Is Texting While Driving More Dangerous Than Drinking and Driving?

You're driving on the highway and your phone lights up.  You have a text from your friend.  What do you do?  Your first reaction is to see what it says.  A ton of people, mostly young adults and teens, aren't thinking of the consequences and dangers involved when texting while driving.  It doesn't really sink in until something happens to you or a close family or friend.

A solution that could help the problem is to get a car with Bluetooth capability, or buy one at a store.  Best Buy has the kind that you can put on your car visor that works real well for $80.  Click here to check it out.

Not only is Bluetooth convenient and cool, it’s also a major safety feature as well. Texting while driving increases the risk of a crash much more than previous studies have shown with motorists taking their eyes off the road longer than they do when talking or listening on their cell phones.

 

The Obama administration reported that nearly 6,000 people were killed and a half-million injured last year in vehicle crashes connected to driver distraction with cell phones and texting. Driver distraction was involved in 16% of all fatal crashes in 2009. Dialing a cell phone and using or reaching for an electronic device increased risk of collision about 6 times in cars and trucks.

 

According to a study released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), 80% of crashes and 65% of near-crashes involve some form of driver distraction. The distraction occurred within three seconds before the vehicle crash!

On any given day last year, more than 800,000 vehicles were driven by someone using a handheld cell phone during the day. The greatest proportion of distracted drivers were those age 20 and under. Twenty four states have already passed laws to make texting illegal while driving.

Think next time before you text in the car.  It may save your life or someone elses!

Please leave comments below!

The Man Behind The Philly Phanatic

Ever wonder who’s the big galoot in the shag-green suit that dances on top of the dugout and drives an ATV around Citizen’s Bank Park? It’s forty-five year old, Tom Burgoyne, whose 5’10”, 170 pounds, and has been wearing the thirty-five pound Phanatic suit for seventeen years, since the 1994 season.

Tom wasn’t green to being a Mascot when he first started with the Phillies. He had been the Hawk at Saint Joseph’s Prep when he was in college. Burgoyne remembers the day in 1989 when he browsed the want ads in The Philadelphia Inquirer. He was a year out of business school at Drexel and checked first under S, for sales, and then under M, for management. That's when he saw it: Mascot Wanted. He answered the blind ad, which turned out to be for the backup Phanatic.

He performed more than a thousand times in shopping malls and classrooms before, the original Phanatic, Dave Raymond, which left after sixteen years in 1994. Burgoyne has been the main man ever since.

"It's supposed to look easy," Burgoyne says. "But it's not. This is hard work. Sure, it smells, and you get the occasional foul ball to the noggin. I sweat through five T-shirts a night. But that's no big deal. You put some stick-on air fresheners in the head and Febreze under the armpits at night and you're good to go."

For more info about Tom Burgoyne, check out the two links below:

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/e-boland-and-the-bombers-1.812003/the-phillie-phanatic-speaks-1.1559644

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/tenworstjobs-10-mascot.htm

Conicelli Donates Coats to Children at the Fredrick Douglass Christian School

Conicelli Autoplex is donating coats for needy kids through Operation Warm and Auto Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia.  Operation Warm is one of the largest nonprofit organizations that distribute new winter coats in the United States to children that cannot afford them.

Dom Conicelli helping to bring boxes of coats into Fredrick Douglas Christian School.

Auto Dealers CARing for Kids Foundation purchased 10,000 new winter coats and, through Operation Warm, will distribute them to needy children in Philadelphia’s five-county area this fall.  Conicelli Nissan, Conicelli Honda, Conicelli Toyota, Conicelli Scion, and Conicelli Hyundai in Conshohocken, PA, and Conicelli Toyota in Springfield, PA have each agreed to donate an additional coat for each vehicle sold from September 1 to September 30, 2010.

Last year the combined franchises of Conicelli Autoplex donated a total of 900 coats to Operation Warm and the Automobile Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia for the 2009 Driving Away the Cold Campaign.

For more info about Operation Warm, please check out Conicelli's Facebook Fan Page!

Pat Buscemi's October 2010 Newsletter

First Look at the 2011 Honda Odyssey at Conicelli Honda

Unlike any Minivan you’ve ever seen, Honda introduces its fourth generation Odyssey this week. This is the ultimate family vehicle targeted for the y generation starting to have children. Toyota decided to target this market with its newly designed Toyota Sienna, aka Swagger Wagon, a few months ago and really set the bar for a hip twist on minivans. This type of minivan has never been seen before…until its biggest competitor came out of nowhere and one upped them.

Safety, quality, reliability, and style are just a few characteristics that can describe this new Honda. The Odyssey is wider and lower than the model it replaces. Under the hood is a 3.5L engine with 248 horsepower. This new minivan gets 18 mpg in the city and 27 mpg on the highway. It has the same trim levels as the third generation models: LX, EX, EX-L, and EX-L RES (Rear entertainment system), Touring, and Touring Elite.

The Touring Elite has a “cold box” in the lower center stack that keeps beverages cold while the vehicle is running. How cool is that!!

The interior has an expensive and upscale look much like an Acura. It has Bluetooth capability and heated seats. There is a "lightning-bolt" beltline. The "bolt" is functional, as it improves outward visibility from the third row seats. Instead of a 6 in dash cd player, there is 2GB of memory to store music inside the car. An EX-L Touring model has navigation of 60 GB of memory. They also have an HDMI cord for video games or Bluray players, 5.1 Surround Sound w/ 16.2 inch Ultra wide Entertainment System.

Please call Michael Hammond at 610-828-1400 ext 1128 for more info or to set an appointment to check out the all new 2011 Honda Odyssey.

Check out the new 2011 Honda Odyssey Commercial:

Please leave comments below and let us know what minivan you like better, Toyota Sienna or the new Honda Odyssey.

Patsautoworld.com Monthly Newsletter: September 2010



Conicelli First Look at the 2011 Nissan Juke

Nissans first crossover has made its way over to Conicelli Nissan three weeks before its official arrival date to get some pictures and videos for the dealership. The 2011 Nissan Juke is like a sports car with turbo mixed with an SUV.

Juke has a 1.6 liter DIG (Direct Injection Gasoline) Turbo engine and a 188 horsepower. 27mpg in the city and 32 mpg on the highway.

It is offered in both 4WD and FWD along with a 6 speed manual or automatic transmission. In the automatic, you have three different ways that you can drive: Economy, sport, or normal.

Nissan Juke is geared towards younger people. People that drive the Civic SI, Scions, and Volkswagens are paying particular attention to this new crossover in Nissan’s lineup.

Check out Conicelli’s Facebook Fan Page or Conicelli.com for more info on Nissan Juke.

Please leave comments below.