Safety First

When I was in high school, I was in a terrible rollover car accident.

The roof of the car essentially split the driver's seat head rest in two. I was pulled out of the car while hanging upside down by some people who saw the accident happen. Although it was 18 year ago, I can still picture their faces.

Having to call my parents from the ambulance was possibly one of the hardest things I have ever done. I was too shaken up and choked up to get the words out and the paramedic had to take over. I have no idea how I walked away with a minor concussion.

Since then, I have kind of hated driving. I drive slow anyway, but when our children came into our family ...I slowed down even more. Precious cargo! And my kids were all adopted so I know their birth families are counting on me too.

Driving a car that I feel safe in is one of the main things I look at when purchasing a new vehicle. And the Honda Odyssey has an incredible safety scorecard. U.S. News and World Report highlighted the best of the Odyssey's safety features and gave them an incredible numbers.

So, put your mind to rest when you are in behind the wheel of the Honda Odyssey. It is a beast in the safety department.

Follow Lindsey Redfern of The R House as she falls in love with the 2013 Honda Odyssey. A reformed SUV enthusiast, she has seen the light and is passing her excitement onto you in the form of really sweet deals. Get the all details on how she can save you a little cash.

Honda Safety Feature Ranked #1

Edmunds Inside Line ranked their favorite new car features introduced on 2013 cars.  Their #1 favorite feature?  Honda new LaneWatch introduced on the 2013 Honda Accord.

Photo credit: Insideline.com

It looks like Edmunds and I agree!

Edmunds is even predicting that United States Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, will include this feature on "his wish list of future mandated safety technologies."

Safety Experiment You Never Want

When my husband and I bought our first Honda Accord, one of the big factors was Honda's superior safety rating.  It was a fundamental thing that I was taught as a child--that you want to be safe. When I was a kid--in the days before airbags and booster seats--my parents still insisted that we wear seat belts, even if we were in a friend's car and we had to dig the seat belts out of the crack all covered in crumbs. So caring about safety has always been a big thing and a big part of why we bought a Honda.

One day, home with our two young kids, I got the phone call no one wants.  It was from my husband's cell phone but I couldn't hear what he was saying. There was something strange in his tone and I frantically tried to call him back over and over with no answer.

When he finally got ahold of me--on someone else's phone--he told me that he'd been in head-on collision.  As my husband approached a green light, a guy, thinking he had a green arrow, turned suddenly into my husband's lane.  Only he didn't get very far before the two vehicles--both Honda's--met head on.

Our 1994 Honda Accord was totaled in 2001

Both drivers made a trip to the hospital for a precautionary check-up, but both men walked away from the accident with nothing more serious than whiplash and seat belt bruises.  My husband's cell phone didn't survive the accident and the car was totaled, but that night we went to bed really grateful.

See, we'd been driving a loaned beater (obviously, not a Honda) as our second vehicle.  It was the one my husband usually drove, but that day, knowing I didn't have anywhere special to go, he took the Accord on his errand.  It was a little miracle for our family, but to Honda engineers it wasn't a miracle at all.  It was exactly the way they'd planned it--with everybody going home after the accident safe and sound.

Taking Care of Your Blind Side

Did you see that movie, Blind Side?  You know the one with Sandra Bullock about the kid from the projects who goes on to professional football fame?  His position is left tackle and his job is to protect the quarterback's blind side.  Left tackle has become one of the big money positions--one professional football teams save top draft picks in order to get the best one.  And the teams that have a great left tackle, tend to be really good late in the season.

In your car, your blind side is on your right.  It's the spot you have to look the furthest to see--across your entire car, then over your shoulder.  Your side view mirrors help a lot, but they still leave you with a blind spot.

According to a recent study from Johns Hopkins, more than a quarter of a million car accidents occurs each year because of faulty lane changes. Anything that blocks the vision including people, visors, even the build of the vehicle can contribute to blind spot related accidents.

Enter the new 2013 Honda Accord with Lane Watch.  This little camera is like your left tackle--except it's on your right side.  With the camera on (which happens either when you turn on your right turn signal or when you press the button at the end of the turn signal lever) the display, just to the right of the steering wheel, shows the whole right side of the car with tremendous accuracy.

This first picture was what I could see using just my right side-mirror.  

This next picture is the Lane Watch view.  It's amazing how much more you can see.  I can even see the garbage cans that my kids forgot to bring in.

In an article on blind spots, Construction Exec magazine said, "Until mechanical vision systems such as blind-spot detection systems become standard, blind spots [will continue to be] a serious problem for every driver."

Thanks to the 2013 Honda Accord, Honda buyers now have the option to not have blind spots be a problem anymore!  Like one of those the "big money" players in the NFL, this is a quality product that's worth having.  And it's the kind of product that will even help us "later in the season."