My Kind of Driving

With all the research and focus on driving distracted by using electronic devices, one category has been left virtually untouched: Driving with children.

It's not just the teen with the cell phone we need to worry about, but also the minivan two lanes over. Unless your children were dropped off by the "Well Behaved Fairy", every parent has had a road trip with an unruly child.

Distracted driving is thought to be the cause of 80% of all crashes. Parents of young children are especially vulnerable...

I am not an advocate for violence or vengeance, but this would be robber got his just desserts. According to the Sun Times.com, Anthony Miranda, a convicted felon who fails from Chicago, Ill, attempted to steal a parked vehicle on Fri. Dec. 2, 2011, around 11:30 p.m. in the southwest side of the "Windy City." He asked the driver of the vehicle if he had a lighter. Upon saying no, Miranda then pulled a gun on the unidentified male and demanded money. The driver cooperated, however, he refused to...

• Tow trucks have now been added to the slow down or move over laws, which require drivers to slow down 20 miles per hour below the speed limit, or to vacate the lane closest to the stopped emergency vehicle that has emergency lights activated if the road has multiple lanes traveling in the same direction. (House Bill 378)
•  Speed limits will now be the same during night and day driving, and separate speed...

Picture this.. you and your family driving to Grandmas enjoying the fall foliage and the cool breezes that fall bring.  Bright lights, wonderful colors, clean pine scent in the air.  But beware, danger is lurking.  Deer-car collisions increase this time of year.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are about 1 million car accidents with deer each year that kill 200 people, cause more than 10,000 personal injuries and result in $1billion in vehicle damage. 
Octobe...

Many suits have been brought in United States courts as a result of sun glare obliterating traffic control devices or oncoming vehicles or pedestrians from view. Multiple terms have been used to describe this situation, including disability glare, veiling glare, sun blindness, and sun dazzle. The effect is to 'wash out' the image on the retina with a bright, overwhelmingly dominant spot or pattern. Evaluation of sun glare requires factoring in latitude and longitude, road direction, weather...

Texas— The mother of the driver who caused a fiery crash on the North Sam Houston Tollway sent her condolences on Saturday to the other victim’s family."My heart goes out to y’all," said Carolyn Steptoe. "You have me and my family’s condolences and we’re going to keep you all in our prayers."The crash involving her son, Michael Winfield, happened on the tollway near North Sam Plaza around 2 a.m. Friday morning.

Authorities said the driver of a Ford Expedition, identified as 19-year-old Alexandria...

Authorities have arrested a driver in a hit-and-run wreck that seriously injured a woman and killed a dog in northwest Harris County late Friday night. Douglas Morehouse Coleman, 18, was arrested Sunday and charged with accident involving injury or death. His bond was set at $5,000.
Coleman ran a stop sign and struck Sharon Kiel and her dog with his car, investigators said. Kiel was airlifted to Memorial Hermann in critical condition with two broken legs, a broken arm, a skull fracture and a torn...

"I've been driving for 50 years. You can't tell me how to drive." This is the attitude several drivers take when it comes to taking a driver safety course.  They have been driving the same way for so long they are offend by the notion of a police officer telling them they made a mistake and a judge telling them to go to a driving safety school to learn some new skills.
My comment to those drivers are, times change and technology changes. You cant expect those antiquated skills to be relative...

A potty-mouthed prankster managed to hack into an electronic sign in downtown Houston, treating drivers to an earthier message than their used to seeing.  The unknown prankster changed a temporary traffic sign that said "DETOUR" in large orange letters to "POOP." The message was there for most of the weekend. Then on Monday morning, the sign was changed to ": ) LOL" before workers managed to change it back to its standard message.

The Texas Department of Transportation wasn't amused. Spokeswoman...

In San Antonio, TX, a police officer and a suspected drunken driver have been killed in a wrong-way accident on Interstate 35. Police say 27-year-old Officer Stephanie Brown was in her patrol car and responding to a call early Tuesday when the head-on collision happened. Brown died at a San Antonio hospital.The name of the man driving the SUV the wrong way on I-35, near downtown San Antonio, was not immediately released. Police say he was dead at the scene. The police report of the wreck says...

My life and the life of my kids flashed before my eyes.. While driving to work I had a BLOW OUT.  There was a loud pop and boom.. sparks, smoke, burning rubber every where.  Luckily for me I had been trained extensively by DefensiveDriving.com on what to do in driving emergencies. 
If one of your tires blows:

• Hold the steering wheel tightly and steer straight ahead.
• Slow down gradually. Take your foot off the gas pedal slowly but don't apply the brakes.
• Slow to a stop off the road.
• Turn on your...

A lesson in mature driving is knowing how to properly interact with railroad crossings.  A car was struck by a train in northwest Harris County Tuesday evening after the wheels got stuck on the tracks, according to Harris County Sheriff’s deputies.Deputies said a woman was driving her BMW across the train tracks on Root at Lenze around 9:15 p.m.She accidentally went off the edge of the tracks and her front wheels got stuck. She then noticed a train was approaching. She jumped out of her vehicle...

The City of Houston's police department released this notice:

The City of Houston’s Police Department will be among more than 300 law enforcement jurisdictions across Texas, and 75 in the Gulf Coast region alone, that will be participating in the “2011 Great Texas Warrant Round-Up.”HPD and the Harris County Constables will join other regional participants in this statewide annual event, which officially begins Saturday, March 5, 2011, to look for individuals with outstanding warrants.So for those...

An HPD officer spotted a black Chevy Silverado pickup truck traveling the wrong direction on Montrose coming from the Westheimer direction around 12:30 p.m. (Pay attention to the time people: NOON, downtown, lunch hour traffic!!) The officer attempted to give chase, but lost the...

Many dismissals occur because a police officer cannot attend the hearing, but attorneys say that’s happening less often as police agencies encourage officers to attend court. Attorneys are trained to look for police mistakes in procedures and paperwork, but the majority of the ticketed, whether they represent themselves or not, will wind up paying something. Their best hope is to get the severity reduced, though they run the risk that with court costs the total could exceed the original ticket.

It...