Waterloo Automotive

Fourth of July weekend is a time for barbecues, fireworks and family. Many people like to enjoy an alcoholic beverage or two, but this becomes a problem when deciding to get behind the wheel. This holiday weekend has repeatedly been ranked on numerous sources as the deadliest holiday of the year— even more so than New Year’s Day. Sometimes it’s due to alcohol, and sometimes it’s not. Nonetheless, this weekend has repeatedly been considered a very dangerous time to get behind the wheel. You Drink, You Drive, You Lose Saturation Patrols
By now you are probably familiar with the MoDOT slogan “You drink, you drive, you lose.” This is especially true on holiday weekends. If you have had an alcoholic drink, don’t even think about driving. Make plans in advance for a taxi or designated driver if you must get back home. St. Louis area police have announced an increase of sobriety checkpoints and DWI saturation patrols over the holiday weekend starting on July 3r
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As school gets closer, we at Meyer’s and Waterloo Automotive have been using our blog to talk about teen driving safety. Soon they’ll be hopping into the driver’s seat to make their way to and from school, practice, work and, let’s face it, social activities. (Sometimes we parents like to forget that one.) Because auto accidents are the leading cause of death among teenagers in the U.S., however, we want to make sure they are as prepared to hit the road as possible and have the best chance of making it safely to their destinations. This week it’s all about seat belts, and, of course, we’re starting with stats. Not surprisingly, as an age group, teenagers are the least likely to wear seat belts both while driving and riding in a vehicle. The biggest offenders are teenage males who choose against seat belts 4% more often than females. According to teendriversource.org, some of the common reasons teens choose not to buckle up are because they aren’t c ... read more

According to the AAA Foundation, 94% of Americans consider texting while driving to be unacceptable behavior. Why then do more than 1/3 of us admit to engaging in it? Statistics show that any sort of cell phone use quadruples a driver’s risk of crashing–a number that skyrockets when it comes to teenagers. We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again: Automobile accidents are the leading cause of death among teenagers in the United States. Why? Because of a combination of factors that include inexperience, alcohol and—you guessed it—distractions. While the aforementioned habit of texting is just one of the many culprits, it’s where we’ll start. Texting while driving is a problem among every age group, but it is particularly heightened among younger drivers due to their culture. Statistics released in March of this year showed that today’s teenagers send and receive an average of 60 texts per day. And because teens reportedly expect text messages to be answere ... read more