Who are you?

My name is Mike. I’m a husband and father and car crash detective. I live close to Chicago, IL, have researched auto safety for several years, and have a personal investment in reducing their frequency and severity. This car safety blog is about a few I have looked into over the last several years, the people who died in them, and how to keep you and your loved ones alive on the road.

At the same time, I also have an interest in car seat safety, and have purchased or borrowed and reviewed a number of car seats in order to spread the word about the importance of Extended Rear Facing, which I believe to be as much a matter of life and death for young children as vehicular collisions are for children and adults alike. I dream of a day when virtually no young children in the United States die from vehicular collisions, and not the way things are today, where they are the leading cause of death for children between 1 and 14.

More broadly, my goal is to raise awareness about all kinds of motor vehicle collisions, as they are matters of public safety and are a part of of our communities. I don’t think most people know just how common these kinds of accidents are. However, on average, close to 100 people will lose their lives every single day of the year in collisions–almost all of which are due to human error and are completely preventable. To me, this is unacceptable.

Thirty five thousand people will die in car crashes this year in the United States. I hope the information here helps you keep your name and the names of the people you care about out of the local news tonight.

Sincerely,
Mike

Have you written any books? I’d like to learn more or share information with family aside from through the blog.

Certainly! All of my books are available for purchase here. Each purchase helps keep the blog going and funds additional research in auto safety on my part.

What does each crash analysis mean?

I primarily focus on two-vehicle crashes involving fatalities; others are important, but these are the least preventable from the perspective of the attentive, sober, law-abiding driver. In each crash, I look at the Who, the How, and the Why.

The Who focuses on the facts; the people and vehicles involved, the fatalities, locations, and information related to who the people themselves were. Everyone has a family, whether in siblings, parents, children, lovers, or simply friends who care about us. And none of them had to die.

The How focuses on the details of the crash, in terms of who hit who and what happened immediately afterward.

The Why focuses on risk factors, protective factors, and an analysis of the vehicles involved. The analysis might focus on weight discrepancies, the presence or absence of safety features, or any other elements that I deem relevant to the case.

Although this is primarily a car safety blog, car seat safety is also important, as our children are our most precious travelers. As a result, this is also a car seat blog, with information about car seat safety, car seat reviews, and similar information.

I want to make it clear, however, that I do not guarantee the accuracy of any information presented on this site. My calculations and conjectures are speculations based on my informal research into car collisions and auto safety. None of the information on the site or that results from my research should be taken as auto policy or indications of culpability in any of the collisions described here.

Contact

If you need to get in contact with me, are interested in ad space, marketing, or publicity, or would like to become a sponsor of the blog, please send an email to carcrashdetective [at] gmail [dot] com for more information. 

You’re doing a great job, Mike!

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases.  It costs nothing extra to do so, but when you shop through my links, a small portion of your purchase, regardless of what you buy, will go toward the maintenance of The Car Crash Detective.