Articles – Page 38 – Shaun de Jager

Airbag Safety and Best Practices

In North America Airbags, aka Supplemental Restraint System (SRS), first started being installed in cars back in mid-1970’s and have been required by law since 1989. We all understand the basics – in the event of a collision, the airbags (but perhaps not all of them) will deploy to help protect the occupants. Pretty simple […]

Prescription Medicine, Drugs and Driving

This can often be a confusing issue. Whether we like it or not, at some point we’re going to end up taking some form of medication. Perhaps it’s just something from the shelf at your local pharmacy, known as Over The Counter (OTC) to treat the symptoms of the Common Cold, or perhaps it’s something […]

Check Your Nuts!

Hopefully by now everyone have switched to Winter tires but have you checked your lug nuts since they were switched? Well if you haven’t switched to Winter tires yet, you’re long overdue but it’s not too late and that’s something you should get done as soon as possible. The next thing to think about is […]

Towing an RV Travel Trailer Tip – Load Distribution

Once the weather starts getting nice, people all across North America hook up their travel trailers and head off on camping vacations. Sounds lovely. But one thing that most drivers don’t think about is how they load their trailer, which is hugely important. Time and time again, RV camping trailers sway out of control, flip […]

Ghost Car

Sometimes life is just stranger than fiction. This evening while coming home from Minden, we (fellow instructors Traci, Michelle and I) had an interesting and rather scary moment when we met a Ghost Car. Driving in Pea Soup thick fog (Traci was driving, I was in the front passenger seat, with Michelle in the back), […]

RoadAwareness had a great year and looks forward to many more

February 14th, 2010

admin

Greetings everyone!

It is with great pleasure to announce that my RoadAwareness Campaign now operating as RoadAwareness.org. Road safety issues don’t stop at any border and neither do we!

The Facebook Group name has changed to reflect the new orientation and to make it easier to find us in searches. Please be sure to invite all your friends to check out our website and join our Facebook group as road safety affects us all. Safer roads begin with safer drivers!

We are now coming up on one year of successfully bringing awareness on road safety related issues and we look forward to another exciting year in 2010. In the past year, RoadAwareness has been involved with three notable awareness rallies in Southern Ontario, with attendance ranging from 60 to 200 participants. Each time, we had favourable coverage by the media, public attendance and support of local law enforcement at those events. Newspapers, TV and various online websites & forums, have all covered events associated with us and we hope that they will continue to do so as we spread the message on improving situational awareness when operating a motor vehicle as well as the importance of advanced driver & rider training.

The RoadAwareness Campaign is proud to have been covered by the media several times, not only locally where it began in Southern Ontario but the word is now spreading across North America and the rest of the world. Our website is now being viewed by visitors from around the globe. Here is some of the media coverage we’ve gotten so far:
http://www.roadawareness.org/about-us/media-coverage/

In addition to awareness rallies, RoadAwareness also performed a Distracted Driving Experiment to highlight the dangers of using your cell phone while driving and was successful in showing that hands-free kits are really no safer than using a hand-held phone while talking. In addition, the results of texting while driving were jaw-dropping. All of the participants were far more likely to loose control of their vehicles and hit obstacles…and most did.

RoadAwareness is joining forces with some great partners in 2010. We are also pleased to announce our involvement in Belt Drive Betty’s Awareness Conga to the Wharf Rat Rally in Digby, Nova Scotia. For more information on this rally, please check out and join this group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=291129346434
We hope to assist with arranging various awareness rallies along their route across the country. Stay tuned and join us along the way.

Another notable mention is the establishment of some great working relationships with Young Drivers of Canada and the Traffic Services Division of Toronto Police Services. We continue to solidify these alliances and look forward to working with them further in 2010. Developing new relationships, on an ongoing basis, is a primary focus for us.

Promising discussions with Queensway AUDI are ongoing now that they’ve launched a Teen Driver Development Program, focusing on arming our young drivers with the skills they need to survive our roadways. Moving onward, we are constantly looking for important changes in the industry on a global level. We are also in need of like-minded partners to assist us as we continue to send two simple messages…the importance of advanced driver & rider training and that “There is no excuse for paying anything less than 100 percent attention to the task of driving and to our surroundings.” -Shaun de Jager, Founder

Your continued support of the RoadAwareness Campaign is valuable to us. Drive safe.

Embrace Life – Always Wear Your Seat Belt

February 9th, 2010

admin

This is a new video campaign circulating in the UK highlighting seat belt awareness. If this doesn’t make a point…nothing will.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-8PBx7isoM

Technology Helps Break the Habit

February 7th, 2010

admin

02/07/2010
By: Shaun de Jager

Anti-Cell Phone Laws are popping up all around the world as governments attempt to make our roads safer by curbing cell phone usage while driving. Especially text messaging and emailing while driving. But not everyone seems to have the self control to kick the habit despite the potential punishments from law enforcement or worse causing personal injury or death either to themselves or someone else.

In the past couple years, several products or programs have been introduced on the market that either restrict the functionality of cell phones while in motion (preventing the phone from sending or receiving calls, emails or text messages) or adds features to the phone, such as speech recognition programs that read you your messages.

Some of new tools work rather well, whereas others don’t and of course prices can vary. All of them have limitations and only work on certain phones (Blackberrys, iPhones, various other SmartPhones, etc.).

Most of these tools are software based and need to be loaded into your phone. Many of the ones on the market require GPS as a working function of the phone or use cell tower triangulation to detect movement. While movement is detected, the software blocks incoming calls, texts and emails and also blocks the ability to send any (emergency calls are never restricted though). Other programs read incoming messages to you automatically without any input from the user (I rather liked this one but more on that later).

Some of the draw backs here is that in each case, a data plan is required on the phone. In the case where the program automatically replies for you with a simple “I’ll get back to you shortly” text message, a text messaging plan is highly recommended. The means of motion detection is also an issue. Programs that use cell tower triangulation are the least accurate because the signal varies even if you aren’t moving. Therefore, the program could restrict your phones functions while you are sitting in a coffee shop. GPS based programs are certainly more accurate in this regard. These motion based programs are programmed with a speed threshold so that your phone still works at walking speed but not all of them do. Something to research if you decide to use one of these systems. The other variable is cost. Some have working free versions but the fully functioning ones (that restrict your phone the most) have fees. Some only charge a one time fee to fully activate the software and others charge a monthly subscription fee, which can be rather expensive over a whole year.

The one that I took a liking too was DriveSafe.ly Pro. This application gets downloaded into your smartphone and reads your incoming messages. It doesn’t make any attempt to restrict your phones functions so it does take will-power to not reply to those messages. I tested this on my Blackberry Curve and found it to work quite well, although I never got the auto-reply feature to work properly. In this case, when a message is received the phone connects to the DriveSafe.ly servers and uses there advanced iSpeech software to read your messages to you while you drive. This happens automatically so no input is required while driving maintaining full hands-free functionality. Now your curiosity has been satisfied and you can decide to leave well enough alone or find a parking lot to stop in so that you can reply. Once again though, a data plan is required to connect to their servers. Those who receive sensitive and confidential information on their phones may not like this as an option for obvious reasons.

Additionally, if you are a person who receives a lot of messages, you may find this program annoying after a while when your phone keeps talking, talking, talking to you while you are driving. This could end up being a case where the cure is worse than the disease causing you further distractions. If you are one of those people…put your phone on silent mode and forget about it while driving. Everyone trying to reach you can wait for your safe return.

One of the other options to consider uses a combination of hardware in your car and software on your phone. In this case, CellControl.com comes to mind. This works directly with your vehicle to detect motion by plugging a specially designed module into the OBDII port of your car that is usually located under steering wheel (this port is only found on cars made in 1996 or newer). The module is then paired to your Bluetooth enabled smartphone with the CellControl software running. As soon as the vehicle moves, it restricts the pre-selected features of your phone. Selecting what you can and can’t do with your phone is decided via an online web-portal for registered users (yes this is a paid subscription based service) and those details are sent to the software in your phone. What’s nice about this system is the flexibility. You can program certain phone numbers that can bypass the lockdown while driving (like from your spouse or child’s school in the event of an emergency).

In the end though, these are just tools and it’s still the responsibility of the driver to drive safely. If you decide to check out these tools, do your research and pick one that suites your needs.