Jacob Krippelz has won an 11-year legal battle against Ford over a lighting system he patented. In 1991, Krippelz patented his design for a small lamp mounted to side view mirrors, now known as a “puddle lamp”. He sent a copy of his patent to Ford soon after it was issued, according to court documents. The auto maker told him they were not interested in the invention. Six years later, Krippelz walked into his local Ford dealer and saw the lamp on a vehicle. Ford’s puddle lamp supplier had its own patent, which refers to Krippelz’s patent.

In December, a federal jury in Chicago awarded him $23 million in royalties for Ford’s patent infringement, but the case was not over. Last week, U.S. District Judge James Zagel more than doubled the award, to $55.6 million, due to “willful” infringement laws, after finding that Ford had sold vehicles with similar lamps even though the company knew of the potential infringement.

The Gwent Police Department in southeast Wales has made a film on the dangers of Texting and Driving. This very explicit and gory video, which runs four minutes, has been watched over four million times on YouTube.

In the film a young driver is texting as she is driving two friends along a two lane road. Distracted, the car drifts into oncoming traffic, hits another vehicle and has another vehicle crash into her vehicle killing her friends. But if that’s not enough, it shows close ups of a girls head hitting against a car window, and a baby in one of the other cars.

Some American companies are currently making their own videos to promote a stronger awareness about the dangers of texting and driving.

According to The American Automobile Association, they expect over 39.1 million people who will travel this holiday week end. Of that amount over 84% will be driving. Please drive safely.