A current TV ad for Chevy Cruze shows a young man and woman kissing on a sidewalk at the end of a date. He enters his car and pulls away.

Not having anything better to do but drive a vehicle through traffic, he looks at his rear-view mirror to punch a button, then is asked by an automated voice, “Good evening, what would you like to do?”

“Facebook news feed,” he answers, vaguely observing the road ahead.

The voice replies, “First post. Jennifer French. Best first date ever.”

A voice-over then plugs the car’s real-time Facebook status feature, capped by the slogan “When the good news just can’t wait.”

Oh — it can’t? Is that the message we should send America about indulging in the distracted driving that kills over 5,000 persons yearly and injures — often seriously — half a million? Or can Internet access wait until arriving safely at a destination? (more…)

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Who knew?
Turns out the federal government did six years ago. When it said nothing, thousands of Americans lost their lives. Others were seriously injured. And the nation is now stuck with a “serious and growing threat on America’s roadways.”
That’s the nutshell version of a shocking story in the July 21, 2009 edition of The New York Times about government suppression of vital safety information. The news does not surprise personal injury attorney Jim Adler who has long railed against government agencies that neglect their duty to protect the public.

“That’s why we call ourselves safety lawyers,” Adler said. “Remember the Ford Pinto and its exploding gas tank that killed so many in accidents? After Ford got sued by personal injury lawyers who won big settlements for victims, it redesigned that killer car. The same goes for those knobs on dashboards that used to seriously injure people in accidents. We got rid of them too. Now one of the biggest dangers on the road is caused by cell phones.”

(more…)

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