Previous work has shown that the availability of vehicle sound improves estimates of the arrival time of accelerating vehicles compared to visual-only estimates, which tend to follow a first-order pattern (i.e., they appear to ignore the acceleration, resulting in dangerous overestimations of the vehicle’s arrival time). Here, we studied two potential explanations of the observed effects: a) the vehicle sound directs participants attention towards the accelerated motion, allowing them to make second-order estimates, or b) people continue to use only first-order motion information but shorten their estimates when the vehicle sound indicates acceleration. We presented congruent and incongruent combinations of kinematics (constant velocity or accelerated motion) and sound (sound of an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) driving either with constant velocity or accelerating). Thus, on some trials a constant-velocity motion was accompanied by the sound of a vehicle driving at constant velocity, whereas on others it was combined with the sound of an accelerating vehicle, etc. If the sound of an accelerating ICEV allows participants to make use of the second-order motion information, then it should not affect the arrival time estimates when the vehicle is driving with a constant velocity. In contrast, if they adjust their estimates whenever the vehicle sound indicates acceleration, then they should apply this safety strategy also when the vehicle is driving with a constant velocity. Our results supported the latter explanation. Participants produced shorter arrival time estimates when the sound of the accelerating vehicle was presented, largely independent of the vehicle's kinematics.