Driving deaths overall are down in America, but could be much lower without one thing: distracted drivers who call or text at the wheel. A new report by the U.S. Department of Transportation reveals the United States had 33,963 traffic fatalities in 2009, a drop of 8.9 per cent from 2008. With driving deaths declining for 15 consecutive quarters, this also was the lowest level since 1954.

But imagine how much better it could be without the onslaught of cell phone addiction. Millions of Americans drive with one hand on the wheel — at best — while calling and texting with the other. And when only a moment’s inattention can cause a lifetime of misery, these driving distractions are among the biggest threats on our roads today.

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Drunk driving accounts for a whopping one third of all U.S. traffic fatalities, or about 12,000 Americans killed in the past year. But drunk driving isn’t the same throughout America. Some cities have worse problems than others with alcohol, as surveyed by Men’s Health magazine. It found Fresno, CA as the “most drunk city in America.”

The magazine’s survey included a city’s alcohol-related car crashes, its number of drunk driving arrests and the severity of its drunk driving penalties. It also based conclusions on death rates from alcoholic liver disease and the frequency of binge drinking.

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Americans love their holiday traditions, including New Year’s Eve. In Japan, the new year isn’t widely acknowledged until people rise the next morning. But in the USA, millions of revelers party past midnight to ring in another year. The only trouble is, such partying often includes heavy drinking and unleashes drunk drivers on our roads.

It’s always the same story, so you’d think Americans would wake up and learn a vital lesson: Don’t drink and drive. Yet such deaths spike during year-end holidays, and thousands of Americans (nearly 14,000 in 2008) become yearly statistics in drunk driving fatalities.

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As we brace for the drunk driving tragedies which inevitably accompany year-end revelries, we applaud Montgomery County officials for a new tactic in the war against drunk drivers. County District Attorney Brett Ligon will start posting tweets on his Twitter account for the world to see whenever a person is arrested for drunk driving, DUI or DWI in that county.

As Chief Prosecutor Warren Diepraam told KPRC News, “We’ve kind of simplified it by using Twitter, putting that information that’s already out there as a public record . . . on Twitter so that people could follow who’s been arrested.”

The idea is to discourage persons from drunk driving via the threat of public humiliation — on top of arrest and possible prosecution. Ligon believes such a tactic could “embarrass the right offender” with the threat of “collateral damages” (public shame) beyond the legal case itself.

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When holiday stress spawns rudeness, if not recklessness, the holiday season can be a tough time for innocent drivers and passengers. But in this age of talking, texting and otherwise distracted drivers, it’s gotten worse. In Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and throughout Texas, car accidents will put Christmas coal in many stockings, because drivers — who are already preoccupied — will magnify their disengagement with even more heedlessness.

Sometimes that can come from an overly fierce focus. How else do you explain the fact that a woman was run down by an SUV in a southwest Houston parking lot recently? The reason? Another driver thought the parking place she’d claimed was rightly his — and took it out on her by running her down. Apparently, holiday shopping stress can do that to people.

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Sure, cities have traffic jams, while the country has roadside vendors selling jams — and little traffic. But rural drivers should know this: You are more likely to die in a car or truck accident than those on packed  urban streets or freeways.

Why? Glad you asked. For one thing, people tend to drive faster on rural roads — and certainly have more freedom to do so, compared to city folk bogged down by numbers. Urbanites who are stalled at rush hour, take heart: At least your slow speed makes it less likely you’ll get hurt in a collision.

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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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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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Time magazine reports that a cultural shift toward bemused tolerance of moms’ drinking so they can cope with busy days is circling the drain along with discarded martinis. Indeed, as advanced by books and commercials, the thought of a happily drinking mom has become less liberating than sobering — especially since a big-news tragedy this summer.

That tragedy, of course, was the horrific drunk driving accident near Hawthorne, N.Y. which claimed eight lives, including that of Diane Schuler, a mother who’d reportedly had 10 drinks before hitting the highway with five kids in her car. Her wrong-way collision killed four of them and herself, along with three men in another car.

Time says this sensational story has had a wrenching effect on women whose routines and responsibilities include ferrying kids from place to place. Drinking isn’t as funny or fun now that Schuler’s catastrophe has served as a wakeup call, especially for women who relate to her life.

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Ads for a certain slim cigarette aimed at women once crowed, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” In short, smoking was seen as twisted liberation for women. Sadly, the same is now true for drinking alcohol.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that the percent of women arrested for DUI is increasing, while the percent of male DUI arrests drops. Men are still far more prone to DUI or DWI arrest — by almost a four-to-one ratio –  but in a changing world where women face increased pressures on economic fronts as their husbands lose jobs, and sometimes a tendency to behave like “the boys,” more and more women are stressed, driving cars and doing so while drunk.

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