With a national summit on distracted drivers set for this week, studies due today from the journal Pediatrics show that parents can have a huge effect on how effective — or distracted — their teen drivers become.

Conducted by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, PA and given funding by State Farm Insurance Co., the studies show that parents who set specific driving boundaries and urge caution in their kids are a lot more likely to have kids who survive into adulthood. (more…)

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Each day you hear or read it in news reports: A driver “lost control” of a vehicle, causing a deadly car accident crash. But apart from slick roads and sudden mechanical malfunctions, just how did the driver “lose” control? Or, did the driver not truly lose control, but rather surrender it — by driving too fast, driving while drunk,  driving while cell calling or texting or otherwise failing to pay proper attention to the road?

The resulting wreckage might be blamed on “lost control” in a news report, but a wreck’s cause, in many cases, is that a driver gave up — rather than “lost” — proper control of his or her vehicle by willfully indulging in unsafe behavior.

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Drunk drivers’ undeclared war on America has raged for decades, killing more than half a million U.S. citizens since 1982. Such a terrible toll mandates strong counterattacks, and one is requiring ignition-interlock devices in the vehicles of those who are known to be drunk drivers.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), most states have laws requiring such devices, which involve detecting alcohol via a driver’s breath and not allowing a car to start if the test fails.

In Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana and eight other states, the devices are required after an .08 reading for a DUI conviction. In Florida, North Carolina and six other states, they’re required after a .15 reading for a DUI conviction. In Texas, Missouri and four other states, they’re required after a repeat DUI conviction.

In California, it’s up to a judge’s discretion, but the state’s lawmakers just passed a bill which would launch a four-county pilot program for using such devices, including Los Angeles County.

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In mystery-novel terms, those hurt in a Toyota SUV rollover accident now may have a “smoking gun.”

That’s because a so-called “whistle blower” has stepped in to tell what he believes is the truth: that Toyota for years tried to keep a lid on investigations which showed why the Japanese automaker’s SUVs were inherently dangerous.

This charge has come from Dimitrios Biller, a lawyer who formerly represented Toyota in rollover cases. He’s now spearheading a lawsuit claiming that Toyota destroyed information which should have been available for plaintiffs in hundreds of defective product lawsuits.  He also says Toyota withheld a report on roof-crush data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Biller is suing Toyota for fraud, unfair practices and racketeering. Toyota dismisses his claims.

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The “hang up and drive” movement is gaining momentum. With distracted drivers killing and injuring thousands, the feds are holding a summit on the issue this month, and Illinois has joined the ranks of states which ban texting while driving.

Now a new study shows that every other state could fall in line — provided its legislators listen to the voters who elected them, and not cell phone lobbyists.

In a national survey held last month by Nationwide Insurance, 80 per cent of adult Americans favored a legal ban on texting while driving. Even more encouraging is that two-thirds of respondents favor laws restricting cell phone calls while driving, with 57 per cent even including hands-free phones in such proposals.

A Nationwide official called this a “groundswell of momentum on banning texting” while driving. So far, 17 states and the District of Columbia have such laws.

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