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Archive for May, 2012

Airbag Kills Driver In Freak Accident Says Coroner

A UK court has delivered a stunning verdict on the dangers of the airbag, saying that when one was discharged, it split on a broken window, discharged a chemical that killed the driver, who had only slight injuries after the accident.

The Coroner determined that the chemicals in the airbag poisoned the unfortunate driver, Ronald Smith, from Sunderland. He was involved in a six car accident in 2010, the airbag was activated, but punctured after the window in his car was smashed during the accident. Whilst Smith survived the accident he died a couple of months later from bronchial pneumonia, with his lungs showing clear signs of infection.

The Coroner blamed the airbag, saying:- “This man died as a result of this incident, and more pointedly, because of the explosion of his airbag”. Apparently when the airbag exploded it emitted a large amount of  ‘white powder’. Airbags inflate with a gas created by igniting a chemical called sodium azide, which is extremely toxic, so much so, in fact, that it is apparently comparable in its toxicity to cyanide.

Whilst UK safety authorities acknowledge there could be a danger, they say it is “extremely small”. This is said to be the only recorded case in the UK.

But they also said that the chemical that preceded sodium azide, nitrocellulose, was even more toxic and also highly inflammable!

Modern cars now carry as many as nine airbags – could this mean there are nine toxic danger points? We’ll talk to the Australian car safety agencies and ask for their comments and let you know. http://credit-n.ru/avtokredit.html

We Have it Easy Today

Modern vehicles coddle their drivers with electronic ‘nannies,’ creature comforts that were unimaginable a few years ago and virtually trouble-free motoring. Not too many years ago an extended trip by automobile involved a great deal of preparation and the packing of emergency repair items. When is the last time a modern driver had a flat tire that had to be addressed on the roadside? Fixing a flat used to involve patching an inner-tube, after removing the punctured inflatable from the tire by the application of a pair of tire-irons and a mallet. Today a flat tire is confronted with a call to the motor club, or at worst, the removal of the offending tire and wheel and the installation of the spare tire.

Clara E. Sipprell was a world renowned photographer. In her day, Clara captured the images of some of the world’s luminaries including: Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, the great American poet Robert Frost, the royal family of Sweden, Igor Stanislavsky, Pearl Buck, Albert Schweitzer, Dag Hammerskold and many more. Aunt Clara wasn’t really my aunt, but she was part of my family for so many years that my siblings and I thought of her in that manner. She loved fast, open cars, corncob pipes and strong drink. Clara’s automobile adventures were legendary, photographic safaris they might be called today.

She would fill her touring car with equipment, cameras in the boot and tripods strapped to the sides and then set out on a trek across the USA or along the Croatian coast or on the Trans-Siberian Highway. She recorded these adventures on photographic plates, the subjects being most often the interesting people she encountered, but sometimes just the scenery. She used no artificial lighting, made only contact prints with no enlargement and did all of her own processing.

Clara often said that the trip was the important part of her travels, not the destination. She truly loved to drive. Once while traveling across the USA, she was speeding through Georgia and the local police hauled her into a rural courtroom to face the judge. She and the judge got on famously and she was let off with a warning. On the return trip she detoured back through the little country town so she could continue her conversation with “his honor.” She liked people almost as much as driving.

I imagine that Clara wouldn’t like the motoring as much today what with superhighways and the total reliability of vehicles. Part of the adventure of traveling in her day was a little bit of uncertainty. http://credit-n.ru/electronica.html

Flashers legal in USA but not here

I’m talking about flashing your headlights as a warning against police activity, OK?

A judge in Florida had to pass judgement in a case where a driver was prosecuted for flashing his lights to oncoming traffic to warn them of a radar trap. He got off, with the judge citing that the defendant was  ‘engaging in behaviour protected by the US constitution’.

But don’t think it’s safe to do the same thing in Australia. There is no specific statute that covers the event, but the police can get you on a more general law that says it is an offence ‘to use high beam on an oncoming vehicle less than 200 metres away’ even though he may thank you for it. Instead you’ll get a fine and lose some points in most states in Australia http://credit-n.ru/kurs-cb.html

Flat Battery? Certainly we can fix it, sir. That will be $45,000.

Oh my God! How would you feel if you buy a new supercar, let the battery go flat and then get charged $45,000 to replace it?

Hmm. Not happy, Jan.

But that’s what’s happened to some owners of the new Tesla Roadster Electric Supercar.

The car costs around $200,000 in Australia, is fully electric, with a range in a single charge of 400kms. and will accelerate  to 100kph in under 4 secs. which sure is supercar territory.

In fairness the maker does make it clear that the battery must not reach full discharge and that there are numerous warning signals. Despite that some owners have had to face the unbelievable – ” I’ve got a brick!”, a totally immobile vehicle that cannot be started or even pushed to the side of the road.

The owner is forced to pay around $45,000 to replace the entire battery – and possibly a lot more if the car fails far from its home base in the USA, like the unfortunate owner who suffered severe shipping delays when he imported his car to Japan and it arrived with a flat battery! It seems that neither Tesla’s new car warranty nor normal car insurance policies provide any protection for the unfortunate owner.

The full story, including Tesla’s response can be seen here 

BUT HERE’S THE GOOD NEWS! That’s not symptomatic of electric cars, though keeping a charge in the battery is much like keeping oil in the engine or petrol in the tank for a normal car. The first experience that  local  buyers will have for an appoachably-priced electric car will probably be the Nissan Leaf, scheduled for sale this month. It has already been launched overseas and has had a launch event here, supported by a really interesting and award-winning ad campaign- World Without Petrol  (and it’s worth a click through), which will probably be used for the public launch in Australia.

THE GOOD NEWS is that if the battery does go flat it can be easily re-charged. There’s also plenty of warning that it’s running out of petrol-sorry, electricity. Finally, in some markets Nissan also offer a free ‘pick up and tow’ service, although that hasn’t yet been confirmed here (and Nissan HO were unavailable for comment). We’ll be telling you more about the new Nissan Leaf shortly, but it offers around 100-120 km range on a single charge, and it is expected that it will not need specialist charging points (it should be able to be done at home). It will be sold at a premium price to its petrol competitors at around $51,000. http://credit-n.ru/zaymyi-v-ukraine.html