FL man injured after attempting to show skills to football recruiters by jumping moving car

There are the right ways to get noticed by football scouts and there are the wrong ways. Performing life-threatening car stunts to show your skills are definitely in the latter category, but Bladimir Barreto, 19, of Palm Bay, Florida, decided that videotaping himself jumping over a moving car was an appropriate way to display his vertical jump to college recruiters. Instead of landing a spot on a college football team, though, Barreto landed himself in the hospital with serious injuries.

 

Attempting to mimic stunts performed by a certain crazy Swede and Kobe Bryant, Barreto had one of his brothers drive toward him in a '80s Honda Accord while another brother recorded it all. Instead of clearing the sedan, it looks like Barreto mistimed his jump, resulting in him being hit by the car and thrown into the air. The YouTube video description says that he suffered broken legs and a serious head injury, but USA Today did not give specifics, only saying that he was conscious when life-flighted to a nearby hospital.

The report does say that the police charges are pending against the driver of the car for not having a valid driver's license and reckless driving.

Warning: While not overly graphic, the video below could be disturbing to some viewers. And, obviously, don't try this at home. 

 

Credit : Autoblog

Surveillance camera shows Mercedes driver parking fail

It's happened to you or someone you know: You think your car is in Park and begin to exit your vehicle, and then it starts to roll. Now, most drivers catch themselves that moment, step on the brakes, throw the gearshift into Park and wait for their heart rate to come back down. This was not one of those times.

In this case, a Mercedes-Benz E-Class is the unfortunate vehicle involved caught on a security camera, and its operator thinks that the car is in Park or that the emergency brake is engaged. We won't even talk about the fact that the driver nearly drags the car along a cement wall while backing it out, but it it appears to come to a stop on the entrance to the street. When the driver gets out to pick something up in the driveway, the luxury sedan starts to crawl forward thanks to gravity, and unfortunately for the driver, it's aimed directly at her.

The driver initially manages to avoid being run over by her own Mercedes-Benz, but in the process of attempting to recover, things get... worse. We'll keep the conclusion a surprise until you check out the video below.

While you may not go to hell for muffling a chuckle in response to this video, we feel bad for the victim here. There is no description for this video, so we cannot confirm if she was badly hurt, but hopefully not. And we can't help but sympathize a little – we've always felt that Benz's newer column-mounted electronic gear selector (with its "P" button on the end of the stalk) can be a bit fiddly. Clearly, it takes some practice. 

 

 

Credit : autoblog.com

Rides : Video - Vin Diesel Can't Drive

We’ve all seen movies like the Fast and the Furious, the Chronicles of Riddick or the Pacifier, but we are mostly interested in cars so we don’t really care about anything but the Fast and the Furious series in this case, where Vin Diesel had the main role and was driving under trucks and flying with cars off cliffs. But who ever knew that the Hollywood star can’t drive?

Mr. Bad-Ass himself was caught by cameras while trying to get his big SUV out of a parking space and even with some help he couldn’t get out. In fact, judging by the video, he is still probably there and just about to order a cab. Tough luck for the sixth movie from the Fast and the Furious series that’s scheduled to hit the big screens next year or the year after that.
Here’s a tip, Vin, get a Fiat 500, but not the Abarth because that’s really fast and you don’t want to end up on top of a tree! Now get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich!

Tech : DriveMeCrazy Keeps Track of Bad (and Good) Drivers

DriveMeCrazy is like a "how is my driving" bumper sticker for anyone with an iOS device, letting you flag aggressive or bad drivers using voice recognition. It can rate and review any registered license plate to provide instant driving feedback.

The next time you come across a negligent or aggressive driver, warn them with DriveMeCrazy. The new iOS application lets you verbally speak a drivers license plate and record a brief message or rating.

The app also lets you track your or own personal license to see what others are saying about your driving, or follow closely with how others are driving near you. DriveMeCrazy doesn't just offer a stick for bad drivers, but lets you provide positive feedback for good drivers as well. Additionally, the next time someone catches your eye at a stop light, you can flag them as "cute" and check back later to see if they saw your message.

Driver data collected by DriveMeCrazy is submitted to both insurance companies and local law enforcement. Hopefully, taking the anonymity out from driving will lead to less aggressive drivers and help to create safer roads.

New Jersey Drivers Made Blizzard Mess Worse

Reuters

A truck stuck in a snow bank is shoveled out in Hoboken, N.J., on Monday. Hundreds of New Jersey motorists required help from state officials.

About 2,300 drivers had to be helped on New Jersey’s major roadways during and after blizzard, and some families camped out in their cars with engines running for up to 12 hours, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Transportation Commissioner James Simpson said he saw drivers –- even truckers –- who had no business being on the road and looked as if they usually only drove occasionally or on the weekends. “People did not heed any advice,” he said. “On Route 1, people were going shopping to get their after-Christmas discounts while the storm was raging.”

He also saw something he’d never seen before: drivers stopping in the middle of the New Jersey Turnpike, getting out and cleaning off their windshield.

“We were yelling at people left and right, get out of your car and pull off to the side,” he said.

On Route 280 near West Orange, cars that had trouble with steep hills slid into each other and other drivers became stuck while trying to navigate around the mess. The resulting traffic jam blocked plows and made a bad situation worse.

“You had a lot of cars that were spinning out because they didn’t have the right tires, they didn’t have the right transmission, they didn’t have four-wheel drive,” Simpson said. “The next thing you know, it looked like a bunch of kids’ toys that somebody had just shaken up and thrown out of a box.”

Nobody was hurt on New Jersey’s major roadways, Simpson said. Hundreds were taken to shelters but others stayed with their vehicles. State Police officers provided fuel when necessary, he said.

Two hockey players on the New Jersey Devils, Patrik Elias and Travis Zajac, were caught in the storm on Route 280. Near Holmdel, four buses slid and blocked the roadway.

Thousands of pieces of equipment –- public and private –- were used to try to clear off the roads, with some plows also getting stuck in the massive snow accumulations. With 20 to 30 inches of snow across much of the state, winds up to 50 mph and six-foot snow drifts, attempts to clear to roads often felt futile.

“After we come through with the plows, the winds were blowing horizontally,” Simpson said. “They were blowing the snow right back onto the highway. So it was like, what are we doing? It’s like we can’t win here.”

Simpson said New Jersey drivers need to take more personal responsibility and stay off the roads during blizzards. He said it was too soon to say where the state’s response could be improved, but putting GPS technology in all the response vehicles would make it easier to coordinate the fleet in the future.