Articles & Features

The bed of a pick-up truck is for CARGO, not people. If you care about your passengers (or your pets), do not allow them to ride in the back of your truck. You may be the best driver in the world -- but you are not always totally alert while you are driving. You never know when some other driver may cut you off or cause a collision some other way. Don't put people or animals at risk by allowing them to ride in unprotected places. ...

Many injuries are caused by loose objects that "fly" in a collision. When your vehicle suffers a sudden deceleration (as in a collision), the only things that stop with it, at least immediately, are the ones that are secured somehow. When the vehicle decelerates, a loose object temporarily keeps traveling at the speed the vehicle was originally going, until it hits something else in the slowing vehicle -- like you, maybe.
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This may come as a surprise if you're not a parent, but kids aren't born with perfectly formed and completed bodies! Their skeletal structure, for one thing, isn't fully grown and "put together" at birth. Their bones aren't as supportive and rigid as yours -- and crash forces and impacts can hurt them in different ways than they hurt us. It is therefore important kids get a little more help from their parents or caregivers in terms of how and where they sit in the vehicle.
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ABS brakes have been around awhile, but there are still drivers who have not learned what they are and how they work. I was lucky enough a few years ago to get a "guest" slot in a "tactical driving course." The course teaches officers how to maneuver, control, brake, corner, back up, etc., without losing control. Having taken the course, I think it teaches very well what cars can and cannot do. ...

Life is fragile, and although we humans are tough creatures, it doesn't take much for us to exceed the limits of what our bodies can take. How do we mitigate the dangers of an active life? For me, the answer is to consider the risks and eliminate or manage them.

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With this article, I've written 70 rules of defensive driving. I'm certain we could come up with a few more if we thought about it, but we've covered all the main concepts and more, from general to specific. ...