| Dec 30 |
Enterprise pays $18 million to rental car victim
How could it be dangerous? The answer is simple and it points out a major flaw in government transportation standards. Car rental companies don’t have to repair recalled cars before renting or selling them. Consumer groups are urging the government to change that because the practice leads to car accidents. |
Commercials make renting a car seem so easy. The airways are full of car rental deals. A quick call puts drivers in any car they want, commercials say. The company will even deliver it. The service is fast, efficient and dangerous.
| Sep 09 |
Traffic deaths drop, but families of 33,808 can’t celebrate
But before we celebrate, consider the families of those 33,808 victims. Their loved ones remain a statistic — and a grim one — and they cannot celebrate. And if they can’t, why can we? |
In 2009, fewer Americans died in | May 27 |
DPS to tackle Texas Memorial Day weekend car accident causes
Last year, DPS officers issued more than 8,500 speeding tickets on Memorial Day weekend. They also wrote out 1,937 tickets for failing to wear seat belts and 521 for failing to provide proper child restraints. They also arrested 622 people for drunk driving. Those kinds of violations again will be targeted for this long weekend, the DPS promises. |
The long Memorial Day weekend ahead is sure to bring car accident misery to Texas roads. But it’s also sure to bring more enforcement of our roadway laws. That’s because Texas Department of Public Safety officers will be out in force. While you play, they will work.| Apr 06 |
Are drunk drivers as bad as terrorists? No — worse
The answer to each question is simple: Drunk drivers are slaughtering us. They’ve been doing so virtually since autos were born, and though death numbers have risen and fallen, they’ve never disappeared. Put simply: Drunks kill — and isn’t that reason enough to do something about it? Yet for many, news of another drunk driving fatality seems routine and, unless a loved one was killed, acceptable. Drunk drivers seem to be just a fact of life. But not all facts are unalterable. |
Why should we get mad about drunk drivers, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)? Why should we have zero tolerance toward drunk drivers, pushing for more and stronger laws? Why are drunk driving car wreck accidents like a war against America? And why should anything change?| Mar 29 |
Got a second? You could cut Houston car crash deaths
You could be doing everything right — wearing your seat belt, signaling when you change lines, obeying the speed limit, setting aside your cell phone — and still have a fatal car accident. That’s because it only takes a moment’s inattention or a single mistake –by you or another driver — to cause a car wreck or traffic tragedy. |
The | Mar 21 |
Reader’s Digest ranks Texas in Top 10 states for deadliest speeding, DUI car crash accidentsAs the largest of America’s 48 contiguous states, Texas likes to boast that it’s big in everything. But the state can’t brag about this: ranking in the top 10 for both America’s deadliest DUI and deadliest speeding states for a car crash accident. That’s according to Reader’s Digest magazine, which assessed recent data on road and bridge conditions, congestion, spending on roads and overall safety. |
| Feb 22 |
Toyota document savors money saving at expense of stuck accelerator safety
That limited recall may have saved Toyota millions at the time, but Toyota’s failure to address the problem fully led to more stuck accelerator car crash accidents and what’s now become the largest recall in its history: more than 8 million vehicles. The month after the Toyota executive boasted about saving money on the limited recall, a family of four riding in a Lexus in California was killed when its gas pedal stuck to a floor mat. It wasn’t until November of 2009 that Toyota issued a full recall to fix the gas pedals of its defective products. |
The negligence of Toyota toward innocent American consumers seems to know no end. The latest sign of Toyota putting profits over public safety is found in an internal Toyota document from July 6, 2009, in which a company executive bragged that it was saving $100 million by negotiating a limited recall for Lexus ES and Toyota Camry vehicles for accelerator malfunctions.| Jan 18 |
Red light cameras signal car accident controversy
The only trouble was, traffic still didn’t tend to slow down until lights turned “yellow,” at which point some drivers began hitting their brakes instead of pressing through, for fear of getting a ticket via a red light camera, while other drivers — speeding and tailgating — hit them from behind. |
The idea seemed good at first: Cities would install “red light cameras” at high-risk intersections, in hopes of slowing down traffic as a deterrent. Such cameras could capture irrefutable evidence that a car ran a red light, while displaying its license number. The drivers then could be ticketed by mail.| Dec 07 |
Cell phone industry picks profits over car accident deaths caused by distracted drivers
Indeed, a recent study by the New York Times shows that cell providers have known for decades about the obvious risks of distracted drivers, but were reluctant to do anything about it other than giving token warnings about their product — while paying heavily in ads to pitch them to drivers. In experimental stages as early as the 1940s, through costly status-symbol models of the 1980s, through the cell phone explosion of the 1990s, cell phones were pointedly marketed as portable, use-them-anywhere “car phones” — and that hasn’t changed. The cell industry has been determined to reap huge profits by turning drivers into callers, even if that meant many people would die or be injured in cell phone car accidents. |
How often do you avoid car wrecks almost caused by drivers on cell phones? Or perhaps you’ve been injured already by such | Oct 08 |
Rural drivers beware: Traffic accidents kill more of you than city folks
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. |
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.