People who knew Serena Sutton-Smith said she had a history of erratic behavior. The 54 year-old bartender emerged from a side road without stopping, nearly causing an accident with Paula Small. Small then pulled over to speak with Sutton-Smith and while Small was getting out of her car, Sutton-Smith rammed her Vauxhall Nova into Small’s Fiat Punto and then kept her foot on the accelerator.
Who’s more dangerous? This guy in the cross-over SUV or Alex and Jon Goodrich on their ‘05 recon run?
And you thought the nationwide surveillance story was bad news? The National Motorists Assoc. just posted this story about tests being carried out in the UK involving satellites being used as a speed-limiting device. Currently, three types of systems are being evaluated: an advisory mode that informs or reminds the motorist of the speed limit, another version that would apply the brakes or limit fuel, but that can be overidden and, lastly, a system that would take over complete control and not allow for driver over-ride. Thankfully, it would be a voluntary system, but, according the Telegraph UK, 54% of those asked said they’d opt for some type of system.
Photos: space.gc.ca/peterwu-teampolizei
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"Quit building cars that can exceed the speed limit" is Op-Ed contributor, Kent Sepkowitz’s solution for decreasing fatalities. He doesn’t mention anything about improving driver skill or making the tests to get a license any more difficult. Isn’t a bad driver in a car going below the speed limit more dangerous than a good driver exceeding the limit? Speed kills when the driver is in over his head, when he doesn’t know his limits or the car’s limits. Those two skills can be taught.
Muskego, Wisconsin, Sept. 6 -Senior Alex Roy led the Warriors, 1-1 in league, with 106 yards rushing on 23 carries, while senior Paul Latour added 31 yards and a touchdown on seven carries.
Photo: Charleston.net/Alex Roy
Even though photo ticketing is illegal in Florida, Sarasota County’s board of commissioners unanimously voted in favor of an ordinance that would allow the county to seize the home of anyone who has failed to pay a red-light camera ticket, and this is before any red-light cameras have been installed. The lien would be placed on the vehicle’s registered owner, regardless if the owner was driving the during the accussed infraction. And if they don’t own a home, then other personal property would be seized. Not draconian at all.
Photo: Dawnhousemovers.com
Pirelli plans to introduce two tires in 2010 with computer chips either glued to the inner liner (Cyber Lean) or embedded into the carcass (Cyber Tyre). The simpler Cyber Lean will gather data such as pressure, temperature and average load. Data can then be sent to the car’s on-board computer to inform the driver. The chip will be powered by the mechanical vibrations from the tire as it turns, perhaps like a self-winding watch. The Cyber Tyre will feature a chip with a triaxial acclerometer and will be able to give data actual on potential friction coefficients, the force of contact and load. Pirelli engineers are trying to integrate this data with a car’s safety systems such as traction, ABS and stability control to help "correct wrong behaviour in advance."
According to the Transportation Research Institute at the Univ. of Michigan, high gas prices have helped reduced the number of fatalities to their lowest levels since 1961. The study’s author, Michael Sivak, says $3.00-plus per gallon gas has caused a tipping point not only in how much they drive but also where, when and how they drive. Accoring to the AP story, if the pattern continues it could lead to "an unheard of improvement" in motor vehicle fatality statistics. Based on data from three government agencies, Sivak predicts predicts 2008 will drop below 37,000 deaths.
Source: MSNBC.com
Photo: Streetsblog
I’ve left New York. What started as a ten-day trip to hammer out some business with Alex turned into five weeks of sleeping on his blue velour sectional, plenty of brainstorming, a ton of new friends and adventures the wooly world of startups that I couldn’t conceive of when I boarded that eastbound redeye in Sacramento over 4th of July weekend. But come to an end it has. We’re off to Monterey in 144B. We’ve enlisted the talents of Autoblog’s resident Northern California boy, Damon Lavrinc, to handle additional driving duties. We’re also attempting to warp the poor man’s brain. We’ve never attempted a driveplan that involved meeting an airline flight before, but that’s exactly what we’ll be attempting this time when we pick up Liz Moses.
She claims that she’ll bring some much-needed sense to the proceedings, but we’re a bit curious as to how much sense anyone who hitches a ride in a fake German police car crewed by a bald man, a bearded man and a blogging man could possibly have. Nevertheless, we intend to make our trek a memorable one. We’ll be broadcasting live video from Seero, as well as putting together one of our signature maps. We’ll be ruminating on the nature of driving in today’s America, passing through hamlets large and small as we travel the entire length of Interstate 80 — from the George Washington Bridge in New York to the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, then tooling down 101 through Silicon Valley and south to Steinbeck Country — where we’ll take in the goings on during what’s internationally recognized as the most fantastic collection of automotive events in one weekend. If you call yourself a car guy and haven’t made it to Monterey, mark your calendars. And once you experience it, you’ll want to come back every year.
We’ll see you on the shores of the Pacific. Meanwhile, consider 80 in 40: NY/SF a go.
The Newspaper reports that, at least according to Arizona’s Department of Public Safety, Redflex’s radar units have been certified for use in the U.S. and are now back on the road after being removed a few days ago. The company’s executive director, Karen Finley, said in a letter to Arizona’s DPS, that the company is willing to "vacate" any citations generated through the use of the previously unapproved radar and refund the fines. No word yet on whether the DPS wants to give any of that revenue back.
Image: Redflex
