facts About Airbags, Part One
- All new passenger cars, light trucks and vans are equipped with frontal air bags for both the driver and the front-seat passenger.
- Airbags are meant as supplemental restraint systems – they work in conjunction with seat belts, so you should have your seat belts on at all times.
- Some vehicles that don’t have rear seats come with an on/off button for air bags.
- T he air bag system consists of three basic parts-an air bag module, crash sensors and a diagnostic unit.
- At full inflation, the driver side air bag is about the size of a large beach ball, but the passenger side air bag may be quite a bit larger, to compensate for the additional space between the dashboard and the person being restrained.
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January 2nd, 2007 by admin
Seat belt and passenger safety tips for your younger passengers.
The last article on seat belt and passenger safety focused on general tips. In this installment, we’ll focus on tips for younger passengers, using the guidelines of the National Safety Council and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
- In addition to riding in the back seat, children who stand less than four feet, nine inches are also safest in a booster seat.
- Infants under the age of one, who weigh approximately 20 pounds or less should be in a rear facing safety seat.
- Once the child is over 40 pounds, they may no longer need a safety seat, but they should still be in a booster seat as well as safety belts until they are over about 80 pounds.
- A shoulder belt should never go across a child’s back or under their arms.
There are two main reasons children should sit in the rear of a car. The first reasons is that the back seat is typically the safest location in the car in the event of a traffic mishap. The second reason is that air bags deploy so quickly and with such force as to be a safety concern to children sitting in the front of a car.
If you have more questions about passenger safety, particularly for children, you can call the Department of Transportation Auto Safety Hotline at 1-888-DASH-2-DOT.
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December 28th, 2006 by admin
Seat belt and passenger safety tips for motorists and passengers of all ages.
As a motorist, part of your job is to keep your passengers safe. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 60 percent of the 5,625 young adults ages 16 to 20 who were killed when riding in passenger vehicles in 2002 were not wearing safety belts.
Better education about all aspects of passenger and seat belt use could further reduce the number of fatalities related to traffic accidents.
Here are five of the top passenger safety tips and facts, with an emphasis on seat belt safety. Share these tips with people who ride with you, and keep yourself and all your passengers safe.
- Wear your seat belts even on short trips.
- The lap seat belt should be worn snugly across the upper thighs, not the stomach.
- The sholder belt belongs should be worn across the chest and not cut into the neck or shoulder.
- All children under 12 should ride in the back seat.
- Seat belt use greatly decreases ejection from a vehicle during an accident. According to the NHTSA, only 1 percent of ejections occur among people who wear seat belts, compared with 29 percent for those who were not restrained by safety belts.
December 12th, 2006 by admin
More tips for night driving safety
As we’ve discussed in the last part of the series, night diriving safety is important because traffic accidents that result in death go up at night, yet many of the incidents are preventable.
Here are some more items to consider when driving at night.
- Get your eyes checked as often as your optician suggests, at least yearly.
- Be aware of your changing need for light at night. At age 50 you may need twice as much light to drive at night as you did at age 30.
- If you must pull off the road due to an emergency, pull as far off the road as you can, and make sure you observe all safety rules for making sure you can be seen.
- On longer trips, stop constantly to stretch, eat, drink or rest. Fatigue is a leading cause of night accidents. Remember how much ground your car is covering. Dozing off or losing attention for even a moment can be the difference between havng an accident or not.
- Of course, never drink and drive.
- If your high beams are on when you’re following another vehicle, or when you see a car approach on the opposite side of the road, change to your low beams to avoid blinding them.
- If another driver doesn’t lower their high beams when approaching, you can look to the right and use the right edge of the road as a steering guide until they pass momentarily.
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December 11th, 2006 by admin
National Safety Council statistics state that traffic death rates are three times higher at night.
Did you know that your color recognition, your depth perception and your peripheral vision are all reduced when driving at night? The good news is that many night time traffic accidents can be prevented with good preparation, optimal lighting conditions and awareness of certain hazards.
- Avoid smoking when you drive. A little known fact is that nicotine and carbon dioxide affect the body in a way that hampers night vision.
- Keep all your lights cleared of dirt and debris, not just your headlights.
- Make sure you can stop within the lighted area on the road in front of you.
- Don’t be shy about turing on your headlights early. Whether it’s from a concern that other drivers see you, or that you can see other drivers, feel free to turn on your lights as early as twilight.
- Make sure your windows and mirrors are clear before you drive.
- Slow down and leave more space between you and other cars to compensate for having less visibility at night.
- Check to see if your headlights are aimed properly. Your headlights could be out of position for a number of reasons and you might never notice it if you didn’t check, and see the dramatic difference.
We’ll have more night drivinv satety tips in part two.
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December 8th, 2006 by admin
Safety tips for driving in harsh weather conditions.
If you hear that your area has a tornado watch or tornado warning, and you are already indoors, you should not drive. You will want to follow the safety guidelines for finding adequate shelter, or being safe in the shelter you have already found.
Should you be out driving already and spot a tornado, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under no circumstances should you attempt to outrun it. The tornado could quickly turn directions, and lift your vehicle into the air – with you in it.
The procedure they reccommend is to get out of your car or truck immediately and find the nearest building where you can seek shelter. In the case that you cannot find shelter fast enough, they suggest that you lay in a ditch or any low-lying area that is away from your car. Be sure and watch for the potential for flooding as well.
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