Even on dull days, the shadows cast by a highway over-bridge is an excellent marker with which to check that your following distance is adequate.

Photograph copyright 2012 - All rights reserved

 

Road Safety News - USA & Canada

 

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January 25, 2011
Study: Roads in the USA are safer in urban areas

Your odds of dying in a motor vehicle crash vary dramatically because of one simple thing: where you live.

The safest places to drive in the USA are Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts. Among the most dangerous: Montana, Wyoming, Louisiana and Mississippi. Those conclusions are based on federal data of traffic fatalities per 100,000 population and per 100 million miles driven.

The primary reason for the difference: Urban roads are safer than rural roads.

Read the full article with complete listings for all states, from USA Today.
   

Photo Copyright 2010, Eddie Wren.

All Rights Reserved

 

 

November 27, 2010

Cell Phone Use and Drunken Driving Top the List of Concerns

California Office of Traffic Safety Survey

 

As the holiday season gears up, the California Office of Traffic Safety has released the results of the state's first traffic safety opinion survey.

 

Speeding and aggressive driving, plus distracted driving [due to using] phones were cited as the biggest safety problems on the road, according to the survey released in conjunction with a statewide law enforcement crackdown on impaired driving....

 

The survey, which was fielded in late July, included interviews with 1,671 drivers between the ages of 18 and 60 at gas stations in 15 counties....

 

In addition to fast and aggressive driving, those polled said talking on cell phones and texting as the most distracting, with talking on cells accounting for a surprising and "overwhelming" 60 percent of responses....

 

Consistent with the record 96.2 percent reported in the annual 2010 statewide seat belt use observational survey, this driver survey showed 95.8 percent say they always wear a seat belt.

 

Read the full story, from the Willows Journal, at http://www.willows-journal.com/news/safety-5739-driving-survey.html

 

For complete results of the state’s traffic survey, go to www.ots.ca.gov

Photo copyright 2010, Eddie Wren

 

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November 17, 2010

 

 

Achieving Traffic Safety Goals in the United States – Lessons from Other Nations

A Transport Research Board [TRB] Report

 

In 2009 some 34,000 people lost their lives on the nation’s highways, a 19 percent reduction since 1995; however, during the same time period annual traffic fatalities declined by 52 percent in France, 39 percent in the United Kingdom, 25 percent in Australia, and 50 percent in 15 high-income countries for which long-term fatality and traffic data are available. While the U.S. decline is significant, review of other nations’ experiences indicates that the United States could see greater improvement in highway safety....

 

Nearly every high-income country is reducing annual traffic fatalities and fatality rates faster than is the United States, and several countries where fatality rates per kilometer of travel were higher than in the United States 20 years ago are now below the U.S. rate....

 

A four-page Transportation Research Board [TRB] summary of this report is available at http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sr/sr300summary.pdf

 

 

 

Click here for access to the

full, 177-page report

 

 

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October 16, 2010

 

 

And Now the Driver Coming the Other Way May Be Even More Likely to Kill You!

 

Feds Slam Driving Distraction, but Firms Say Technology is 'Legal' and 'Safe'
 
DETROIT — General Motors Co. still plans to roll out its new OnStar feature that allows drivers to listen to Facebook messages and update their status, despite pointed criticism from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
 
OnStar President Chris Preuss said the company is confident in the safety of the feature after conducting driving tests and has no plans to drop it. The application can also be extended to other social networking sites like Twitter....
 
Preuss' comments were GM's first public response to LaHood's concerns. LaHood has criticized automakers in recent weeks for not doing more to combat distracted driving. Last week, LaHood specifically knocked the idea of letting drivers have audio access to social media sites like Facebook, telling Bloomberg News that it's "the biggest distraction of all."

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood

"We must all go further," LaHood told reporters last month. "We've seen news stories about carmakers adding technologies in vehicles that let drivers update Facebook, surf the Web, or do any number of other things instead of driving safely."....
  
Read Detroit News at http://www.detnews.com/article/20101016/AUTO01/10160370/1148/GM-moves-on-with-in-car-Facebook-app

 

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October 15, 2010

Montana ranks 5th in the nation for deer-vehicle collisions

 

Photo copyright (c) 2010, Eddie Wren

According to a survey by State Farm Insurance, Montana ranks fifth in the nation for deer-vehicle crashes.
 
In the last five years, vehicles have killed an estimated 1.5 million deer on roadways across the nation. The Montana Highway Patrol reports that 2,095 wild animals died in Montana last year due to vehicle accidents....
 
The MHP reports these wildlife conflicts resulted in four human deaths and 139 injuries.
 
....deer-vehicle crashes cost drivers an estimated $1.1 billion over the last five years, with the average insurance claim totaling about $2,900.
 

 

Read the full article, from 9KXLH.com, at http://www.kxlh.com/news/montana-ranks-5th-in-the-nation-for-deer-vehicle-collisions/ 

 

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October 11, 2010

Student journalists detail troubles with US transportation safety

 

 

Students participating in the university-based newsroom incubator called News21 broke news and got some national attention recently with a series of transportation safety stories that looked at problems caused by delays in implementing National Transportation Safety Board recommendations....

 

[This included the fact that] “Twenty-four years passed before the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration required trucks to have anti-lock brakes [as] recommended by the NTSB.”....

 

Read the full article, from Business News, at:

http://businessjournalism.org/2010/10/12/student-journalists-detail-troubles-with-us-transportation-safety/

 

 

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