Last week it was announced that a Massachusetts company would be bringing a flying car to market in 2010, but a German man who drove his car into a church roof obviously couldn’t wait that long.

At about 11pm, the 23-year-old driver in eastern Germany, about 2 hours south of Berlin, missed a turn while driving his Skoda Octavia and hit an embankment, sending the car 115 feet in the air and landing on the Lutheran church’s roof about 23 feet in the air.

Police said the embankment acted as a ski jump, sending the driver flying almost 40 yards through the air.

“We’ve never ever had a case of a car landing in a church before,” said Frank Fischer, a spokesman for Chemnitz police in the state of Saxony.

Police estimated the damage to the car totaled about 10,000 euros ($13,000) but an estimate for the damage to the church had yet to be determined.

A crane needed to be brought in to remove both the car and the driver from the roof. The driver was taken to the hospital for injuries which police said were not life threatening.

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In what should be good news to most drivers in areas where speed cameras exist, an Arizona county has decided to stop using the devices saying they “failed miserably.”

Saying the fines issued using the cameras only resulted in a “paltry” profit and citing a 16 percent increase in accidents during the use of the cameras, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said the county was shelving the program even before the contract is up next month.

“I’m against photo speed enforcement completely,” Babeu told Pinal County supervisors this week according to the Arizona Republic.

The paper says that the county’s contract with the company that operates the cameras does not expire until February 20th, but the vans that hold the cameras have not been used since Babeu took office on January 1st.

But for Arizona drivers who hate seeing cameras on the road, the joy in the speed cameras’ failure might be short lived. The Arizona Republic says the sheriff is looking into the possibility of installing red-light cameras in the county.

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It seems that used car buyers are more internet savvy than ever with a reported 75 percent of website walk-in shoppers saying a Carfax report influenced their purchase.

Cars.com and Carfax renewed their partnership earlier this week which will allow users to view Carfax reports directly from the Cars.com website.

Carfax communications director Larry Gamache says the relationship is beneficial as more and more people go to the web as their first place to research a car purchase.

“More used car shoppers than ever start their search on the Internet,” said Gamache. “Online shoppers can evaluate hundreds of cars at multiple dealer locations. Continuing our partnership with Cars.com ensures that our dealer customers have the necessary resources to turn more online shoppers into in-store buyers.”

By typing in the vehicle identification number of a car a driver is thinking of purchasing, a user can get a full history of the car in question which can help them determine if the car is a good purchase or not.

Cars.com says it has been offering the Carfax report free of change since 2005.

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There are a number of reasons to consider buying a used car instead of a new one, with the primary reason for most people being price. But if one of your major motivations is the environment, then a used car could be more environmentally friendly.

Even when taking fuel efficiency into account, it is probably better for the environment for someone to buy used.

According to the Hartford Courant, from a “green” perspective, it’s better to drive an older, well-maintained car that gets 25 miles per gallon than to buy a new car that gets 35 miles per gallon.

“And don’t forget that the new hybrids – despite lower emissions and better gas mileage – actually have a much larger environmental impact in their manufacture, compared with non-hybrids,” says the paper.

The paper says that while it may seem better for the environment to buy a new hybrid, the batteries used to store energy are not environmentally friendly, and the manufacturing emissions to create the car are higher.

If it is absolutely necessary to get rid of a car because of its lack of fuel efficiency, the paper suggests turning a gas-guzzler in for a used car with better gas mileage.

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A Michigan man had a string of bad luck on Tuesday that ended with his 1994 Buick sinking into a frozen river near the U.S./Canadian border.

On Tuesday, an unnamed man went out looking for his dog when he drove onto the frozen Black River in Port Huron, Michigan. Because of extremely cold temperatures in the area, it is not uncommon for snowmobiles and cars to drive onto the river St. Clair County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Matt Paulus told the Detroit Free Press.

However, when the man got out of the car, he locked the keys inside with the car running. The heat from the running engine melted the ice below and the car eventually became submerged.

Paulus told the paper that it is not uncommon for police to have to fish a car out of the river in the winter months.

“We usually get a couple a year,” he said. “We already had two snowmobiles go in last week.”

To make matters even worse for the man, the car he was driving was not his own. According to police, the man was using a loaner car from a local collision shop as his car was being repaired.

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Among the unforeseen problems resulting from the recession is an increase in the amount of motorists on the road without any insurance.

That’s according to a new study from the Insurance Research Council which predicts a sharp increase in the amount of uninsured drivers from 13.8 percent in 2007 to 16.1 percent by 2010.

The increase in people without insurance could affect insured drivers, as they are likely to see rates increase or could be forced to have more coverage.

“Most people who are insured have uninsured motorists coverage and that protects them in the event they are hit by someone who doesn’t have insurance,” said IRC spokesperson David Corum. “So obviously, that does increase the cost of insurance for those who are insured.”
Of states with the most insured drivers, New York ranked fourth with only 5 percent of the state’s motorists being uninsured.

The study found a correlation between the number of uninsured drivers in the country and the national unemployment rate and expects uninsured drivers to increase as the number of unemployed rises.

In addition to New York, states in the Northeast had a fairly low uninsured driver rate with Pennsylvania coming in seventh, New Jersey 11th, Connecticut 16th, Delaware ranking 18th and Maryland 27th.

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Georgia police made a shocking discovery after making a routine traffic stop outside of Atlanta finding more than $1 million in cash.

On Friday, Santiago Valdovinos-Moreno was pulled over after officers witnessed his car swerving in and out of a lane in Lawrenceville, Georgia, about 45 minutes outside of Atlanta.

While speaking with Valdovinos-Moreno, police say he pushed an officer and attempted to flee the scene on foot, but was captured and charged with obstruction of a law enforcement officer, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

It was in searching the car following the arrest that police made the discovery of more than $1 million in a duffel bag, which was seized.

Ironically enough, Valdovinos-Moreno is being held on $1 million cash-only bond, according to the news provider.

It’s probably unlikely that anyone searching for a New York used car will find anywhere near $1 million, but it is possible for buyers to save a great deal of money by purchasing a used car with some reports saying consumers can save up to 19 percent on a car that is only one year old.

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