ViPlus.BlogSpot.Com: Safety

Whether you own a new or used car, crossover, SUV, minivan or pickup truck, if you haven’t taken your vehicle in to comply with an auto safety recall, you’re putting yourself, your passengers and people in other vehicles at potential risk.

Safety recalls may be conducted voluntarily by automakers, but official recall campaigns are posted in notices by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). And, when an automaker has a recall, owners are sent notices instructing them when to take their vehicles to the dealer to have the recall remedied. News sites such as FamilyCarGuide (we have a dedicated section) and our colleagues at TheCarConnection, MotorAuthority, and GreenCarReports also publicize pertinent recalls as the details are available.

Why bring this up now? A new survey by Carfax found that over 2.7 million cars for sale online in 2011 still had open recalls. In other words, the owners neglected to take them in to dealers to have the recall taken care of. The study also found that the worst states were California, Florida and Texas, each with more than 100,000 open recalls last year.

FamilyCarGuide spoke with Chris Basso, a spokesperson for Carfax, about the study. Basso indicated that the nearly three million cars offered for sale online (through sites such as AutoTrader, Cars.com, and various online classified sites) was just the “tip of the iceberg.”
In 2011, there were 15.5 million recalls, compared with 20.0 million in 2010. But Basso said that one-third of the total vehicles recalled each year remain unfixed.

Ignorance is no excuse
There are different reasons why owners may not know about a recall on their car. One is that they moved and didn’t leave a forwarding address with the post office. Maybe they ignore news reports or toss recall notices in the trash without bothering to look at them.
This is both foolhardy and dangerous. Sure, having to take your vehicle to the dealer to accommodate a recall can be a hassle, but when the lives of you and your family are at stake, this isn’t an issue you want to take lightly.

Even what could be considered minor safety recalls need to be taken care of as soon as possible. You never know when you might be in a situation where that windshield wiper problem becomes a dangerous safety concern in heavy downpours or snowstorms, or the mirror placement issue you haven’t gotten around to having fixed means you can’t see vehicles and objects in front, alongside or behind you.

Check for free, set up alerts
Staying on top of open recalls is easy. Carfax offers a free recall check, by manufacturer. Just plug in your vehicle identification number (VIN), and you’ll learn if there are any open recalls. You can also order a vehicle history report, for a small fee. AutoCheck (a part of Experian), offers similar services.
Search for recalls at safercar.gov by clicking vehicle (default), select model year, make, model and component (optional, or check all) and then click “retrieve recalls.” You’ll be served up a complete listing of all the recall campaigns. You can also sign up to receive recall notification by email. While neither of these searches is by VIN, what you do get is complete information about the recall, including what it covers, what the remedy is and when it will be conducted.

One final point is covered well by Richard Read in TheCarConnection. If you’re buying a used car, be sure you’re up to speed on whether there are any recalls for that vehicle that haven’t been taken care of. You certainly don’t want to purchase a used car that falls into that one-third category that have never been fixed.

By the way, there have been seven recalls we’ve reported so far in April, including the 2002-2004 Honda CR-V and 2003 Honda Pilot; 2012 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan; 2012 Jeep Compass and Patriot; 2012 Ford Focus; 2012 Volkswagen Routan; 2011-2012 Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia, and 2012 BMW X5 and X6 SAVs.
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For most of the country, the first Sunday in November marks the annual return to standard time from Daylight Saving Time. It’s the “fall back” portion of “spring forward, fall back” mantra we use to remind ourselves we’re going to be gaining an hour’s sleep come 2:00 a.m. November 6.

Only two states, Alaska and Hawaii, and two U.S. territories, American Samoa and the Virgin Islands, don’t deviate from the standard time in their time zones. All other areas make the switch in the fall and again in the spring.

Believe it or not, there’s no federal mandate that any states or territories observe Daylight Savings Time. But if they do, they are required to observe standardized start and end dates: Daylight Saving Time starts at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and ends at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November.

The debate rages on as to how much this whole moving the clock up and back benefits society. The idea is that with more daylight available in the evening hours, there’s more daylight when people are normally awake. There’s also research that shows that more available daylight decreases the number of traffic accidents and fatalities and crime.

But now we’re back to standard time. That means winter driving, lots less daylight over the next few months, and, for many of us, driving to and from work in the dark.

Resetting our body clocks

So this is a time to get our act together with respect to our driving behavior. We definitely don’t want to be on the road with an accumulated sleep deficit as a result of not adjusting our sleep habits when we returned to standard time in our time zone.

It’s really a matter of retuning or resetting our body clocks to be in sync with the new schedule. This most likely means that we adjust our daily routine so we gradually get accustomed to going to bed an hour earlier.

Of course, this may be easier said than done. If we set the clock back so that when we woke up November 6, it was the correct standard time for our time zone, we actually went to bed an hour earlier than we’re used to. We may have tossed and turned for a while or just got up and watched TV or read until the time we normally retire.

--The problem is that it takes our body clocks a little time to adjust. For a few days, we may find ourselves feeling more tired than we normally feel after work.
--We may also notice a tendency to eat more, which may be a type of response we want to curb.
--For some people, getting our body clocks in sync may take a week or longer, although most will acclimate to the new schedule quicker.
--One way to compensate for this is to really wring ourselves out with exercise in the daytime, so that we’re thoroughly tired when it’s time to go to sleep on the new schedule.
--Sleep experts recommend that we make sure our bedroom is dark and cool in order to facilitate sleeping.
--Avoid bright lights, such as the TV and computer monitor, immediately before retiring for the night. We should ease into our sleeping pattern, not agitate our mind.
--Another is to gradually adjust the time we go to bed by 15 minute increments over the course of a week so that we slowly become accustomed to getting the sleep we need in order to function at our best.

Safety on the road

As drivers, we need to remind ourselves that the return to standard time means others on the road, as well as pedestrians, are also trying to get used to the new schedule.

When we’re driving home and it’s already dusk or getting dark, we have to be doubly cautious about people out walking. Carnegie Mellon research shows that during the first few weeks of the return to standard time, there’s a 300 percent greater chance of pedestrians being struck and killed by a car.Drive slower in residential areas where children are playing as well as urban areas with heavy congestion and high foot-traffic.Avoid distracted driving caused by fiddling with the radio, trying to take or make a call, even hands-free, or listen to a text message being read to us over our vehicle’s infotainment system.We could also help ourselves by reducing the number of errands or driving time in the first week or so of the new schedule. This gives us ample time to get back on track and used to the new routine.

The ironic thing about this semi-annual switch-up is that just when we’ve got the hang of it, it’s time to change it up again. Unless and until there’s a federal mandate to do away with Daylight Saving Time altogether (and there’s no guarantee that will ever happen), we’ll just have to deal with it.

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