Flood Safety

Houston has been hit hard with rain, tornado warnings, and now flooding. The roads have been crazy this week and will continue into the weekend with rough weather. Bayou city is known for flooding and if you are a commuter this can be even more dangerous trying to get to and from work. Driving through a flooded street can cause damage to your car or worse put you in danger! Here are a few safety tips to keep in mind while on the road:

• Flash floods happen fast and sometimes without warning
• 6 inches of water is all it takes to reach the bottom of most cars which can cause you to stall out
• At shallow depths the road is still unpredictable
• Take caution at bridges, overpasses, and underpasses
• Drive in the middle where water is most shallow
• If your vehicle stalls out leave it and get to a safe place
• If a road is blocked with barricades don't try to drive through
• If you can't safely drive through the water turn around and find another route

For more safety tips check out:

http://www.esurance.com/driving-tips/driving-during-floods

http://www.weather.com/activities/driving/drivingsafety/drivingsafetytips/flood.html

http://www.smartdriving.co.uk/Driving/Driving_emergencies/Floods.htm

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Don't Text and Drive

Driving to and from our dealership I noticed a scary trend. Almost everyone I saw was texting and driving. Have you noticed how many people are texting while driving? Houston this is dangerous! Here are some facts on the dangers of texting and driving via http://www.drivenowtextlater.org/the-facts/  

• You are 23 times more likely to be involved in a traffic accident if you text and drive. (Virginia Tech Transportation Institute)
• Over 25% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 report that they text “regularly” while driving. (Center For Disease Control)
• About 9% of all drivers on the road report that they use their cell phones to text “fairly often” while driving. (CDC)
• 5,474 people died in the U.S. in 2009 due to motor vehicle crashes that were caused by distracted driving. (Fatal Accident Reporting System)
• 448,000 people were injured in the U.S. in 2009 because of traffic accidents that were caused by distracted driving. (FARS)
• When using a cell phone while driving, the brain activity associated with driving is lessened by 37%. (Carnegie Mellon)
• The average time for sending or reading a text message is 4.6 seconds. A car traveling 55 miles-per-hour will travel the length of a football field in this amount of time. (VTTI)
• 40% of teens in the U.S. report that they have been in a vehicle while the driver was using a cell phone in a way that put passengers in danger. (Pew)
• 16% of all fatal motor vehicle crashes reported in the U.S. in 2009 occurred due to distracted driving. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• 20% of all motor vehicle crashes involving injury in the U.S. in 2009 occurred as a result of distracted driving. (NHTSA)

Texting and driving is dangerous and we need to stop taking it lightly. Think before you text Houston! 

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Changes to Texas roads

This month new laws and street signs have been implemented. TexDot announced a safety pan to help prevent accidents with broken down cars. If you see the flashing lights of a TexDot vehicle on the side of the road either get out of the lane or slow down to 25 MPH. They hope this will save the lives of those trying to help people with flat tires or car accidents. Just yesterday Houston Mayor Parker announced new parking signs to be replaced downtown. The old signs were red and the new signs were blue. This image shows the new parking signs. Get used to these new signs to avoid a parking ticket! Stay safe Houston! 

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