Catching Suspects

You know, there’s heaps of cool technology that will be used (if not already in use) in the automotive scene.  Yes, there’s all the on-board safety wizardry that helps to keep you and others safe on the road.  And, there’s Voice Control, satellite navigation and other infotainment systems on-board a lot of new cars.  But what is pretty amazing is some of the new technology that Police will use for catching, say, a car thief.

Catching car criminals or even any criminal travelling in a car seems like a tough job and is all about speed, right?  Well actually, there might be an easier way.  Here is some of the high-tech ways for catching a suspect that Police can or will employ.

• Already seen in action, the CCTV camera is used for keeping a watch on an area and will often capture vital video evidence which can then be used in a court appearance.
• Funnily enough, the police are up-on-the-play with social media posts, and often the social media can be used for investigations.  Police have their own software that scans all social media channels, and this scanning can be used to find out important times and locations of an offence.  Facebook does reveal a lot!
• You may be well aware of the amazing stuff that drones can do.  In fighting crime, police can use drones for surveillance, and any police officer can remotely control the drone from a distance.  This is a very easy way of following a fleeing suspect, and the action can be seen as it happens by an officer in a car or back at headquarters.
• As a vehicle owner, you could subscribe to a service like OnStar which is a system capable of tracking your car if stolen.  What’s more, it could be used to remotely disable your vehicle and shut down the engine.  All you need to do is let the police know that your car has been stolen, and then OnStar does the rest.
• Police cars can be equipped with GPS Dart technology, which basically fires a small GPS tracker from the nose of the police vehicle so that it sticks onto the vehicle needing to be tracked.  They can then plan how to catch and apprehend the suspect whilst tracking the suspect’s whereabouts.
• Already in action, police cars are equipped with automated license plate scanners.  This technology is effective in catching those drivers that are driving a car that has failed its inspection or has a registration license that has lapsed.  These scanning cameras can scan literally thousands of license plates per hour.

I have been pulled over by a police car that has used their scanning equipment on my car’s license plate.  I wondered why it was following me so slowly for a time.  I found out that my registration had expired on my trailer. http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/fastmoney-srochnyi-zaim-na-kartu.html

‘Tis The Season To Avoid Drink Driving*

Merry and jolly are words that crop up in only two contexts: Christmas and indulging in a drink or two, and by “drink”, I don’t mean a cup of hot chocolate. Tis the season when work parties, sports and other club breakups and family dos are pretty thick on the ground. This usually means that wine, beer and cider will be in evidence somewhat. So will the cops with their breathalyzers.

We’ve all heard the horror stories and seen the safety campaigns, yada, yada, so I’m not going to go on about all the reasons why you shouldn’t drink and drive. However, one question that a lot of us have is how much you can actually get away with having before you get slapped with a great hefty ticket and/or become a menace to yourself and others.

The answer is, of course, it depends. It will depend on what sort of licence you have, what you’re driving and who you are. It will also depend on what your preferred tipple is and what you’ve been eating.

The easy one to explain is the rules for L and P platers: zero. Nada. Zip. Zilch. You even have to steer clear of mouth wash and sherry trifle. Technically, you should even avoid participating in Mass/Communion/Eucharist if you belong to one of the churches that use real wine in the ceremony. However, in New South Wales at least, if you do get caught with a bit on your breath or in your bloodstream on your way home from the church, this is considered legit but you’ll still have to go to court and prove that you were actually at church that morning, etc. If your blood alcohol content (BAC) is over 0.2 mg/mL, however, you won’t get off even if the Pope himself came in to swear that you’re the altar boy.

While we’re on the subject, there have been instances where priests and vicars have ended up driving with a BAC over 0.2 mg/mL. This is because, thanks to a heap of rather dry theology we won’t go into here, they have to get rid of all the leftover communion by drinking it. Communion wine tends to be the cheap red fortified plonk that’s about 14% proof, so if the vicar’s really overestimated the amount needed, there’s a fair bit there to drink that a couple of chocolate chip biscuits and a coffee after the service aren’t going to soak up (plus see below re soaking up). Add in the amount of church services that tend to go on in the lead-up to Christmas and the chances that the cops are going to catch the vicar out get a lot higher. This is the point where Baptist ministers and Muslims look smug, as this doesn’t happen to them, given their avoidance of alcohol.

However, the vicar is unlikely to be over 0.5 mg/mL, which is the limit for those of us who aren’t driving on a P or L plate, or driving a heavy truck or a taxi. If you are in charge of a vehicle that’s over 13.9 T, handling dangerous goods or ferrying fare-paying passengers around (bus or taxi drivers), the limit is 0.2 mg/mL.

Unfortunately, it’s rather hard to calculate your own BAC. You can try keeping count of standard drinks but this is really inaccurate. For one thing, drinks don’t always come in standard sizes – I’ve got about four different sizes of wine glass sitting in my cupboards, for example, so “just one glass” can range from about 100 mL to pretty close to 125 mL. For another, you don’t always get the chance to see the label telling you how much of that particular tipple is a standard drink. Sometimes, in the case of home brew (which includes Granny’s home-made ginger ale), there is no label and no real way of telling the true alcohol content. You can’t always tell by the taste how strong it is, either. Mixing alcohol with something bubbly gets it into your bloodstream quicker, too.

How many drinks it takes to reach your BAC will depend on a lot of factors. Your weight is one thing that affects it and is the one most often talked about. Your fitness and the state of your liver will also play a role. So will your gender and even your stress levels.

It is widely held that eating will slow the rate at which the alcohol goes into your bloodstream. This is true… as long as you eat the food before having the alcohol. Attempts to “soak it up” afterwards by downing a plate of nachos are doomed to failure.

Nothing but time alone will get your BAC down if you suspect that you’ve overdone it. Coffee will not fix it. Nor will a cold shower. Nor will throwing up. Even getting some sleep won’t do much if you’ve really gone overboard, as you can still have a post-bender BAC over the limit up to 18 hours afterwards.

So what’s the answer? It’s safest if you avoid drinking alcohol altogether if you’re the driver and save your moments of indulgence for when you’re the host. However, the following rules may help you negotiate the next party safely:

• 

  Non-alcoholic, every last one of them.

  Eat first. Proteins are best for slowing down the alcohol absorption rate, which explains traditions like cheese, peanuts and salami to accompany wine and beer.

• Do your drinking early on so you’ve got time to process it.
• Moderation. You don’t HAVE to drink alcohol all the time or at all, and there are a lot more options out there than orange juice and soft drink (I’m rather partial to a Virgin Mary).
• Don’t be too proud to call a taxi or ask to sleep on the sofa if needed.

Volvo fans can also consider the Alcoguard, an option where you have your own little device to breathe into – and you have to breathe into it before you can start the engine. If you fail the test or don’t take it, the engine won’t start and you can’t drive. This is available on post-2008 S80s, V70s and XC70s from Europe or the US, at least at the moment. But it wouldn’t be a bad idea for us here Down Under (someone tell Volvo Australia, please?).

Safe and happy driving,

Megan

* OK, it’s not the only time of year you have to watch out for this.

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The Golden Rules For Passengers

Usually, we write for drivers. However, as most of us have noticed at some point, the typical car has more than one door and more than one seat (with the exceptions of a few extreme race-inspired units such as the Abarth 695 Biposto . One of the main attractions of cars is that they can take the whole family or at least another person as well as the driver.

Plenty has been written about good behaviour when driving and how to be courteous to other drivers. Not much has been said about the way passengers ought to behave. Without further ado, then, here are the golden rules that all passengers ought to obey.

1. 1.       Do not tell the driver what to do or what he or she ought to be doing.  The obvious exception to this is if you are teaching someone else to drive. You are also allowed to speak up if the driver is exceeding the speed limit and making you feel frightened or if you have been asked to navigate using an old-fashioned map rather than a GPS. Otherwise, belt up in both senses of the word.
2. 2.       Inform the driver if you feel sick or need to pee in plenty of time. Please believe me when I say that we really don’t want to clean up the mess if you explode from either end. And do give the driver lots of warning so that he or she can pull over in a convenient spot where the car can be parked safely (for the driver’s benefit) and where there’s a decent large bush and/or a handy public lavatory (for your benefit). The only exception to this is if you are under the age of two.
3. 3.       Don’t kick the back of the driver’s seat. Lumbar support and lots of padding can only do so much and the driver can’t do all that much with a bony knee or toe pressing into his/her kidneys. If you are a tall lanky type and you like to ride in the rear on the driver’s side but the driver likes to have the seat well back, you may have to find a compromise.
4. 4.       Don’t touch the driver. You should even be cautious if you are the beloved of the driver and want to be in constant physical contact with him or her. Keep it to a light hand on the knee or shoulder.  Anything else is off limits. If you are too young to know not to pull at Mum or Dad’s sleeve for attention when Mum/Dad is driving, you are too young to be in the front seat.
5. 5.       Wear your seatbelt. No exceptions. Do it.
6. 6.       Assist the driver by holding coffee cups if no holder is available, adjusting temperature controls and similar dials. On cold days when the inside of the windscreen is fogged or if something has smeared across the inside of the windscreen, help out by applying tissues or cloths to help clear the driver’s vision.
7. 7.       Open the gates. If there’s a closed gate that needs to be opened, it’s the front passenger’s job to open it.
8. 8.       Don’t distract the driver at crucial moments. One of several reasons why the authorities don’t like the driver texting or phoning while driving is because the person on the other end of the phone can’t see what’s going on and won’t shut up during a tricky manoeuvre. You can. Negotiating heavy traffic in a multilane roundabout is a bad moment to show the driver your finished school project, the great photo your friend just posted on Facebook or the hilarious cartoon in the newspaper. Wait for a traffic jam.
9. 9.       On long drives at night, be prepared to slap the driver and scream if he/she starts drowsing at the wheel. Do your bit to help the driver stay alert by providing stimulating conversation or offering to help out.
10. 10.   If you’re in the rear seat of three rows in an MPV, don’t start screaming for the driver in the middle of Sydney Harbour Bridge. And if you’re the driver, (a) don’t put a child who’s likely to scream in some inaccessible place and (b) grit your teeth and try to endure the screams until you get to a suitable place.

Safe and happy driving and being driven,

Megan  http://credit-n.ru/electronica.html

Thoughts On Auto-Dipping Headlights

We’ve had automatic dusk-sensing headlights.  We’ve had cornering headlights and auto-levelling headlights. Now the latest in active safety for headlights is being seen in a number of new models: automatic dipping headlights.

In a way, automatically dipping headlights use the same sort of light sensing technology as dusk-sensing headlights. However, instead of realising that there aren’t enough photons hitting the sensors so the lights come on, this technology realises that all of a sudden there are far too many photons coming in so those high-beam headlights had better dip pronto so the oncoming driver doesn’t get dazzled.

Half of me thinks that this is a great idea. Haven’t we all had experiences when an oncoming driver doesn’t dip his or her headlights until the last minute, leaving you blinking and frantically trying to regain your night vision? (Safety hint: pull over if you can until you’re no longer dazzled). It’s always a bit of a puzzle as to what to do: do you flicker your lights between dipped and full to let the driver know that he/she needs to dip in return – and run the risk of having two dazzled drivers driving at speed in opposite directions with all the risks involved in that – or whether you just grit your teeth and mutter something along the lines of “stupid idiot”, to put it mildly. Sometimes, you ARE that driver who forgets to dip the lights. There’s also the situation where one or both of you decide to take the headlights off dip just a fraction of a second too early, giving the oncoming driver the full blast of your headlights on full (no joke with some of those very bright modern headlights).  Auto dipping headlights would certainly get rid of this problem.

However, there’s another part of me that doesn’t like this idea.  This part of me kind of likes deciding when to dip the lights as an oncoming driver approaches.  It’s kind of like playing chicken legally and safely – who’s going to be the first to dip the lights?  There have been a few incidents during long night-time drives on those road trips to the relatives who live a long, long way off that deciding when to dip the headlights has been the main way to keep the driver (and the passengers) alert, as it breaks up the monotony of night-time driving.  If it hadn’t been for the shall-we-dip-yet-or-shall-we-wait decision, the risk of nodding off with the hypnotic effect of white lines and reflectors flicking past repetitively would have been a lot higher. This part of me thinks that this “safety feature” to keep you awake, focussed and alert outweighs the risk of a bit of dazzling.

I also have a host of questions. Do these headlights have a manual override so you can dip the headlights if you want to, like when you’re part of a funeral cortege? Do they dip automatically when you get to a built-up area? Do they pick up cyclists, motorbikes and those cars that only have one working headlight? You never get to test-drive new cars at night (even car salespeople need to sleep sometimes), so how do you test this out?

What do other people think about the prospect of auto-dimming headlights? Love them or hate them?

Safe and happy driving at all times of day,

Megan http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/vashi-dengi-zaim.html