It is a fact that vehicles break down or other incidents may happen on the road causing your journey to come to a halt. If these events happen, remember to use one of the lessons learned from CA traffic school online, and use your AAA card. Fortunately, with AAA member services, you can be back on the road in no time. Here is why you should consider Triple AAA insurance for your roadside assistance needs.

24/7 Customer Service

AAA customer service is available around the clock to take care of your needs when on the road. Moreover, the company has fast response units; able to come to your rescue within a short time upon making a distress call. You are assured of assistance whenever you need it.

Get Assistance Wherever You Are

Triple A auto insurance has branches spread out across the country. If you have been wondering, ‘Is there a triple A near me? Then worry no more. You can access the roadside service wherever you are across the USA and Canada in no time. Enjoy peace of mind on the road knowing that someone has got your back covered.

In addition, you can use the Triple A service even if you are carpooling with a friend or family member. The triple A membership provides the benefits to members and not a given vehicle. It means that if you are with someone who has car problems; you can help them get roadside assistance with your card.

Towing assistance

Triple A towing offers to tow your vehicle when it is immobilized due to a mechanical, electrical failure or due to an accident. The vehicle is towed to the nearest garage for fixing. This saves you from spending lots of time on the road trying to fix a problem or waiting for a service center technician to fix your car. The service also guarantees your safety, which comes in extra handy if your vehicle breaks down near an unsafe location, woods or in foul weather. Triple A prioritizes calls made by people in dangerous and unsafe places to get them out of danger as soon as possible.

Prompt Service

All members should always have the AAA phone number with them when they are on the road. This enables them to call AAA swiftly when they run into problems on the road. There is always someone on the other side waiting to respond to their needs or answer their questions.

Enjoy Great Discounts with Your Card

In addition to roadside assistance, you can use your Triple A card to get discounts at selected retail centers, movie shops and gas stations among other areas. You can locate these AAA preferred partners by connecting to the AAA mobile app. You will just click to find a hotel near me or other service provider and you will get directions to the nearest service provider.

Keep Your Card with You Always

If you are asking, ‘Can I use AAA without my card?’ You cannot use the service without the card. However, if you have a friend traveling who has a card with him, he or she can ask for assistance using his or her number. Fortunately, you do not have to carry a physical card. There is a Triple A digital card that you can carry with your AAA app. It is easy to use and very convenient.
Consider enrolling for Triple A service as soon as you leave the traffic school. It will save you from wondering, ‘Is there road assistance near me?’ as you will get quality roadside assistance service wherever you are. As a member, you only need your card and Triple A phone number: 800-AAA-HELP (800-222-4357) and your road problems are sorted.

• For information on When To Call AAA for Road Service, click:
  Six Tips to Know When Calling AAA for Road Service

Whether you’re taking a defensive driving course online or in person, there are various rules, regulations and laws that you’ll be filled in on. For some, this will be nothing more than a review of what you learned in your driver’s training program when you were working toward earning your driver’s license. But for others, for one reason or another, what is gleaned may be additional information that otherwise may not have been known. A driving safety course is beneficial for a lot of reasons.

For starters, it can help convey to your insurance company that you’re serious about your driving and help to lower your annual premiums. Successful completion can also prevent traffic citations from going on your driving record. Whatever the reason for your driving course attendance, one of the biggest things you’ll learn is how to drive safe while on the road. On that note, we present the top rules of defensive driving:

The Top Rules of Defensive Driving

1. Mad Max

I know what you’re thinking: Nobody from Mad Max can possibly be considered a great defensive driver. Think again! Have you seen all the armor on the Mad Max vehicles?! There is absolutely no possibility that another vehicle can get through that armor and damage their vehicle or hurt them!

2. Driving Miss Daisy

For those that are not familiar with the movie, an elderly woman, Miss Daisy, wanted to keep her independence, but ended up crashing her car. After she does this, her son arranges for her to have a chauffeur. Want to know the best way that you can be a safe, defensive driver? Don’t even drive at all! Have somebody else drive you around. You will never crash into anybody or get any tickets. Plus, you can have all the margaritas you want and still make it home safe!

3. Trojan Warrior

Back in the heyday of the Trojans, they galloped around in some pretty fancy chariots. Of course, these defensive drivers had their swords and shields to use for defensive purposes to protect themselves and their chariots. How could they not be safe drivers with all their armor?

4. An Individual with a Pillow Filled Car

Have you ever driven in a car that is filled to the brim with pillows? Of course not! Most people haven’t, but that one random individual that does travel in pillow heaven would have the benefit of being super safe with all that extra padding. It’s like driving on a cloud. Every hump and bump on the road is A-Okay because he does not feel a thing! Yay for money saved because it should keep the “bodily injury” costs down… hopefully!

5. A Driver on Carmageddon

The best Carmageddon drivers were witnessed in the original, when everyone was driving cars like yours and you had to kill them. Everyone was out for blood. Of course, some might argue that better defensive drivers are in the second version… because it is safer to drive when there are absolutely no other drivers/or when only zombies on the roadway. If nobody else is around, nobody can hit you. As a bonus, you can drive as crazy as you want and there’s nobody else around to get in your way!

6. Power Rangers

Anybody that grew up in the 90’s knows that the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers vehicles were pretty awesome and when they joined together, they formed the super-powerful Megazord. No villains or other vehicles, none the less, would possibly mess with the Megazord, if they came across it on the road.

7. Demolition Derby Driver

I know, I know, the whole point in a demolition derby is crashing and completing demolishing other vehicles, so this one is a shocker. However, within those cars, the driver has special racing straps/seatbelts, that keep them firmly in their seat. In addition, typically, there are alterations to the car to keep the driver safe. Plus, they must be skilled drivers to win!

8. Michelin Man

The Michelin Man would be the safest of safe drivers. He is just made of tires, fluff, and air, so any bumps on the road wouldn’t hurt a bit. He has been representing Michelin tires since 1894, so he should know a thing or two about cars and driving!

9. Bumper Car Driver

While bumper cars can get a tad bit bumpy, these drivers could not be any safer! Firstly, they never leave the amusement park. Careening down the path at a whopping top speed of 2 mph, they are far from fast and furious! Plus, they can only drive in one direction… in counter-clockwise circles… within a 50 ft. x 50 ft. pen! Most of the fellow drivers are children that are out to get their siblings or friends. Even if the driver comes across a child that happened to develop a personal vendetta against them upon first glance, they have that lovely bumper buffer to absorb the blows of their tiny attack. Plus, there is always a competent ride attendant present to chaperone all the hustle and bustle of the two-minute ride. Bump away!

10. Someone who hasn’t bathed in over 3 months

The smellier, the better to keep other cars away! They just need to roll the window down and let their au natural Eau de Parfum do the talking. Just like the Grinch, nobody would want to touch him or his car with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!

These days, we can’t imagine driving even to the corner store without listening to either a channel on the AM/FM signal that comes through our car’s antenna or the bevy of satellite radio channels that are available.

But car radios weren’t always such a luxury. In fact, when car radios first hit the scene in the 1920s, they weren’t only expensive, but they were somewhat of an inconvenience. Yes, the first car radios appeared in Chevrolet cars – and they were so big that they barely even fit into the car when you accounted for the size of their speakers, antennas and batteries.

You hold your breath as you carefully turn on your blinker to make a right turn onto a four-lane road. Your passenger helpfully advises, “Get into the left lane,” and you do. And that’s why you flunk your driving test — you should’ve gotten into the right lane, then signaled, looked over your shoulder and changed lanes. Darn it!

If you were unsuccessful on the first try at your driving test, it probably made you feel like a big old loser. After all the buildup, having to retake an online driver’s ed course or going to work and telling people you failed felt like wearing a “dunce” cap and sitting on a stool in the corner.

You’re not alone, if you’re one of the many people who didn’t pass right away. In the ‘90s, the state of California actually made its driving test easier because so many people — 64 percent! — were flunking on the first try. But anyone who’s failed their driving test for making a simple error can’t hold a candle to some people who have failed their tests in spectacularly bad fashion. Here are the TOP 3 offenders:

Sink or swim

One lady in England reportedly showed up to take her test — for the fifth time — and drove straight into a river. Luckily for her, her swimming skills got her back to shore. The instructor wasn’t so lucky, however. He climbed on the roof of the car and yelled for help.
You can read the full story< a href="https://www.1stdrive.com/funny-driving-lesson-stories/">here.
Take it to the bank

In another widely reported case of flat-out nutty driving tests, a woman failed because within 10 seconds of getting behind the wheel, she drove into a bank and flipped her car on its roof.

For Full Story, CLICK HERE

If at first…

For some reason, many of the craziest driving tests tend to pop up in England — driving on the wrong side of the road, maybe?

In one widely publicized case, a 42-year-old man reportedly failed his driving test 36 times. But, good news, the 37th time was the charm!

Another 30-year-old man still hadn’t passed after 86 tries…

And another English lady was said to have failed her driving theory test some 110 times…

For Full Story, CLICK HERE

Why is it so hard for some people?

The requirement of a test to get a driver’s license exists in some form throughout the world, and road tests are designed to test a driver’s ability under normal conditions. In the United States, one of the reasons that passing driving tests can prove difficult is that they can vary by state.

Just before the turn of the 20th century, New York City and Chicago became the first places to require passing a test before being allowed to drive a vehicle. In 1903, Missouri and Massachusetts became the first states to require that drivers have licenses, but Missouri didn’t require a test!

Your mileage may vary

Since then, there’s never been a standardized driving test in the United States, and driving requirements vary. In South Dakota, you must be 14 years and 3 months old to get a restricted license. In New Jersey, the age is 17. Drivers younger than 18 typically are required to take some type of driver education course before testing for a license. In New York, that restriction also applies to adults driving for the first time.

Driving can be tough

With all the varying restrictions, it’s no surprise that some would-be drivers won’t pass their test on the first go — or maybe even the 10th. But as with many activities in life, practice makes perfect.
For drivers who have received a moving traffic violation or wish to earn a discount on car insurance, defensive driving courses or traffic schools can be the solution. If you’ve gotten a traffic ticket, traffic court in your county may let you go to traffic school to have the ticket dismissed with no points added to your record. If you voluntarily enroll in traffic school, you may even earn a safe driver discount from your car insurance company.

Oh, and let’s not forget, that while state law considers texting while driving a misdemeanor with a possible fine of up to $150, Lyndhurst makes it a fourth-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a possible $250 fine. That’s a heckuva lot more serious offense than the state provides for and might actually make drivers think first before getting behind the wheel with a handheld device.

My Improv is an online Ohio defensive driving school but there is nothing funny about driving distracted. Studies have shown that distracted driving is at least as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol and causes more fatalities each year. Not only that, but incidents of distracted driving have been rising consistently for the past few years and the trend shows they are continuing that upward tick this year.

But perhaps not in Lyndhurst, Ohio.

In case you were wondering, our traffic school online California does not actually cover what you should do in case a snake crawls between your legs while you are driving, but we do help you prepare for just about every other situation.

In fact, we are fairly certain there isn’t a driving course anywhere that covers what to do in case of ‘snake attack’ while driving, so the market is currently open for one. What do cover is how to avoid distractions of the more common variety: cells phones, kids in the backseat; and how to respond correctly to driver safety laws and regulations in your state.

There is no way to prepare yourself for every eventuality, but a little preparedness can go a long, long way when it comes to driver safety. Even when dealing with king snakes in the front seat.

This seems to fly in the face of logic. After all, public safety experts are unanimous in their claims that distracted driving is now the leading cause of fatal vehicle collisions in the United States. They also seem united in their belief that the rates of distracted driving are increasing. This information has been the driving force behind legislative attempts to mitigate the risks caused by distracted driving by passing laws which are intended to limit a driver’s ability to engage in behavior which could increase the risk of them having a collision.

According to the recent survey, state police agencies report handing out an average of one or two distracted driving citations per day. When you consider the millions of drivers on the roads each and every day, one or two citations hardly seems worth the effort.

Our comedy defensive driving course likes to poke fun at the things which all drivers can relate to. Like the driver who refuses to come to a complete stop at a stop sign. But distracted driving is no laughing matter. With all the legislation currently on the books meant to keep all drivers safe from the risks of distracted driving clearly lawmakers are convinced distracted driving is a very real threat.

When police start handing out more citations based on the laws on the books, perhaps the steadily increasing trend of distracted driving crashes will finally reverse itself.

This week Maryland legislators gave the law teeth by introducing legislation intended to upgrade it to a primary offense. That means that talking on a cell phone while you are driving can get you a citation as fast as speeding through a school zone. Of course, talking on a cell phone while you are stopped at a traffic light is still perfectly legal.

The bill will need to be approved by both houses and be signed by the governor before becoming law, so there is still time to adjust your driving habits before you run afoul of any changes in the law. And avoiding distractions while driving is a good idea regardless of what the law demands.

The first offense would be punishable by up to a $75 fine. A second offense could bring a ticket of up to $125, and a third could result in a $175 fine.

The driver suffered minor injuries and was treated and released at a local hospital. Her boy friend was uninjured in the crash, but the house was nearly completely destroyed. The driver crashed through two rooms and a plate glass window before coming to a stop inside the house. The house had been vacant for the last several weeks, so fortunately there was nobody inside when the distracted driver made an unexpected entry.

Although the story might make you chuckle someone could have been seriously injured or killed if circumstances were just slightly altered. The police certainly weren’t laughing. They arrested the driver on a charge of careless driving once she was released from the local hospital. She will now be paying fines, fees, have points added to her Florida driver’s license and be held responsible for damages to the house she drive through.

According to the National Highway Traffic safety Administration the number of vehicle crashes caused by distracted driving has eclipsed the number of vehicle collisions caused by drunk driving and continues to climb. The NHTSA says that the majority of distracted driving crashes are being caused by drivers using handheld devices to talk, text or email their friends and family, but not all. Obviously at least a few of these distracted driving crashes are caused when the driver stops paying attention to the road ahead and allows themselves to become distracted by something else.

In this case even love can be the wrong thing when you are behind the wheel of an automobile.

Ready to quit drinking? QuitAlcohol.com can help!

In Idaho, much as in the rest of the country, teenage drivers are at a much higher risk of being involved in a fatal vehicle collision. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vehicle collisions remain the leading cause of death for teenagers in the United States.

So far, more than 40 states have some sort of ban on distracted driving. Some ban all use of handheld devices, while most simply ban texting and driving. What is being proposed in Idaho by AAA is similar to bans in other states which place more restrictions on young drivers than they do on more experienced drivers.

The idea here is not to make life difficult for young drivers, but to make defensive driving easier. Distracted driving means that the driver is doing something, anything, other than focusing all their attention on the skill of driving. Being distracted is going to increase a drivers risk of missing something important: a slowing vehicle, a child crossing the road, poor driving conditions. Any one of those things,or something completely unexpected, might be enough to cause a vehicle collision.

The Idaho state legislature has not yet responded to the proposal by the Idaho AAA but it seems certain, if public support for such a ban exists, they will have to do something.

Peggy Smedley, editorial director/publisher of Connected World magazine said, “In 2009 more than 5,000 people were killed because of distracted driving. I recently spoke with Ray LaHood who called distracted driving an epidemic because everyone has a cellphone or texting device. We’re encouraging the public to come out and see all the new devices that automakers are putting into cars to deal with this issue.”

Faced with repeated studies that show that the most dangerous thing about a car is what the driver is doing, and the huge rise of a variety of handheld devices, automobile manufacturers are doing their best to find ways of controlling the behavior of drivers and making their driving experience safer.

The 2012 Connected World Conference sets the stage for what’s next in M2M and connected devices. But it is also trying to address the mounting concerns from safety officials, police and legislators who feel the rise of mobile devices if also decreasing safety on the roads. (Even pedestrians are regularly creating hazards for themselves by trying to walk while staring at their handheld device. YouTube is full of videos of these folks falling into fountains, tripping over benches and walking into light poles.)

Addressing the issue of vehicle safety is not just the job of automobile manufacturers or the people who design and sell handheld devices. The fact is, as every defensive driver already knows, driving safely is more about how you drive than what you drive or what sort of portable digital device you own.

In crash investigation after crash investigation the leading cause is almost always proven to be the behavior of the driver. They might be speeding, ignoring traffic safety devices (like stop signs or traffic lights) or trying to send a text or make a phone call. Regardless of what they’re doing, it is their behavior and not the inanimate device which is responsible for what happens next.

It’s not the law they are having trouble with (although not everyone is in favor of a new handheld devices ban) it’s when the new law goes into effect.

Safe drivers understand the dangers of distracted driving and do not allow distractions from handheld devices while they drive. They know that anything which calls their attention away from driving is dangerous, regardless of whether it is a handheld device, the radio dial or even a conversation with a passenger in the vehicle. And based on a study by the National Traffic Safety Administration they are correct to be concerned.

Repeated studies have shown that drivers who are distracted are more than twice as likely to suffer a serious vehicle collision as drivers whose attention is focused directly on driving. In fact, drivers using a handheld device are almost twice as likely as drivers under the influence of alcohol to have a serious crash because unlike a drunk driver who is likely being overly attentive, they simply are not watching what they are doing or where they are going.

In West Virginia, texting or using a handheld cellphone while driving becomes a secondary traffic offense on July 1, 2012. However, because distracted driving has been proven to be a very real cause of serious and fatal traffic collisions, it is never too soon to stop doing it. safe drivers know that anything they can do be safer, and stay safer, on the roads is an excellent idea and should be embraced immediately.

In West Virginia, as in more than three dozen other states, it is not only a good idea to stop using your handheld device behind the wheel, it will also soon be the law, resulting in citations for drivers who do not pay heed to the new law.

But not everyone is convinced that handheld devices pose the same sort of danger as drunk driving and question whether the federal government isn’t overstepping its bounds when it comes to limiting what you can and can’t do in your own car.

In a recent opinion piece, Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor for National Review, stated his reasons for opposing any sort of ban on distracted driving, including providing what he considers evidence that the NTSB inflated the risks associated with the use of handheld devices.

And the evidence for LaHood’s “epidemic” talk is overblown. Advocating the NTSB’s preferred ban, its chairman Deborah Hersman noted that 3,092 people had died in distracted-driving incidents in 2010. The Transportation Department estimates that Americans drove 3 trillion miles that year. That works out to 970 million miles driven for each distracted-driving fatality.

To put these numbers in further perspective: Drunken driving caused more than three times as many fatalities. And mobile phones were not the main cause of distractions, either, even if Hersman implied that they were. In 2009, the Transportation Department found that phones were either being used by or “in the presence of” a driver in 18 percent of distracted-driving fatalities. Another department report concluded that “conversing with a passenger was the most common source of distraction” from inside cars.

Ponnuru is hardly alone in his disbelief that distracted driving is as big a public safety hazard as the NTSB claims it is. Texas lawmakers have expressed serious doubts and said that any move to ban the use of handheld devices should be done at the municipal level, not statewide or nation wide.

While experts debate the merits of a distracted driving ban, many others see the questions as a moot point. They say that anything which might increase the level of safety on American roadways and decrease any traffic fatalities is worth the effort.

The California State Senate approved a measure which would ultimately raise the fine for anyone caught using their cell phone while behind the wheel.

Senate Bill 1310 increases the fines for breaking the hands-free and no texting laws from $20 to $30 for a first-time offense, and from $50 to $60 for subsequent offenses.

The total cost of a first offense, including penalties, would rise to roughly $199, depending on the county. Second offenses would cost about $371

According to a press release, the extra money from the tougher law would be used to fund a distracted driving education program in the California Office of Traffic Safety.

California Highway Patrol has repeatedly conducted distracted driving campaigns focused on finding and ticketing drivers who refuse to put down their cell phones or other handheld devices while trying to navigate California highways. Despite these increased patrols, hundreds of drivers have been caught and hundreds more are still doing it–hence the increased fines.

And the effort to curb distracted behavior on the roadways doesn’t stop with cars. If passed SB1310 would also levy fines on bicyclists who ride distracted. They would pay just $20 for first offense and $50 for each subsequent offense, and with no fees and would not get a point on their record for second offenses, but the bill is being supported by the California Bicycle Coalition which means it has bilateral support.

Repeated studies have shown that distracted driving behaviors, whether it is talking on a cell phone, sending and receiving text messages; updating social media or even sending and receiving emails, all leads to an increased risk of having a vehicle collision. Every vehicle collision adds to the costs everyone pays for insurance; increases the risk of serious of injury or death and generally causes a lot of problems for everyone who rides or drives on the roads.

The conference was sponsored by insurance giant USAA, the Texas Department of Transportation and Shriners Hospitals for Children.

It is interesting, and perhaps not a coincidence, that LaHood made his comments at a conference in Texas, seeing as how legislators there have made it clear that even a statewide ban on distracted driving is too much of an infringement on civil liberties, opting instead to allow municipalities to take whatever steps they deem necessary in their communities.

In the meantime, public and private agencies are denouncing distracted driving as the number one cause of fatal crashes in the United States. This past December the National Transportation Safety Board released a report which showed that distracted driving was already causing more fatal vehicle crashes than driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and that the incidence of distracted driving crashes has increased drastically the past few years and is showing no signs of abating.

According to the NTSB, there were 3,000 fatal crashes last year caused by distracted driving. All of which could be prevented if people simply put down their handheld devices and focused their attention instead on the skill of driving defensively. Unlike drunk drivers whose cognitive skills are diminished by alcohol and therefore, by definition, are not thinking clearly, distracted drivers have no reason to be taking their eyes off the road or doing anything except paying attention to the road ahead.