Automobile News

Car accidents have always been a big threat for high speed vehicle drivers. If people drive properly then approximately 55,000 accidents can be avoided in UK every year. According to a survey, 27 per cent of all crashes in the UK happen when somebody is making a work-related journey and this is because the drivers are not skilled enough to handle the cars practically at high speed.

Mercedes has now decided to train such drivers in order to avoid car crashes. The company has launched a dedicated course for organizations called ‘Driving for Business Programme’ under which the companies can send their employees to professional driving training. The ‘Driving for Business Programme’ will expose the trainees to a real life simulation that features roads and other settings hard enough to train the drivers rigorously. Of course the simulation will be much more serious and realistic than your average driving game like Gran Turismo 5. Drivers will be trained for the wet roads, skidding, braking at speed, steering control, cornering and taking evasive action behind the wheel. Apart from this practical exposure, theoretical seminars on road safety and risk assessment will also be conducted.

Mercedes will train the drivers in extreme road and weather conditions too. This will include the training on icy roads as such situation is particularly relevant during the cold weather.

Tags for this article: accident, benz, mercedes

One argument against smaller, more fuel efficient cars has always been that they are unsafe. The perception is generally the bigger the car, the safer it is. In fact this has often been used as a justification to opt for large sedans and even four by fours or jeeps. However, the results of a new study might put this belief to rest, and, given out of control petrol prices, give people few reasons for not driving a tiny car.

The study occurred in New Zealand, and bases its results on analysis of over 3 million crashes that took place in both Australia and New Zealand between 1986 and 2006. Large cars and four by fours actually often fared worse in crashes than far smaller cars in some instances.

However, many parts of the report are problematic and clearly the claim that small cars are safer than larger cars cannot be made. For starters, much of the information in the study comes from vehicles that were made before the 1990s when many safety measures were installed, and large cars were dangerous because of factors other than their size; such as a lack of airbags, or seatbelt pre-tensioners. Used cars made before 1990 fared substantially worse and could skew the results of the study. Clearly more research needs to be done, but it is still interesting to see a study challenging a commonly held notion that bigger cars are naturally safer.

Ever get in a car accident and have people claim you were at fault, or even file charges and seek damages against you? This is obviously a bad situation to be in, and often it is difficult to prove one’s innocence, as it is just your word against the other person’s. Of course, if you happened to have an integrated car camera in your vehicle capturing the whole incident on video, then you would have something to bring to court in your defence. Introducing the Car Camera Voyager Pro, which is an in-car camera designed specifically for recording accidents, their aftermath, and even exact locations using an integrated GPS.

Putting it a step above other car cameras, the Voyager Pro manages to record the exact geographic location, time and date of any accident. The device works using G-sensor technology which automatically turns the camera on 10 seconds before any impact, and switches it off 30 seconds after the initial incident. We are naturally sceptical how the device might manage to “sense” an impact 10 seconds before it happens, and we also wonder how hard the car needs to hit something in order to activate the camera in the first place. However, these doubts can always be solved by simply leaving the camera on the entire time, or at least when driving through accident prone areas. Other clever uses for the camera include leaving it on when the car is parked to catch car thieves, or bad drivers who bump and scratch your car.