A New App — About Your Car

We are used to new apps. One will tell you when to water your plants, another will tell you how many calories you just consumed — or burned off. But a new app from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) promises to deliver timely information and hot headlines about car safety right to your own phone.

The Safer Car app is available free from iTunes for the iPhone or iPod Touch. An Android version is under development. Released along with the NHTSA Application Programming Interface (API), these products are designed to provide fast public access to safety information specific to their own model vehicles.

With the Safer Car app, you can expect the following:

• Ratings. Access to collision test ratings across models and brands helps you make smart choices about cars you are interested in for purchase or for lease.
• Car seats. An improperly installed car seat can prove dangerous to the youngest members of your family. The app provides information about your seat and the nearest location for help with installation.
• Safety alerts. Register your model car and receive important safety and recall information about your car as soon as NHTSA makes it available.
• Register a complaint. Now you can quickly alert NHTSA to problems with your car that can help identify systemic problems with the model that could affect others.

As an open source application, Safer Car can be integrated by developers into other products to provide up-to-date safety and other information.

Along with the NHTSA, we hope the SaferCar app will help clients make good choices for themselves and their family. But accidents happen. If staying safe is not possible and injury in a motor vehicle accident occurs, seek experienced legal advice.