Tips for Safe Driving During the Holiday Season

We're all in a hurry at the holidays. But speeding is not the answer, and it most certainly is not safe driving. Speeding-related deaths kill approximately 13,500 Americans each year, according to the Governor's Highway Safety Association. And thousands more drivers, passengers and pedestrians are injured by speeding.
Here are five reasons you should not speed…

Save lives - Slowing down increases the likelihood you and your passengers will survive a crash. Each 1 percent decrease in travel speed reduces injury crashes by about 2%, serious injury crashes by about 3% and fatal crashes by about 4%.

Save money - Speeding reduces fuel efficiency, causing you to buy gas more often. The Department of Energy estimates that, as a rule of thumb, you can assume that each 5 mph above 60 mph you drive is like paying an additional $0.20 per gallon for gas.

Save the environment - According to Ford Motor Company, driving a vehicle at 65 mph consumes about 15% more fuel than driving the same vehicle at 55 mph. More fuel consumed means more CO2 released into the atmosphere.

Save yourself a ticket - Highway safety agencies and law enforcement crack down on speeders, especially during holidays. Obey the sign or pay the fine!

Save your license - A speeding ticket could lead to points on your driving record. Too many points and you could lose your license and your insurance premiums could go up.

Safe drives are great drives.

What to Do After a Driving Accident

Of course, I hope you never have a driving accident. But if you do, the DocuDent kit is a great resource to have at the ready, in the glove compartment.

The moments after a road accident – whether or not it was your fault – are a stressful blur, and not the time to be searching frantically for a pen and paper to write down all those important accident details. Let alone to try to remember exactly what information you need to collect from the other guy for your insurance claim, for the police, or both.

DocuDent is a handy kit that contains everything you need, inside a zippered pouch about the size of your overnight toiletry kit. Think of it as an auto-accident kit.

Instead of toothpaste, this handy kit contains the following --

• An accident report form that includes spaces for the names and addresses of passengers or witnesses,


• A pen to write it all down with,


• A whistle, just in case,


• Band-Aids, just in case,


• A disposable film camera with flash to take photos of the accident site, more dependable than a cell phone camera that has no flash,


• A gadget the size of your MP3 player that is a combination measuring tape and flashlight.

DocuDent also includes a handy pocket guide that suggests what photographs to take, and what you should not say to the other guy.

If you have a loved one heading off to college this fall, this is a great gear idea for the glove compartment. Consider it a $20 insurance policy.