Teenagers Arent Wearing Their Seatbelts

In the time honored tradition of teenagers behaving differently when adults aren't around, an NHTSA study has shown that over half of the teenage accident victims that died in night crashes werent wearing their seatbelts.

You have to wonder what the numbers would look like if they had buckled up.

Take the time to tell your teen drivers that they need to wear their seatbelts at all times, and not just when you happen to be looking.

Pay As You Go Insurance?

Progressive Insurance is offering to use the way that people actually drive to determine their rates. They plan on doing so by installing the equivalent of a "black box" that records how often you hit the brakes, how fast you accelerate, the rate of speed, etc.

While this seems like a better way of determining rates than using a credit score, level of education or race, insurance companies and software have a history of not mixing to your advantage. For years, insurers have used a program called "Collossus," which they used to artificially lower settlement rates. It isn't hard for us to imagine them figuring out how to tweak the information gathered so it skews in their favor.

More distracted driving

As the writer in this piece in the Washington Post says, "It was only a matter of time."

This time the culprit wasn't the cell phone or the iPod, but rather ironically, the GPS device that is supposed to tell you exactly where to go.

If you have ever used one of those things, take a moment to stop and think about how much it causes you to take your eyes off the road.