Safety

What is Blind Spot Monitoring?

If you thought the worst thing your dog could leave in your car was a furious hair tornado that coats every surface, think again.

There are some things you can do when you're on holiday that you simply can't at home, because the shame can't follow you back. Men can ride scooters or drink cocktails or even sing karaoke, as long as they are far enough from their friends to be seen doing so. Women can... already do all those things, but they can commit crimes against fashion, or wear Ugg Boots outside, or drink beer.Because Australia is so large, just going interstate can be far enough to do things you wouldn't dream of, but speeding is not one of them, because, unlike the United States, our states are actually united as one ball-breaking nation in their approach to punishing your driving indiscretions, which means that someone caught speeding in Perth will pay for it with points on their NSW licence when they get home. Eventually. Probably. In theory.It didn't used to be this way, of course, and there was a time when a Victorian walloper would look at your Queensland licence and hiss through his teeth with disappointment, as he knew he'd never realistically be able to pursue you across state lines, but if there's one thing that governments of all stripes, and all states, agree on, it is that speeding fines, are a great way of raising revenue, and crushing the public under the boot heel.The Australian Road Rules Agreement was concocted and approved by all state and territory Transport Ministers in 1999 to make sure that there was some national conformity, and that the Demerit Points Schemes operated by various regions would work in an interconnected national fashion.In short, no matter where you commit an offence, the officers who catch you are supposed to contact your home state's authorities and inform them, so that the appropriate Demerit Points can pile up on your licence back home.As the sa.gov.au website helpfully points out for its residents: "Demerit points are incurred whether the offence is committed in South Australia or interstate."One trap to watch out for is that if you think you want to challenge a fine you've been given in court, it might be implausibly expensive to do so. Get pinged by an overzealous and unreasonable copper in WA and attempt to challenge the matter and they'll tell you you have to show up, in person, in a Perth courtroom to fight your case, which will clearly cost you more than the fine if you live in any other state.Interesting anomaliesWhere things get interesting is that incurring one particular offence in one state might be worth less points, or a shorter suspension, in your home state. The state in which you've recorded the offence will generally advise your home regulatory authority of your crime, and you will then get the points or suspension that would have applied if you'd committed the offence in your own jurisdiction.VicRoads, for example, will suspend your licence for six months if you are caught driving between 35 and 45km/h over the limit (if they don't just shoot you on the side of the road), but this same crime is only a three-month sin bin in NSW, so you might be better off than a local.If you're a Victorian and you get caught in NSW doing the same thing, however, it's probably not going to be a better a result for you.If you're in NSW, you also have 13 points rather than the 12 you get in Victoria, and other states.Anecdotally, however...Here's the strange and hard to quantify thing. Anecdotally, people who look nothing like your author and definitely don't share a driver's licence with him, tell us that the system is, shall we say, imperfect.Many are the sinners who tell us they have committed a speeding offence in a state other than their own and, surely enough, been followed home by the fine, and forced to pay it by annoying red-coloured notices in the mail. The demerit points, however, have not - or not always - turned up on their licence.This seems to particularly apply to residents of the territories. ACT and NT drivers can somehow, magically, avoid being demerited for offences they incur elsewhere. And it can happen to drivers from other states as well, particularly if they commit their crimes in the Territories.It's hard to explain how this happens, or doesn't happen, but someone in the field of policing used the phrase "paperwork" closely followed by the words "too hard" to offer one theory.This is not, in any way, a suggestion that you'll get away with such a thing, it's merely a strange anomaly that we've noted anecdotally and, under the law, your demerit points will follow you, and haunt you, no matter where you rack them up.So beware, be square and be safe.

It takes less than 30 seconds to see what all the fuss is about with ISOFIX child seats, and why some people have been campaigning for years for them to be made legal in Australia.The first thing you notice is how easy the seat is to fit, with its metal rails poking out the base and slotting simply into the ISOFIX connecting points that have previously sat fallow in many cars in this country.Holden even bravely launched the VF Commodore in 2013 with ISOFIX points, despite the fact it was still illegal to buy a seat until late last year.After years of struggling with the seatbelt-retaining system of traditional seats, which can be about as challenging as tieing your shoe laces with your eyes closed and cheese graters on your hands, the ISOFIX system is a revelation.You immediately appreciate just how incredibly rigid the ISOFIX seat system feelsThat simplicity also means that, as the new seats are snapped up by Australian families, the appalling number of child restraints that are incorrectly fitted - estimated to be more than 80 per cent at present - will fall sharply.The other thing you immediately appreciate is just how incredibly rigid the ISOFIX seat system feels by comparison, with virtually no lateral movement compared to the older seatbelt-fitted design.Mike Lumley, the Technical Director for Britax Safe and Sound, which finally started selling ISOFIX seats here last October, says the system is simply "far superior".You quite literally feel like a better parent just using one"In terms of lateral movement in a side impact, and also forward movement, you simply can't make a seatbelt hold the same way as a rigid connection," he explains."There's also no doubt that the ISOFIX is a more intuitive system, when it comes to fitting one in your vehicle."Here at CarsGuide.com.au we've been road testing a Britax Trufix (RRP $499) for two months now, and every time we install it in a new car we're struck again by how much more solid, and thus much safer, it feels.Standards Australia has been working on introducing a local standard for ISOFIX since 2002You quite literally feel like a better parent just using one, which makes us wonder why we put up with the old system for so long.Mr Lumley explains that it was all about a difference of opinion between Australia (and our friends, Canada) and the rest of the world over whether a system anchored rigidly to the car should still have a top tether attachment as well."Standards Australia has been working on introducing a local standard for ISOFIX since 2002 and ultimately the decision was made by the Department of Transport that there should be further testing, which delayed the introduction here...for quite a while," he says."There was testing done that showed the two point rigid connection at the base plus the top tether was the best performance, but the Europeans decided it was too difficult and went without the top strap."After what seems an inexcusably slow bureaucratic process, a ruling saying we should be allowed to use ISOFIX was published in 2013, but it still took until September 2014 for that to be made official.The result is that, unlike Europe, our ISOFIX seats must have a top tether fitted as well, which reduces the possibility of rotation and provides, according to Mr Lumley, the best of both worlds.Almost 80 per cent of sales are now ISOFIX"It's logical, you have something retaining the bottom of the seat, so you should have something restraining the top as well, and Australia has been saying that for a long time," he says.The market reaction, particularly from people who've been waiting for years for ISOFIX to be available, has been swift, according to Britax's marketing manager, Narenna Bloomfield."We relaunched our Platinum SICT with ISOFIX ($659) and without ($629) in October...almost 80 per cent of sales are now ISOFIX, demonstrating that families are keen to adopt the new installation method," Ms Bloomfield says."Anecdotal feedback has also been that even if consumers do not have ISOFIX they may plan to purchase a vehicle equipped with ISOFIX in the future, and therefore are more willing to buy an ISOFIX car seat now."There's no question that most people in the market for a new seat who compare the two fitting methods directly will plump for the ISOFIX, but the law won't require them to.The availability of ISOFIX chid seats is a huge, and much welcome, step forwardUnder the ADRs it is still legal to sell cars here without the ISOFIX fitting points in the back seats, and the seatbelt-restrained versions are also likely to remain on the market for the forseeable future."Although there have been European vehicles sold here with ISOFIX lower anchorages for many years, it could take 10 or 20 years for most of those vehicles that didn't have the anchorages to move out of the Australian fleet," Mr Lumley explains.It may have been a long time coming, but for the safety of our youngest car occupants, the availability of ISOFIX chid seats is a huge, and much welcome, step forward.

Buying a new car can feel a lot like a game of Scrabble, particularly when it comes to safety acronyms.

When was the last time you changed a tyre, and do you think you could do it tomorrow if you had to? There's a good chance you're wrong and you wouldn't be able to get the wheel nuts off, but there's also a good chance you'll struggle to remember the last time you had a flat tyre at all. Tyre technology, and in

Driving while pregnant can be challenging to say the least. Jack Pyefinch offers some tips on how to drive safely, and comfortably, while pregnant.

Since cars have been around people have needed car headlights to drive them at night. Today we're used to car lights featuring three settings: parkers, low-beam, and high-beam. Parker lights are to provide a minimal amount of forward illumination while there is still a good amount of ambient light.Low-beam is the setting you drive around on in metro areas where there are oncoming vehicles, and it features a cut-off to dip the illumination away from oncoming traffic and focus the light on the road ahead of the car. High-beam broadens and lifts the light beams, lighting a broader area ahead of the car. Early cars used glass headlights known as "sealed beam" lamps, which you swapped out as a complete unit rather than changing globes. It wasn't until 1962 when a consortium of European headlight and globe manufacturers invented the H1 Halogen high-output globe that output took a big leap. American laws prohibited their use until 1983, after which time the Halogen lighting system became the primary source of illumination for cars.There are now several types of Halogen globes (including H7 and H4), designed to work in headlight housings that have also gone through thorough redesign processes to improve light output, while lowering the power needed to use them. High-Intensity Discharge (HID, and sometimes referred to as Xenon headlights) lights first appeared in the mid-1990s on the BMW 7-series. They, and the later Bi-Xenon headlights, are an evolution of the Halogen system, with more work put into the reflectors in the housing to focus the light which is one reason aftermarket HID upgrade kits are not always legal in Australia.LED headlights refer to Light Emitting Diodes and these have become common fitment since they debuted in 2004, taking a fraction of the energy to run compared to HID lights or Halogen while having a much longer lifespan and giving clearer light. BMW i8 and new 7-series, plus certain Audi models are now using laser headlights. Supposed to use less energy to run than LEDs but offer superior light output, laser technology will eventually filter down through other cars to become the norm for headlights just as Halogen and LED did.Because of the risk to blinding oncoming drivers there are strict rules around upgrading headlight globes or using aftermarket headlight conversion kits in Australia. These are controlled by Australian Design Rules (ADRs) which set out the brightest legal headlights you can use in Australia. You should replace headlight bulbs in your car with the same type used by the manufacturer unless a qualified professional confirms an upgrade is safe and legal. There can also be issues with brighter bulbs melting wiring for the headlights due to excess current draw needed to light up the brighter bulbs. There are ADR-approved LED headlights on sale but you need to check with the seller whether they will guarantee that ADR-approval before you buy. LED headlights are legal in Australia, but you need to research if you need to upgrade the housing as well as the bulbs as this is a requirement for some ADR-approved LED headlights. The good news is popular cars in Australia, like the VE Commodore, Ford Territory and BA Falcon, Toyota HiLux and Hyundai i30 all have great headlights from the factory and shouldn't need upgrading. 

But the clue is in the name - accident - it's not something you were expecting or planning for, although perhaps you should.Here's what to do if you've been in a bingle - weeping and wailing are, of course, optional.It might seem like tempting fate, or setting up a self-fulfilling prophecy, but it's actually not a bad idea to have a checklist ready, or even to install an app on your phone like AAMI's Claim Assist (even if you're not insured with them).This app, which would seem to appeal to the company's very worst customers - the regular crashers - takes you through the post-crash process step by step, helps you to upload the information the insurer requires and even allows you to add photographs of the scene, and the damage to your car."Obviously the first thing we'd advise people is to try not to have an accident, but if you do the app is very helpful," an AAMI spokeswoman explains, adding that it has been downloaded more than 103,000 times and used for almost 5000 claims."It's hard to think straight after you've been in accident, your adrenaline's racing, you're panicking and sometimes you might just forget to do, or ask, obvious things, but following the steps on your phone makes sure that won't happen."Don't admit to being at fault for the crash - not to the other driver, the police or anyoneIn terms of being prepared, taking a First Aid course isn't a bad idea either, because as awful as it is to consider, injuries are a common enough occurrence in car accidents.First and foremost, don't admit to being at fault for the crash - not to the other driver, the police or anyone - even if you feel it was your fault."When we've been in an accident we often see things from our perspective and we might not take all the factors into account, so it's best to leave it to the insurers, and the experts, to decide who's at fault," the AAMI spokeswoman says.It's also important not to make a tense situation even more stressful by accusing the other driver of being at fault.Try, as hard as it may be, to stay calm, to give as much information as you can to your insurer when you call, and take photos of the location, your car, the other vehicles, anything that might be relevant.The advent of mobile phones has made the whole process far easier, because everyone now has a camera on them, all the time.Anyone involved in an accident must provide their name and address, the rego number of the car and the name of the owner of that vehicle and their address - remember that the person driving the car may not necessarily be the owner, or the insured party.If the police haven't attended of their own accord, you need to call them if someone is injured or if there is property damageYou'll need to make sure you get all this information, and collecting the name of the other person's insurance company is a good idea as well.If the police haven't attended of their own accord, you need to call them if someone is injured or if there is property damage, meaning cars other than yours, street signs, anything that might need replacing or fixing.You should also call the police if there's any suspicion of drugs or alcohol being involved.It's vital that you make sure your car is roadworthy, and safe, before attempting to drive it away from the scene of the accident.Check first for damage to the car's safety systems. If an airbag has been deployed, or the pretensioners on the seatbelts have fired and they no longer seem to be working properly, don't drive.If any of the safety-related lights on the dash cluster remain on when the engine is running, it's not safe to proceed.If you have even the slightest doubts about your vehicle, it's probably safer to organise a tow truckSimilarly, if there is any damage to the wheels or suspension, this could cause steering failure or other mechanical disasters, so get the car towed instead.Flat tyres are easy to spot, as are smashed windscreens, but also be wary of damage to the cooling system - look under the car to see if large amounts of fluid are leaking out - because overheating can cause major damage to your engine.In short, if you have even the slightest doubts about your vehicle, it's probably safer to organise a tow truck and find another way home.

There was a time, probably within your lifetime, when the idea of an SUV with two-wheel drive would have been absurd.