Underride guards that are supposed to prevent cars from sliding under large trucks are failing at relatively low speeds, according to a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The organization is urging the federal government to order stronger guards on the backs of 18 wheelers to protect passengers in cars that rear-end big rigs.

While passenger cars are better designed these days to withstand collisions with other cars, they are not built to hold up when the top of the car hits the back of a truck and slides under it. Typically, the upper part of the car is crushed or sliced off in such a collision. These accidents are frequently fatal for the car’s passengers even at low rates of speed.

According to the IIHS, the fronts of cars can absorb a tremendous amount of “crash energy” these days due to better designs. But that’s only true when a car hits another car. The IIHS says hitting the back of a truck is a “game changer” for a car. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that about 423 people die every year in passenger vehicles that hit trucks with underride guards that break, allowing the car to slide under them.

The IIHS wants tougher standards for underride guards but doesn’t see much hope for a change without a federal mandate. Otherwise, manufacturers will have little incentive to strengthen the guards.

A new AAA study about drunk driving shows that last year nearly 11,000 people were killed by drunk drivers in the United States — nearly one-third of all road deaths in America. Some of the drunks had very high blood alcohol concentrations (.15+). Others were were over the legal limit of .08 and had a prior drunk driving conviction.

According to the AAA study, nine out of 10 Americans want the courts to order anyone convicted of drunk driving more than once to install an alcohol ignition interlock on their car — a device that won’t let it start if they have been drinking. Sixty-nine percent want the courts to order those convicted of drunk driving once to have the same requirement.

If drunk driving is such a deadly crime and so many Americans want “blow devices” installed on the cars of these drivers, why doesn’t the drunk driving death rate drop?

But here’s the shocker in the study: It showed that one in 10 drivers surveyed for its third Annual Traffic Safety Culture Index admitted to driving when they suspected they might have been close to or over the legal limit. One in five of those surveyed said they had done so more than once in the the last year. The AAA survey interviewed 2,000 American drivers nationwide 16 or older by telephone between May 11, 2010 and June 7, 2010.

The national outcry against distracted driving could be drowned out by lobbyists trying to preserve sales of cell phones and cell phone components. Their campaign rolls out this coming September.They say they are coming out fighting in spite of the deadly statistics that show how dangerous it is to talk and text while driving.

Oprah Winfrey and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood are targets of the DRIVE coalition, as it calls itself. The coalition is a group of lobbyists who are courting the likes of Motorola, Nokia, General Motors, Ford, AT&T and Microsoft to line up against Winfrey and LaHood. It is urging the powerful companies to get on board for its campaign rollout in September.

The lobbyists say that last year Winfrey and the federal official mounted a ”full throttle assault on mobile technology,” according to www.fairwarning.org, a non-profit website that exposes the underside of industry profiteering at the expense of the general public.

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This domestic war could be tough.
But it has an important mission for Americans. to save lives, prevent injuries and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes.

To win that war, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is targeting a deadly enemy: distracted driving. Wiping it out won’t be easy. Americans love to talk and text behind the wheel and do other things that take their attention off the road while driving.  Studies show distracted drivers are four times more likely to cause a traffic accident than drivers who are paying attention behind the wheel. So far, Americans don’t seem to take this seriously. NHTSA believes making them understand the danger is the key to winning the war. Read the rest of this entry

Car drivers aren’t the only ones who need to change to make roads safer. For years, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has tried to make sure that trucking companies don’t use unqualified truck drivers or trucks with known mechanical problems.

The NTSB says that Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rules governing the fitness of drivers and trucks are too lax. It wants drivers and trucks found   deficient in any way to be taken off the road even if they have satisfactory ratings in all other categories. If the problem is not corrected in a matter of days, the NTSB wants the trucking company’s license yanked.

It also wants tighter control over the hours that truckers can drive without resting.  According to the federal agency, fatigue is a major factor in 30 to 40 percent of all truck accidents. It cites research that shows accident rates rise sharply after eight hours behind the wheel.

Under current regulations, truckers can drive for 11 hours before they have to take a 10 hour break. But many cheat about the hours they have driven when they fill out logs by hand. (Truckers call the logs “comic books.”)

To stop truckers from hiding how long they’ve been behind the wheel, the NTSB wants tamper-proof electronic recording devices installed on all trucks.

No doubt about it, these drivers might as well be drunk. And the holidays can make drowsy driving worse according to safety experts. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that drowsy drivers cause 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries and 100,000 accidents each year.

While other drivers may encounter a drowsy driver at night, experts say that afternoon is dangerous, too. Fatigue in the afternoon overtakes one in four drivers involved in these collisions, according to NHTSA. Many of the drivers who admitted falling asleep at the wheel told NHTSA investigators that they had no idea they were tired when they got in the car.

Experts say after just four hours of sleep, one bottle of beer has the same effect as a six-pack. Just two hours of missed sleep adversely affects reaction time and alertness. Several nights of missed sleep can cause episodes of micro sleep when the brain in entirely unaware of outside activity. Episodes can last from several seconds to several minutes. During a micro sleep drivers can miss stop signs and not know it, and pilots can miss flashing alarm lights in the cockpit and not know it.

The National Sleep Foundation says that teen drivers are more than four times as likely to “have sleep related crashes” than drivers over the age of 30 since teens are notoriously sleep deprived. Law enforcement officials estimate that 250,000 people doze off at the wheel every day.

A new study shows that motorcycle deaths are down drastically compared to previous years. It’s a sudden decline. In 2008, more than 5,000 people – the most ever – died in motorcycle crashes. New 2009 statistics show the decline. Why? Some say it’s the recession because most motorcycle riding is recreational. Other possible reasons mentioned in the study include colder, wetter weather, fewer beginners, state and federal motorcycle safety programs and increased awareness of motorcycles by drivers of cars and other vehicles.

Whatever the cause or causes, they’re scant comfort to grieving families around San Antonio, Texas. So far, five Bexar County motorcycle riders have been killed just this month. This video shows you one of the most common reasons for motorcycle deaths. Surprise: It’s not the motorcycle rider’s fault. Hint: If you drive a car, look in the mirror!

Senior drivers fastest growing demographic on the planet

That’s why Swedish car manufacturer Volvo is studying how age-related changes put seniors at risk on the road. So far, the company’s research shows that older drivers have more accidents at intersections, although they tend to have fewer crashes overall. The car company wants to know why. To date, its studies have revealed two differences: Older drivers have less flexibility in the neck and a narrower field of vision. They also concentrate more on lines and marks on the road when positioning their cars compared to younger drivers who focus more attention on moving objects and other cars.
Volvo is trying to design a car that takes these factors, and others it may discover, into account and compensates for them. It’s a good thing. A United Nations report says over the next 40 years, drivers over the age of 60 will comprise more than 50% of all drivers in the developed world.

Cell phone “talkers and texters” worse than drunk drivers

New research confirms it. A 2009 study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that texting while driving increased the risk of a “safety –critical” driving event by 23.2 times. It was not the first study to determine that using electronic devices while driving is highly dangerous. In 2001, when cell phone use was exploding across the nation, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) study found that driver inattention was a “causative factor in 22.7% of serious crashes compared to 18.2% for alcohol” and that driver inattention was “more likely to be the sole cause (16.7%) than alcohol (6.0%). “
The Center for Auto Safety wants drivers to remember both studies. In November, its executive director testified before Congress that if the use of electronic devices while driving is not checked, it will rival drunk driving as a national safety problem. Statistics from NHTSA show that last year, nearly 12,000 people were killed in drunken driving crashes in the United States, 31.6 % of the 37,261 traffic related deaths in 2008.