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Elderly drivers safer than expected

2/20/2014

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Safety researchers thought that traffic accidents would increase as the nation's aging population increased the number of older drivers on the road, but now a new study suggests that they were wrong.

Today's drivers aged 70 and older are less likely to be involved in crashes than previous generations and are less likely to be killed or seriously injured if they do crash, according to a study released Thursday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

That's because vehicles are getting safer and seniors are generally getting healthier, the institute said.

Traffic fatalities overall in the U.S. have declined to levels not seen since the late 1940s, and accident rates have come down for other drivers as well. But since 1997, older drivers have enjoyed bigger declines as measured by both fatal crash rates per driver and per vehicle miles driven than middle-age drivers, defined in the study as ages 35 to 54.

The greatest rate of decline was among drivers age 80 and over, nearly twice that of middle-age drivers and drivers ages 70 to 74.

"This should help ease fears that aging baby boomers are a safety threat," said Anne McCartt, the institute's senior vice president for research and co-author of the study.



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What color car is safest?

2/23/2013

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Picture
 Fleet vehicles are white and school buses are yellow, but what color car is scientifically proven to be the safest?

We still don't know the answer.

A Swedish study found that pink cars are involved in the fewest crashes and black cars are involved in the most, but a study from New Zealand found that there was a significantly lower rate of serious injury in silver cars; with higher rates in, brown, black, and green cars.  

Scientists have analyzed risk by light condition. It found that in daylight, black cars were 12% more likely than white to be involved in an accident, followed by grey cars at 11%, silver cars at 10%, and red and blue cars at 7%, with no other colors found to be significantly more or less risky than white. 

At dawn or dusk the risk ratio for black cars jumped to 47% more likely than white, and that for silver cars to 15%. In the hours of darkness only red and silver cars were found to be significantly more risky than white, by 10% and 8% respectively. 

However, no study on the relation between car color and safety is scientifically conclusive.

Source: AAA Foundation

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NHTSA proposals

12/17/2012

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been very busy lately.   This federal agency, which has as its mission “to save lives, prevent injuries and reduce traffic-related health care and other economic costs”, has proposed two important rules:

1)    Backup cameras in new cars, pickups and vans, and

2)    Event Data Recorders in all light passenger vehicles

Backup Cameras

NHTSA estimates that, on average, 292 fatalities and 18,000 injuries occur each year as a result of back-over crashes involving all vehicles. Two particularly vulnerable populations – children and the elderly -– are affected most.  NHTSA believes that back-up cameras, which activate when putting the vehicle into reverse, would save lives.

Event Data Recorders

NHTSA is proposing that automakers install event data recorders (EDRs) in all light passenger vehicles beginning September 1, 2014.   These “black boxes” would capture valuable safety-related data in the seconds before and during a motor vehicle crash.

A crash or air bag deployment typically triggers the EDR, which collects data in the seconds before and during a crash. The data collected by EDRs can be used to improve highway safety by ensuring NHTSA, other crash investigators and automotive manufacturers understand the dynamics involved in a crash and the performance of safety systems.

Examples of some of the information recorded include:

  • vehicle speed

  • whether the brake was activated in the moments before a crash;

  • crash forces at the moment of impact;

  • information about the state of the engine throttle;

  • air bag deployment timing and air bag readiness prior to the crash; and

  • whether the vehicle occupant's seat belt was buckled.

EDRs do not collect any personal identifying information or record conversations and do not run continuously.

Idea for the future

While not being proposed at this time, the next logical step would be forward facing DVR (video recorders) in the mirror that would record the view of the road ahead during the 20 seconds before a collision.  This video, already a presence in many police cars, would answer questions about how and why a collision occurred.

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Backup cameras may be standard equipment

2/28/2012

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On average, two children die and about 50 are injured every week when someone accidentally backs over them in a vehicle, according to KidsAndCars.org, a nonprofit group that pushed the government to begin tracking such tragedies. And more than two-thirds of the time, a parent or other close relative is behind the wheel.

Now, auto safety regulators have decided to do something about it. Federal regulators plan to announce that automakers will be required to put rearview cameras in all passenger vehicles by 2014 to help drivers see what is behind them. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed the mandate in late 2010 and will soon send a final version of the rule to Congress.

Cars are filled with safety features that have been mandated by government regulators over the years, including air bags and the third brake light, but the rearview camera requirement is one of the biggest steps taken to protect people outside of a vehicle.

"We haven't done anything else to protect pedestrians," said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety in Washington. "This is one thing we can do and should do."

Regulators predicted that adding the cameras and viewing screens will cost the auto industry as much as $2.7 billion a year, or $160 to $200 a vehicle.  The cost will be passed on to consumers through higher prices, but regulators say that 95 to 112 deaths and as many as 8,374 injuries could be avoided each year by eliminating the wide blind spot behind a vehicle. Government statistics indicate that 228 people of all ages - 44 percent of whom are under age 5 - die every year in backover accidents involving passenger vehicles. About 17,000 people a year are injured in such accidents.

"In terms of absolute numbers of lives saved, it certainly isn't the highest," Mr. Ditlow said. "But in terms of emotional tragedy, backover deaths are some of the worst imaginable. When you have a parent that kills a child in an incident that's utterly avoidable, they don't ever forget it."

Although they account for a small fraction of the deaths that result from automobile crashes, backovers are the most common cause of off-road deaths involving children and vehicles.  As vehicles have become larger and designed to better protect occupants, drivers' ability to see any people or objects behind them has been reduced, said Dan Edmunds, director of vehicle testing at Edmunds.com.

"Over time, the beltlines have risen, and the glass has gotten a little smaller in the interest of safety," Mr. Edmunds said. "There's certainly been a lot of attention paid to safety, but visibility hasn't necessarily been lumped in the same way."

Edmunds now measures the size of the blind spot behind each new vehicle, based on how far back the driver can see a mannequin designed to resemble a small child. Although many backover incidents involve S.U.V.'s and trucks, Mr. Edmunds said some of the biggest blind spots are on passenger cars where the trunk has a high deck lid and the driver sits low to the ground.

For the Cadillac CTS-V coupe, Edmunds measured a blind spot 101 feet long, compared with about 40 feet for minivans from Toyota and Honda.

Automakers have generally supported the requirement, while some took issue with technical aspects of the backup camera proposal and the added cost. "We've had longstanding support for efforts to increase the field of view for these vehicles," said Wade Newton, of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

Regulators studied other ways of improving rear visibility, including the beeping radar-based sensors that many vehicles already offer. But they determined that the sensors often did not detect moving people, especially children. Drivers also responded better to the camera image than the audio alerts.

"Video camera-based systems are by far the most comprehensive and cost-effective currently available solution for reducing backover crashes, fatalities and injuries," according to NHTSA.

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Five Safety Resolutions for the New Year

1/25/2012

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1. Always wear a safety belt. Safety belts save lives and help reduce the risk of serious injury in the event of a crash. Every passenger should wear a safety belt for every car ride, no exceptions.

2. Only use hands-free mobile devices. This year, vow not to call, text, sort music or otherwise play with your mobile device while behind the wheel. If you must talk on the phone while driving, use a hands-free headset or pull over to a safe location first. In 2009, 36 percent of crashes were caused by distracted drivers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Enforce the rule with young drivers in your house too. Fifty percent of teens admit to texting while driving, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

3. Keep your cool. Let go of road rage. That means taking a deep breath when someone cuts you off rather than honking your horn or tailgating. It also means slowing down and steering clear if you see a driver acting erratically. The risks are real: Up to 56 percent of fatal crashes are caused by aggressive driving behavior according to the AAA Foundation.

4. Follow the speed limit. You may be in a hurry to save some time, but slowing down could save your life. According to NHTSA, speeding is a contributing factor in 31 percent of fatal crashes. Male drivers age 15 to 24 are particularly at risk—37 to 39 percent involved in fatal crashes were speeding.

5. Stay grounded in a skid.  Electronic Stability Control (ESC) applies anti-lock brakes (ABS) to individual tires to help keep your car going straight in a slide. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires all 2012 vehicles to include ESC, an improvement estimated to save up to 9,600 lives and prevent up to 238,000 injuries each year.  If your car does not have ABS, tap your brakes to avoid locking your wheels and going into a slide.

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Rear-end collision research continues

1/7/2012

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One-third of automobile collisions are rear-end collisions.  If we could only figure out why they happen so frequently, perhaps we could avoid those collisions.

Researchers have been working on this problem for a long time.  In 1974, a psychologist named John Voevodsky decided to test his theory that drivers needed to see a dedicated brake light that would illuminate at the same time as the other two brake lights, thus forming a triangle of brake lights.   He added his third brake light, mounted in the base of rear windshields.  When drivers pressed their brakes, a triangle of lights warned following drivers to slow down.

To test whether such a small addition would make a significant difference, Voevodsky equipped 343 San Francisco taxicabs with the third brake light and left 160 taxis with no additional light as a control group. Taxi dispatchers then randomly assigned taxi drivers to taxis with or without the third light.

At the end of a 10-month experiment, taxis with a third brake light had suffered 60.6% fewer rear-end collisions than had the control-group taxis. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) repeated Voevodsky's experiment on a larger scale, and concluded that Center High Mounted Stop Lamps (CHMSLs) reduce accidents and injuries. As a result, NHTSA required all new cars (starting in 1986) and all new light trucks (since 1994) to have a third brake light.

Unfortunately, subsequent research shows that the CHMSLs now only reduce rearend collisions by about 5%.  The effect of the triangle of brake lights has apparently worn off.

Researchers now consider what else to do.  For example, at Virginia Tech, the latest idea is a flashing light that shows a difference between whether a car is slowing or stopping.

The problem researches are trying to solve is that drivers find it difficult to judge whether the car in front intends to stop. The solution may be smart brake lights that glow amber in the center when a vehicle is slowing and flash red when stopping. When deceleration is rapid, all of the lights flash red.

The flashing is supposed to alert the driver behind the brake lights.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, “Driver inattention is the leading factor in most crashes and near-crashes.”

The smart brake system developed by Virginia Tech isn’t implemented in cars yet, but research is now being conducted on buses because they make frequent stops.


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    Author

    Scott Brazil is an attorney in Houston, Texas, who is board certified in Personal Injury and Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

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