|
All contents copyright ©, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc., 2003 onwards, unless specified otherwise. All rights reserved. IMPORTANT: click here to read the DISCLAIMER |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The main purpose of this web page is to let drivers, legislators, road safety experts, police officers, parents of young drivers, etc., have an easily accessible insight into what is happening in their own countries and elsewhere, and thereby possibly do something to help save some of the many wasted lives on roads everywhere. Page edited by Eddie Wren
If you or your organization have safety-oriented driving news for publication, click here to contact us.
Fair use notice of copyrighted material: This site contains some copyrighted material that in some cases has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance the understanding of road safety, both at a global level and by individual people such as drivers and the parents of young drivers. By doing this, we hope to help save lives. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Drive and Stay Alive, Inc., is a section 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, based in New York State, U.S.A.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
______________________________
It's a short walk, not even 100 steps. Still, Rick Ritter hates it. It's not a happy stroll. Violent death obliges him to take the walk along U.S. 92 north of DeLand [Florida] where he stops in front of a sign and changes numbers to reflect the running total of fatalities in Volusia County. Sgt. Rick Ritter is the Florida Highway Patrol homicide supervisor for Volusia and Seminole counties. His team looks at tire tracks, crumpled metal, broken glass and bloody car seats to determine what caused deadly accidents, and if appropriate, to assign blame. It's also his job to change the numbers on the fatality sign in front of the Highway Patrol office. "I'm spending more and more time out here this year," he said, as four lanes of noisy traffic passes a few yards away. "The numbers don't even have a chance to get dusty." Volusia County's traffic fatalities are increasing at a faster rate than any other county in Florida this year. The sign says there were 92 deaths last year. So far this year there are 71.... "I don't understand it. They're happening everywhere, for all kinds of reasons," said Ritter, a 22-year FHP veteran. "A lot of it is carelessness and stupidity."...
Ritter believes the sign is worthwhile: "Maybe if enough people look at it, some will realize, 'Holy cow, people are dying at an alarming rate.' " But it's not alarming. Not really. If 71 people were killed this year by firearms, or by alligators, or rip tides or falls from balconies, we would be more alarmed. Community and government leaders would rush to increase resources and efforts to stem the deaths. But highway deaths, even two or three a week, isn't alarming. It's an acceptable, if unfortunate, price for personal mobility. It's not acceptable to Ritter. It's distressing. Read the full story here, from The Daytona Beach News-Journal
DSA Comment: This article highlights the problem that road safety practitioners are faced with around the world. For some extraordinary and seemingly unique reason, road deaths are only ever thought of by society as individual tragedies rather than a rampant epidemic that in America alone equates to a World Trade Center Disaster every 24 days. Based on the the World Health Organisation's estimate of casualties, it is clear that around the world more people are killed in road crashes every single day than were killed in the entire 9-11 outrage. And yet still so little is done about it. Eddie Wren, Executive Director, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc. ______________________________
...The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration keeps records that law enforcement agencies voluntarily submit about police pursuit deaths. According to those statistics, at least 365 pursuit deaths occurred nationwide in 2003 - the latest year available.... Mississippi and Florida, along with a number of large cities - Boston, Chicago, Miami, Seattle, and Orlando - have recently strengthened their pursuit laws. Mississippi's new law, which took effect July 1, increases the penalties for those who flee from authorities and requires all police agencies to adopt pursuit policies or training programs for officers.... California law enforcement agencies have immunity from litigation in police pursuit deaths and several police associations in that state have come out in opposition to a bill seeking to impose a statewide pursuit policy and prohibit chases unless the public faces "certain, immediate and impending" peril. The bill has stalled in a legislative committee.... Full story, from the Picayune Item ______________________________
More than 1,300 traffic accidents occurred nationwide in Vietnam, in July, killing 874 people, and injuring nearly 1,200 others.
In comparison with the same period last
year, the number of accidents, deaths and injuries were down 21 percent,
11.4 percent and 30 percent, respectively. [Source: VNA] ______________________________
Drivers who speed at night on long stretches of the highway in the Western Division must be careful now. The police have beefed up their traffic section and officers are doing night patrols and radar checks to catch speeding drivers. Western Deputy Divisional Police Commander Emosi Lagilagi ... said in the past officers in the traffic section did not do patrols and radar checks at night but it was made a part of the operations now. "In the past we used to do these checks during long weekends and when we had large crowds, especially for sporting activities in the West. "A lot of drivers have been taking advantage because they knew that officers did not use radars at night. "We hope that the drivers are responsible because the road death toll is rising rapidly," said SP Lagilagi. [Source: Fiji Times] ______________________________
To prevent serious brain injury in a broadside crash, cars need to have side air bags that protect occupants' heads, a new study concludes. An analysis of car crashes reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found broadside crashes cause more brain injuries than other accidents, according to the report in the August issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine. "The point of our study was to show that the sides of cars are unprotected," said lead author Dr. Jeffrey Bazarian, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Rochester Department of Community and Preventive Medicine. ...In their study, Bazarian's team found that if you are the occupant of a car that gets hit on the side, you are three times more likely to suffer a head injury than if your car gets hit in the front or the back. Full story, from Forbes Related story:
You are two and a half times more likely to suffer a traumatic brain injury in a side-impact car crash than in a head-on collision, according to a study at the University of Rochester. “Your head is very close to the window or another object the car is striking,” said Jeffrey J. Bazarian, an author of the study, which appears in the Annals of Emergency Medicine today. “The door doesn't absorb much energy.” Full story, from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY. ______________________________
Anyone planning to drive on holiday this summer would do well to know a little about how 'they drive over there' before booking the hire car. One useful benchmark is the number of auto-related deaths; the higher it is, the more likely you are to encounter problems parking your panda. Needless to say, the issue is no laughing matter. A high incidence of auto-related deaths on a country's roads may be down to a number of influencing factors. These range from the state of roads and related infrastructure, typical driving practices in the particular country or even the capabilities of law enforcement agencies to effectively police the road network. Weather, geography and even population density could also make an impact. While a combination of these factors may come into play, general attitudes towards road safety and driving probably weigh in the most. Based on data from Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, of the EU's 25 member states, the country with the highest rates of auto-related deaths amongst both men and women is Latvia. With 43.2 male deaths and 11.1 female deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2001, the Baltic state has the biggest problem with car accident deaths in the EU.... The other Baltic countries, Lithuania (40.1 for men, 9.9 for women) and Estonia (28.1, 7.6) also recorded high death rates on their roads with the remaining countries at the wrong end of the scale including Greece (34.4, 9.9), Poland (29.5, 7.2) and Luxembourg (25.9, 8.7). Most of the other countries above the EU average of 17.4 and 5.4 deaths (though only available for the 15 'old' member states-this will be much higher for all 25 member states) spring from either eastern Europe (Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic) or the Mediterranean region (Portugal, Spain, France and Italy). All the other EU countries falling below the EU15 average are from central, northern or western Europe: the UK (8.7, 2.9), the Netherlands (9.6, 3), Sweden (10.4, 3.3), Germany (14.4, 5), Denmark (14.9, 4.5), Finland (15.2, 5), Ireland (15.7, 5.6) and Austria (16.8, 5.2). The rate for Italian women of 5.3 deaths per 100,000 also falls under the EU15 average. Full story, with bar charts, from Tiscali UK
Related story:
Malta is the country with the lowest incidence of
deaths on the roads (6.4 male, 1.7 female), a Eurostat survey revealed.
The lack of road network on the islands could be one of the influencing
factors for these statistics. The same applies to a lesser extent for
Cyprus with 10.7 and 3.4 deaths for men and women respectively. ______________________________
All motorists suspected by police of being intoxicated should be forced to provide blood for alcohol testing, a panel reviewing state laws decided Friday. People arrested for felony drunken or drugged driving must already provide blood that is tested and used as evidence against them. It is a felony the third time someone is convicted of drunken driving within a 10-year period. Those arrested for misdemeanor drunken or drugged driving on first and second offenses cannot be forced to provide blood for alcohol testing. However, unless they plead guilty, they lose their driver's license for a year. A subcommittee of the state Criminal Code Revision Commission said those motorists should no longer be allowed to refuse blood withdrawal.... The recommendation for forced blood withdrawal will get a final vote next month in the full commission. If adopted, the measure will be introduced in next year's Legislature. A similar bill failed in 2002.... Full story, from Aberdeen News ______________________________
... Statistics indicate more than 900 bicycle riders are killed each year in the United States. An estimated 20,000 cyclists are hospitalized each year with injuries and some 580,000 require emergency room treatment. No community is immune.... Full story, from The Winchester Sun, KY ______________________________
Seven out of ten drivers think it is acceptable to drive at 10 mph above the speed limit on Irish roads, according to a recent survey of almost 2,500 drivers in Ireland conducted by the National Safety Council (NSC), the Car Buyers Guide and W5 Marketing. The details of the survey were announced yesterday in the run up to the high risk August Bank Holiday period. The survey also reveals that 40% of drivers believe it is acceptable to break the speed limit on local and regional roads which account for the majority of fatal accidents... Reacting to the results of the survey Mr. Eddie Shaw, Chairman, NSC said, "Clearly many of us in this country consider ‘real speeding’ to be driving in excess of the limit by more than 10mph. This is a killer attitude as there is no such thing as safe or acceptable speeding.”.... Full story, from the Limerick Post ______________________________
ANKARA -- Some 26 people were killed and 30 others injured in a serious vehicle collision in eastern Turkey, Anatolia News Agency reported Friday. The accident took place in Erzincan city, late on Thursday, when a passenger bus collided with a big truck coming from opposite position and another truck behind ran into it. The injured were rushed to local hospitals for medical treatment. ______________________________
The Selective Traffic Enforcement Program, or STEP, is funded through money received from the Missouri Division of Highway Safety. The goals are to reduce traffic problems and crashes on Interstate 70 and to heighten awareness of the risks associated with drunken driving, speeding and failing to wear seat belts. The patrol said it hopes to reach those goals through high visibility and strict enforcement. The patrol urges all residents to report any vehicle observed operating in a careless manner. The public can contact the highway patrol toll-free at (800) 525-5555 or on a cellular phone by dialing *55. [Source: the Columbia Daily Tribune]
DSA Comment: Clearly, all road safety advocates will support campaigns such as this but with reference to the mention of "high visibility" we would suggest that American patrol officers could be much better protected -- and, indeed, the number of driving offences reduced -- if patrol vehicles here were made much more prominent, as has been the case in several other countries, each of which has lower rates both of overall road deaths and of officer deaths. The "benefit" of having drably-colored patrol cars to help officers catch speeding drivers, etc., are dramatically outweighed by the safety and awareness advantages of high-conspicuity vehicles. Drive and Stay Alive has a web page on this specific subject, here. ______________________________
______________________________
The European Commission is currently seeking tenders for this project, but it has been posted on the DSA website in order that the 'Description' may be viewed, viz:
At present, large differences persist between national road traffic
enforcement and penalty systems and, with respect to cross-border
pursuit of driving offences, serious deficiencies exist in terms of
communication and enforcement between Member States. The situation is
aggravated by an increased willingness of foreign drivers to violate
traffic laws, as the risk of being prosecuted is lower than that for
domestic drivers. Related details available here. ______________________________
As above, the European Commission is currently seeking tenders -- this time for the operation of the Charter -- and the 'Description' is being posted on the DSA website so that it is available to give road safety professionals from outside Europe an insight into the logistics of the campaign. ______________________________
While female learners [i.e. 'student drivers'] are better at checking their mirrors, they are let down by poor reversing skills on their driving test, says AA driving school, revealing men pass in a shorter time and take fewer attempts. Keeping an eye out for other motorists may be a female speciality, with men 10 per cent more likely to make a mirror-related fault. But when it comes to reversing [i.e. backing around a minor intersection, from one quiet road into a minor side street] and turning in the road [i.e. a 'three point turn' on a public road], 40 per cent more women than men will fail their test attempting these manoeuvres. Full press release and statistics here. ______________________________
How the ad was made The new drink drive TV ad was filmed entirely in a pub over two days in early June 2004 using quickly cut camera shots, stunts and state of the art editing. Using stunt people, a car reaching speeds of between 10mph - 20mph was used inside the pub to create the crash scene and capture the crash's impact. A pub table was then transposed over the moving image of the car to create the dramatic scene. Source: The UK Think! Road Safety Website ______________________________
...$509,123 [has been approved from] state funds for a traffic safety program that is expected to reduce the number of crashes, injuries and deaths on New York's roads through the use of computers in Nassau County Police cars. The computers will enable officers to automatically produce traffic tickets and accident reports and transmit data quickly. The system will have a host of benefits, beyond improving highway safety statistical data. Officers will also have access to databases of suspended and revoked licenses, stolen vehicles and other public safety information.... Funds from the grant will pay for the installation of computers in 48 police cars. The computers, using TraCS software, will allow traffic tickets and accident reports to be submitted electronically to the Department of Motor Vehicles and also to the local traffic courts capable of receiving this data. TraCS (Traffic and Criminal Software) is the software application used in the project and was developed in cooperation with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the State of Iowa, State of New York Governor's Traffic Safety Committee, New York State Police, DMV, Office of Court Administration, Department of Transportation, Division of Criminal Justice Services, New York State Chiefs and Sheriff's Association and others.... Full story, from Anton News ______________________________
There is a daily danger presented by untended cows on the nation's highways. "Considering how important cows are to Swazis, and the cultural value we place on them, it is discouraging that so many farmers still think this country exists in the 19th century, when the kraal gate was opened in the morning and the cattle found their way home at dusk after grazing in a land without fences or motorways," said a source with the National Road Safety Council. The Ministry of Works and Construction has long lamented the theft of barbed wire along all new highways. The wire, intended to keep wandering cattle away from high-speed traffic, ends up protecting crops from other people's cattle. "The theft is being done by the same owners who let their cattle roam free without herd boys tending them," said former MP Nthuthuko Dlamini. One well-known if unstated reason why Swazi farmers have resisted the prospect of branding their cattle is that it would allow police to identify the owners of animals that cause traffic accidents. "Cow owners disappear when the cattle they allow to roam free are responsible for road fatalities. Families of victims, and the Highway Fund, which must compensate relatives of family members who die on the roads, can sue the owners for damages," said the Highway Safety Council official. Full story, from the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks ______________________________
The Scorpions are investigating several Eastern Cape municipalities in connection with bribery and the issuing of illegal drivers' licences. Directorate of Public Prosecutions spokesman Sipho Ngwema yesterday confirmed to the Daily Dispatch that the unit was busy with investigations in several towns.... The Daily Dispatch yesterday reported that about 530000 of the province's roughly one million drivers had bogus licences. Ngwema said the Scorpions were working with the provincial Transport Department on the investigations. A spokesman at the department said arrests were expected soon. Meanwhile, the national Department of Transport (DoT) said the department would introduce a licensing system aimed at reducing bribery there. "The Best Practice Model will make sure that an application is not processed by one person. It will have to go through a large number of people and so an applicant will have to bribe all the people involved," DoT road traffic management chief director Wendy Watson said. Watson said that drivers with fraudulent licences were a significant cause of the country's high road accident rate.... Full story, from the Daily Dispatch ______________________________
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Prince Edward Island think cell phones may have led to more reporting of drunk driving, and caused a big jump in the number of charges laid in 2003. P.E.I. holds the dubious distinction of having had the largest percentage increase in the country of drunk driving charges in 2003. There were almost 70 more charges laid on the Island last year compared to the year before. A total of 607. RCMP Sgt. Mike Murphy believes the increase is linked to the number of people reporting drunk drivers. "We find that with the increased access to cell phones now that we're getting a lot more calls from people who are actually on the highway and see signs of an alcohol-related offense, or an impaired driver," says Murphy. Cathy Jarvis, president of the P.E.I. chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, says she's worried the 'don't drive drunk' message just isn't getting across to Islanders. [Source: CBC-PEI]
DSA Comment: It has to be said that this growing intolerance of drunk driving is the only thing which will truly reduce the frequency of such offences in the longer term. When drunk driving is reviled by the vast majority of society as being completely unacceptable behavior the number of deaths starts to fall. A key part of this process must be a growing willingness for people to report incidents to the police. Sweden has led the way and now boasts massive public rejection of such deadly selfishness, and in doing so has proved that deaths can be drastically reduced. Eddie Wren, Executive Director, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc. ______________________________
Alcohol, speed and not buckling up are contributing to this year's sharp rise in the death toll on Nova Scotia's roads, says the province's transportation minister. "It appears that we will surpass last year's total and at this rate we may even exceed the worst year for traffic fatalities since 1999," Ron Russell said at the Emergency Health Services fleet maintenance centre in Dartmouth on Wednesday morning. Mr. Russell said there had been 47 fatal crashes on the province's highways and roads as of Sunday, claiming a total of 55 lives, including 11 pedestrians. Last year, 61 fatal crashes killed 70 people.... Full story, from the Chronicle Herald ______________________________
[Source: North Tonight] ______________________________
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A program in which police had an ice cream reward instead of a ticket for motorists they pulled over has been halted after just three days for a little fine-tuning. Police in Kansas City's North Patrol Division had been stopping motorists they saw driving safely to give them coupons for free ice cream. Sgt. Don Jantzen said some in the community expressed concerns about the program, and the department's legal counsel advised officers to stop it. He said Maj. John Armilio, the division commander, will "revamp" it and come up with a new approach within two weeks. Full story, from the Kansas City Star ______________________________
This effectively carries on from a previous article about road deaths in Goa, dated July 26, below. Panaji: A seminar organised by Goa Traffic Police to promote the use of helmets among two-wheeler riders in the state deviated from the real subject and was reduced to a stock-taking exercise on the functioning of police in Goa.The seminar on road safety called ‘Use of Helmets and Seat Belts’ organised by the Goa Traffic Police evoked a good response from the members of public. Participants agreed that helmets must be used but said there should be no compulsion in the matter... Read the full article (both sides of the pro/anti helmet debate) from the Navhind Times
DSA Editorial Comment: Having spent time in Goa and been a guest of the Goa Police, it is particularly saddening for me to see that this debate is still going on. Until such time as helmets are made compulsory and the laws are applied in a fair and just manner, a high number of people will die unnecessarily. Eddie Wren, Executive Director. ______________________________
A crash in the Auckland central business area which caused motorway chaos for hours earlier this month has led to police changing their investigation policy. In future, traffic will either be diverted around serious crashes or police will use a mark and move policy to re-open roads quickly. [Source: NZ City] ______________________________
Accidents at 10 of Brisbane's most dangerous intersections are costing the community $6.9 million every year. Figures from the Main Roads Department reveal that 32 people were admitted to hospital and another 191 injured at the 10 state-controlled intersection sites in the three years to June 2003.... The three-year Main Roads analysis found the most accident-prone state-run site was the roundabout where the Gateway Motorway, East-West Arterial and Airport Drive intersect. During this time, 64 accidents were reported at the roundabout, four people were admitted to hospital and 45 injured. [These] accidents cost an estimated $1.4 million-a-year to the economy which included property damage, lost earnings and medical bills.... Full story, from News.com ______________________________
______________________________
The sharp increase in the number of road-related deaths over recent weeks in Latvia, which already possesses the dubious distinction of having the worst auto fatality ratio per-capita in Europe, has shocked both the government and the public and opened discussions on ways to prevent the situation from worsening. During the week of July 12-18, 16 people died in road accidents, with 10 deaths over the weekend alone. Officials said it was the deadliest weekend the country has ever seen. Worse, the number seems to be climbing daily, prompting the daily paper Diena to print a year-to-date death toll on its front page. As of July 27 the tally (which the paper insists is preliminary) was 255. The upswing in deaths alarmed Prime Minister Indulis Emsis, who suggested that the root of the problem lay in the large number of older cars on the road. The prime minister added that while police are working to reduce the number of road accidents, they have yet to produce results. He added that a change in the public's attitude was needed, especially among those whom he dubbed 'highway hooligans.' The head of the state traffic police, Visvaldis Pukite, has called for more cops on the highways, while Interior Minister Eriks Jekabsons has proposed a number of different strategies to make the highways safer, his spokesman Krists Leiskalns said. According to Leiskalns, many accidents are due to excessive speeding, drunk driving, inexperienced drivers and a lack of driving education. ....some argue that the number of deaths on Latvia's roads is first and foremost a reflection of poor driving culture... Even 48 police officers were punished for traffic violations in the first half of this year.... While the number of fatalities decreased from 222 in the first six months of 2002 to 172 in the first half of 2003, they have begun to climb again and hit 207 from January to June of this year. The overall number of accidents has skyrocketed from 17,888 in 2002 to 23,778 this year. Full story, from the Baltic Times ______________________________
and Offers the Company Free Tire Tread Gauges to Prevent Further Deaths The following press release was issued by the Law Office of Ricardo A. Garcia: Enterprise Rent-A-Car has settled a wrongful death lawsuit in south Texas over its failure to inspect and maintain a safe depth of tread on its vehicles. It is the second worn tire case filed against Enterprise in the area in two years. Johnny Arguelles, 34, of Edinburg, was killed on June 26, 2003, when the 2002 Chevy Silverado truck he had rented from an Enterprise agency spun out of control on a rain-slicked highway and struck another vehicle. A passenger in the Enterprise vehicle was also killed, and five persons in the second vehicle were injured, one child seriously. An investigation showed the tires to be nearly threadbare, a condition that contributed to the accident, according to the police officer at the scene. In deposition testimony, Enterprise officials acknowledged they don't train or equip vehicle attendants to check for unsafe tire wear, instead relying on outside vendors to conduct routine maintenance based on warranty schedules, according to Rick Garcia, attorney for Nora Arguelles.... Mrs. Arguelles and Garcia have offered to provide each of the 1,330 Enterprise offices in Texas with a $2.50 tire tread gauge using proceeds from the settlement. "I know Johnny would approve of the offer," said Mrs. Arguelles, noting her husband had been chief diesel mechanic for a local car dealership at the time of his death. ______________________________
People involved in side-impact vehicle crashes are three times more likely to suffer a traumatic brain injury than those involved in a head-on crash or other types of collisions, says a University of Rochester study. The study also found that brain injuries inflicted during side-impact collisions are usually more severe. The findings are published online in the August issue of the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine. The researchers analyzed a sample of crashes reported to the National Highway Safety Administration for the year 2000. They found that traumatic brain injury was the cause of death in 51 to 74 percent of single-vehicle side collisions and 41 to 64 percent of multiple vehicle side-impact crashes.... Seat belt use, not frontal air bags, was associated with a reduced risk of brain injury during a collision.... Full story, from the Atlanta Journal Constitution - Health Highlights ______________________________
BP Middle East and Dubai Traffic Police today launched a joint safety campaign called Drive Safely Arabia to cut down the amount of traffic accidents attributable to brake failures, believed to be a leading cause of road fatalities in the UAE. Central to the campaign will be the introduction of a unique device for testing the condition of brake fluids, which is the main cause of brake failures. 'Most motorists do not realise that their brake fluid needs to be changed regularly or else their brakes can fail, frequently with disastrous consequences. We want to help reduce this risk for motorists,' said Jeremy Bowen, Chief Representative, BP Middle East. Brigadier Dr. Jassim Mohemmed Balrumaithah of the Dubai Police commented: 'The UAE has one of the highest per capita ratios of traffic accidents in the world, and we suspect many of these may be caused by brake failures.' To help motorists find out if their brake fluid needs replacing, BP has sourced a patented testing instrument from the UK and for the next two weeks is offering a free brake fluid testing service at its major lubricants stations in Dubai and the Northern Emirates. Simultaneously the Dubai Traffic Police will run a public awareness campaign to warn motorists of the danger of brake fluid which has exceeded its effective working life.... Karim Ibrahim, Regional Technical Services Manager of BP Middle East, explained that brake fluids have a limited life span. In the Gulf, because of the high humidity and temperature, this can be as little as two years. He noted: 'Hydraulic brake fluid absorbs water from the atmosphere until it becomes completely saturated, which reduces the boiling point of the fluid. In this state, if the driver uses his brakes repeatedly, or in an emergency suddenly brakes very hard, the heat generated can literally make the brake fluid boil. The gas that is created stops the brakes from working, which can lead to fatal consequences.'.... Full story, from AME Info ______________________________
Esso has banned all its employees from using [any type of] mobile phones when they are driving. [In the Australian state of Victoria,] road laws ban the use of hand-held mobile phones while driving, but the Esso ban goes one step further: it also stops employees from using phones through a permanent hands-free system or using hands-free earpieces. Dr Michael Regan from the Monash Accident Research Centre says talking on a mobile phone is the equivalent of driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.10%. "You can sometimes realise that you can't remember anything that you have seen for the last kilometre or so on the road, so it's a very powerful phenomenon, but unfortunately on the mobile phone the phone is much more likely to engage you in that attentional blindness and it's much harder to snap out of it," he said. [Source: ABC Online, Australia] ______________________________
It will come as no surprise to many readers to discover that the Volvo S40 scored a maximum 5 stars for both driver and passenger side-impact protection, but the full article also shows how the entire frame is constructed of different strength steels, specifically to maximize safety, and there is an excellent illustration of a curtain airbag in operation, too. ______________________________
Devices which detect or jam speed cameras are to be banned because of concerns that drivers are exploiting them to drive over the speed limit without fear of being caught. More than 100,000 drivers have installed the devices and dozens of companies supply them. The market is growing rapidly in response to the huge rise in speed camera penalties.
Two million tickets were issued last year and police expect to hand out
three million this year. The ban would bring Britain into line with several other European countries which have outlawed camera detectors, including France, Belgium, Greece, Austria, Turkey, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Ireland and Norway. In Luxembourg the maximum penalty is a prison sentence of between eight days and three years. The Republic of Ireland also deals harshly with offenders and a six-month prison sentence is possible. [Source: RoadSafe] ______________________________
Proposals to stop foreign hauliers [i.e. commercial trucking companies and their drivers] and coach drivers who commit motoring offences avoiding penalties by leaving the country and a fairer system of penalties for all commercial drivers were announced today by Road Safety Minister David Jamieson. 'Consultation on the introduction of a Graduated Fixed Penalty and Deposit Scheme' invites comment on the introduction of a graduated fixed penalty and a roadside deposit scheme for commercial vehicles. ______________________________
DETROIT: You'd think we'd be better drivers here in the Motor City. But we can't even get the basics right -- like using turn signals ['indicators']. One of my favorite bumper stickers plays off the "Visualize World Peace" message: "Visualize Using Your Turn Signals." "The most annoying thing a person can do while driving is failing to use their turn signals," writes reader Debra Moore of Harper Woods. "Whether it be changing lanes, entering or exiting the freeway or at a corner, and just deciding to turn with no warning. When you have to slam on the brakes and blow your horn, the idiots have the nerve to look at you." Folks, it goes beyond saying that it's the law.... Full article, from Matt Helms 'Driving Today' column, at the Detroit Free Press ______________________________
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is seeking public comment on a report on the agency’s high-priority quest to help upgrade America’s traffic safety data collection systems. The report is the result of an in-depth examination of data-collection issues by a team of U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) officials, in consultation with local, state and national traffic safety data experts. The new report proposes initiatives to help reduce the incidence of death and injury on the country’s roadways by increasing the flow of timely, accurate, uniform, complete and accessible traffic safety data. It is the last in a series of five NHTSA Integrated Project Team (IPT) reports. Other teams addressed rollover mitigation, vehicle compatibility, safety belt use, and impaired driving. The new report, titled “Initiatives to Address Improving Traffic Safety Data,” has been posted on the NHTSA website at www.nhtsa.gov. The public may comment on the report’s proposals through DOT’s docket management system at http://dms.dot.gov/ The docket number for the new report is NHTSA-2004-17339. Written comments may be submitted to the Docket Management System, U.S. Department of Transportation, PL 401, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20590-0001. Comments may also be submitted to the docket electronically at http://dms.dot.gov/ [Source: NHTSA 31-04] ______________________________
Anchorage -- When a pickup truck crossed the double yellow line along Seward Highway and killed two occupants of a Jeep Grand Cherokee, police initially thought the accident was another tragic mistake by a momentarily distracted driver. In what may be the first trial of its kind in the nation, prosecutors have accused the pickup truck’s driver of second-degree murder for watching a movie instead of the road when he crashed head-on into the Jeep.... Full story, from the Detroit News ______________________________
Four people died and at least 55 were hurt Monday afternoon in five collisions in Lexington County, the state Highway Patrol said. The most spectacular occurred about 2:30 p.m. at I-20 and U.S. 1 where an Athens, Ga.-bound charter bus returning from a family reunion in Myrtle Beach sandwiched a Ford Focus between the bus and a tractor-trailer rig, patrol spokesmen said. Early indications were the bus driver was distracted and drove into the subcompact with enough force to push it fully under the 18-wheeler, said patrol spokesman Sid Gaulden. The Ford also caught fire. “The only thing it can be attributed to — barring anything in the autopsy — is driver inattention, which unfortunately is the leading cause of highway deaths in South Carolina,” Gaulden said.... Full story, from The State ______________________________
AMSTERDAM — An inquiry will determine if a truck's cruise control led to the death of four Dutch youths in a traffic-jam accident on the E19 motorway between the Dutch border and Antwerp on Monday. The victims were identified as two men aged 21 and 19 and two 20-year-old women. The 21-year-old man is almost certainly the brother of one of the women. All victims were from the southern Dutch city of Breda. A police spokeswoman said the four victims were in a car between two trucks in a traffic jam on Monday afternoon. Another truck collided with the rear of the truck behind the car, which was then wedged up against the truck in front.... Antwerp judicial authorities are now investigating the cause of the accident, calling in a traffic expert to determine if the use of cruise control in one of the trucks led to the fatal collision, Dutch news agency ANP reported Tuesday....
And from the same original article:
In response to several previous severe accidents involving trucks, Belgian MP Daan Schalck demanded last year that the use of cruise control in trucks should be banned. Discussion over the use of the cruise control has now flared up again.... Full article, for both of the above headlines, from Expatica ______________________________
Exactly 65 years ago, the recruitment of the inventive genius Béla Barényi saw the start of systematic passenger car safety development at Mercedes-Benz. The crumple zone, safety steering column, steering wheel impact plate and side impact protection are examples of the pioneering inventions for which this first Mercedes safety engineer was responsible. Full article (and photographs) here. ______________________________
A rule the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed last month would blow the cover on "black boxes" in cars, standardizing by 2008 the kinds of information they collect and requiring the data be disclosed to those who own or lease the vehicles. Also known by the auto industry and regulators as "event data recorders," or EDRs, these devices are connected to a vehicle's air-bag system and are capable of detecting many things, including the speed of the vehicle, whether the driver was wearing a seat belt at the time of a crash and how the brakes were applied.... The NHTSA says there are 30 million of the devices on the road and that up to 90 percent of new models will have the recorders.... Full story, from the Washington Post (subscription) ______________________________
Federal safety regulators are investigating the Saturn Vue sport utility vehicle after the suspension failed in two separate government rollover tests. Full story, from the Detroit News. ______________________________
The Zambian Government is investigating how 60,000,000 kwacha [U.S. $12,500] secured from the World Bank to train about 150 traffic officers countrywide was utilised after discovering that most of them were incompetent drivers. Sources told the Times that of the 150 traffic police officers trained under the World Bank funding at a Lusaka-based private training school, only two of them were now able to competently drive.... Communications and Transport Minister Bates Namuyamba said his ministry would also try to establish the granting of driving licences to the alleged incompetent traffic officers. "I will have to get a proper explanation on why people who cannot drive can be given licences, If the reports are true, someone needs to be answerable," Mr Namuyamba said.... National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) director Winston Mwandila said he was aware of the training of the officers and the use of the money. Zambian School of Driving (ZSD) which won the bid to train the traffic officers, when contacted for a comment, said as far as they were concerned, the 150 officers had been successfully trained and passed the examinations.... Full story, from the Times of Zambia, via allAfrica ______________________________
Road safety was discussed in a meeting yesterday with the participation of the police leadership and the heads of the district traffic departments. Fifty three people have died in road accidents since the begging of the year, compared to 57 last year, police said. The force expressed particular concern about the situation in Limassol, which counts 16 dead compared to six dead in the same period last year – a 166.66 per cent increase. Police said the main causes of the deadly accidents were negligent driving and speeding. Contributing factors were the non-use of seatbelts by drivers and passengers, drink driving and failure to ware [sic] crash helmets. Seventeen out of the 24 passengers who died had not been wearing their seatbelts, police said. [And similarly,] with motorcyclists and their passengers nine out of 12 dead had not been wearing a helmet. Seven of those had died from head injuries. Police said most fatal accidents happened after midnight and mainly at weekends. The majority of accidents – 31 out of 51 – happened outside the city, while five occurred on motorways.... Chief of Police Tasos Panayiotou stressed that no tolerance would be shown from now on in relation with traffic violations. [Source: The Cyprus Mail] ______________________________
Helmet-less Motorcyclists Represent a Major Proportion of the Dead Panaji: Up to June 2004, 168 people lost their lives in different road accidents in Goa. 85 of these people were two-wheeler riders/pillion riders. The most disturbing fact is that 63 of them succumbed to head injuries. The next highest percentage of accidents involves light motor vehicles (cars) with 12 drivers having lost their lives in different road accidents, this year alone. World over, it is a practised and proven fact that the usage of helmets reduces head injuries and fatalities in turn. Many states in India have also adopted this preventive measure. Goa has 4.36 lakh [i.e. 436,000] motor vehicles out of which 70 per cent constitute two-wheelers. The national highways stretch to 262 km (5.2 per cent) of the total road network of the state. It has been observed from the analysis of accident data that the national highways and the state highways are the major killer stretches contributing to 40 per cent of the total accidents in Goa.... Full article, from the Navhind Times See a follow-up article, dated July 29, above. ______________________________
SASKATOON - A woman accused of being responsible for six highway deaths in Saskatchewan will remain in jail for at least another week until her bail hearing. Norma Jean Mooswa, 35, is charged with impaired driving in connection with the Canada Day car crash near the town of Cochin. She faces a total of 21 charges related to the tragedy. The RCMP say three northbound cars were stopped at a T-type intersection on Highway 4, north of North Battleford, waiting to make a left-hand turn into Cochin, when a fourth car hit the last car from behind. Witnesses described the scene as horrific, with bodies strewn across the road and people screaming. [Source: CBC Saskatchewan] ______________________________
Ford Motor Company will not charge consumers in North America extra for equipping new anti-rollover technology as standard across many of its popular sport utility vehicles. The development highlights the balance that carmakers increasingly have to strike between absorbing the cost of adding new government-regulated safety technology to vehicles and convincing consumers to pay more for it. The issue comes as domestic carmakers face intense pressure to reduce manufacturing costs, yet like their foreign counterparts selling vehicles in the US they are also being required by the government to develop new technology to make driving safer. US safety regulators earlier this year put the US vehicle industry on notice that it would have to adopt more "active safety" technology designed to avoid accidents. In recent years, the emphasis has been on technology that helps vehicle occupants survive accidents, such as air bags. Ford last week said it would install its Advance Trac with "roll stability control" systems on to the Explorer - the world's best-selling SUV - and on the Lincoln Navigator, Lincoln Aviator and Mercury Mountaineer later this year.... Full story, from the Financial Times, UK ______________________________
The probability of being killed on Irish roads has increased by 12%, or by a factor of 1 in 8, yet the Government has still not published its long-awaited Road Safety Strategy, Fine Gael Transport Spokesman Denis Naughten TD said today (Monday). "Irish roads are becoming more dangerous by the day, with more people being killed or seriously injured this year than for the same period last year. Yet 19 months after the last Road Safety Strategy came to an end, the Government has still not published the new three year programme."... Full story, from Irish Politics ______________________________
The Royal Brunei Police, Marine Police and APO Police exhibition booth set-up at the daylong Beach Festival 2004 received encouraging response from members of the public.... The exhibition booth, which attracted a large crowd, displayed useful information on accident rates and other related issues especially under the areas controlled by the Muara district police.... Full story, from Brunei Direct ______________________________
...In the interest of saving lives on the road,... French leader, president Jacques Chirac, declared war on drinking and driving two years ago. French police have cracked down on drunk drivers. The result has been a drop of almost 20 percent in highway deaths and also a drop in alcohol consumption. [Source: CBC, Canada] DSA Comment: As good as the French crackdown on dangerous driving habits truly has been, we are aware that drunk driving was only one of the factors they took firm action against -- albeit an extremely important factor -- so the excellent 20 percent reduction in deaths is not just due to one aspect alone. ______________________________
Greek traffic police and public transport authorities today staged a three-hour road safety test here to check their state of preparedness to deal with accidents ahead of the August 13-29 Olympics. The drill, code named “Olympic Hermes II,” involved various mock accidents along stretches of two key avenues in central and southern Athens. Cranes were called in to remove stranded cars and public buses as traffic police crews sealed adjacent parts of the road. One police helicopter was seen participating in the exercise that lasted for three hours. Streets were not blocked for the exercise and police did not indicate how many officers were involved in it, nor how well it had gone.... The Greek police have installed hundreds of traffic control cameras throughout the city to ease the flow of traffic during the games. The cameras provide live feed to a newly established traffic control centre in Athens police headquarters, which is also designed to function as an accident management centre. Full article, from Agence France Presse, via the Indian Express ______________________________
MOSCOW -- More than 13,000 Russians were killed in traffic accidents and almost 101,000 were injured in the first six months of this year, Russian traffic police said Monday. From January to June, over 83,800 road accidents were reported across the country, five percent more than that in the same period last year, the traffic police's press service said, according to Itar-Tass news agency. One fourth of the road accidents occurred due to faults of drivers who grossly violate the traffic regulations, the press service said, noting that among the most frequent violations are high speed, running onto the other lane and no order observance at crossings. Full article, from Xinhuanet ______________________________
Alarmed at the spate of pedestrian deaths in road mishaps in the past few months, the traffic wing of Calcutta Police is launching yet another anti-jaywalking drive. The intention is to make the public aware of the benefits of adhering to traffic rules. This is the fifth drive in the past two years in a city where pavements do not exist at all, or are occupied by hawkers. “The drive is aimed at making the people aware of traffic safety norms for their own benefit, in view of the fatalities on the roads,” said joint commissioner (traffic) Banibrata Basu.... While rash driving remains the principal cause of road deaths, jaywalking is next on the list of reasons for the rising toll. Road deaths this year totalled 212 till June.... Pedestrians in the city have always complained about there not being enough zebra crossings. With a total road length of 1,404 km covering 104.5 sq km, and almost 1.2 million vehicles, accidents are inevitable.... Full story, from The Telegraph, Calcutta. ______________________________
The public must [report] bad drivers and take more responsibility for lowering the State's road toll, road safety authorities and police said yesterday. The plea came after a horror 24 hours on the state of Western Australia's roads. Five people were killed, including three pedestrians hit by cars in Belmont, Kalgoorlie and on Brand Highway, near Regans Ford, 180km north of Perth. Road Safety Council chairman Grant Dorrington said it was easy to blame lack of policing for road deaths but it was time the community took responsibility by reporting the registration [i.e. license plate] numbers of bad drivers. "A lot of people say 'look at that idiot' but no one does anything about it," he said. "We have this Australian thing that it is not cool to dob people in. We are talking about death, we are not talking mateship in any way. "The best police service on the road when it comes to safety is you and me when we are in the car." Police commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said it was impossible for police to be on every street corner and that it is important for the public to help curb the number of deaths on WA's roads....
WA's road toll this year stands at 95, with 39 people killed on
metropolitan roads and 56 deaths on country roads. ______________________________
Washington -- Police across the region have their eyes on aggressive drivers.... The overall goal is to reduce the number of traffic deaths and injuries caused by aggressive driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates two-thirds of highway deaths are related to aggressive behavior. Full story, from ABC 7 News ______________________________
This headline uses the words of Don Gammill, in his traffic column in The Oklahoman, and he is referring to the fact that seat belt usage in the state is now at a record level of 80.3 percent, up from 76.7% in 2003 and now ahead of the national average of 79%. The increase in the use of child seats closely parallels the above figures, up from 75.7 percent in 2003 to 80.6% in 2004. To be honest, though, at Drive and Stay Alive we find the child seat figure (in almost all states and countries) bewildering. There are some people who would never dream of driving their car with -- say -- antique porcelain loosely stacked on the back seat of their car and yet they will allow their infinitely more precious children to sit in the back, either badly secured or not secured at all. View Don Gammill's column here. ______________________________
Firefighters from local rescue stations will be taking part in the country’s first Highway Interdependence Day Celebration on September 25 to help focus attention on highway safety. The Greenwood Hose Company in Moosic, Pa., will be presenting cut and rescue demonstrations throughout the day-long event to be held at the Lackawanna County, Pa., Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 25 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Highway Interdependence Day Celebration will also include a truck show competition, No Zone Trucks, truck rides, games with “drunk” goggles, child safety seat demonstrations, show trucks with interactive exhibits, drawings, prizes and more. Joey Holiday the popular trucking songwriter and singer will also be performing. For more information about the celebration, contact Sheryl Youngblood at 570-341-5712 or visit www.truckerdoc.com [Source: e-Trucker] ______________________________
A safety advocacy group says Tennessee has the nation's seventh-highest number of deaths from vehicle rollover crashes. The Washington, D.C., group Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety analyzed federal highway data in making the comparisons. The study used crash data at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 1991 to 2002. During that period, Tennessee had nearly 3700 deaths from vehicle turnovers -- about 307 a year. Safety Department spokeswomen Beth Denton says a weak seat belt law could be part of that equation.... Full story, from the WKRN ______________________________
The Subaru Legacy Does Less Well
______________________________
[Tourists] in Spain were warned yesterday to be on the alert for highway robbers targeting foreign-registered cars - using airguns ("BB guns") to shoot out the tyres and forcing drivers to stop. Spanish police said they believed that a gang was operating between the French border and the Barcelona area, preying on tourists as the main [vacation period] gets under way. [Dutch, Belgian and British families are among those who have so far fallen prey to these attacks.] Full story, from the UK Daily Telegraph ______________________________
central crash barriers) and Many People Have Needlessly Died as a Result. Here is one relevant article:
Turnpike officials act on guardrails Despite horrific crossover crashes such as the one that killed five people a week ago, guardrails can't be installed any faster than they're already going in, Florida's Turnpike officials insist. In December, Florida's Turnpike Enterprise responded to public and political outcry about a spate of similar crashes by announcing a fast-track plan to install median guardrails on most of the highway by next summer. But availability of money and the need to engineer the barriers along 166 miles have kept new guardrails from going in before the latest tragedy or before several others since December, officials said.... "It's more than just pounding them [guardrails] into the ground," said Christopher Warren, chief operating officer of Florida's Turnpike Enterprise. But for many people, the work is too late. Through the first six months of this year -- before the July 18 crash -- there were 14 crossover crashes on the turnpike, killing 23 people. The number of crossover crashes is down from last year's pace, when there were 34. But there have been several multiple-death accidents this year, so the number of fatalities is ahead of last year's pace. Last year, 43 people died in such crashes. Engineering challenges aside, Judith Lee Stone, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety in Washington, said the turnpike's history of such crashes should inspire more urgency at the Turnpike Enterprise. "They really ought to be moving a lot faster," said Stone, whose organization is backed by insurance and consumer groups. "Yeah, sure, it does take a long time to do the engineering work. But it seems to me the problem has been known for a long time.".... Full story, from the Orlando Sentinel (subscription) ______________________________
More than fifty motorists were arrested on drunken driving charges in and around Umtata at the weekend, the department of transport said on Sunday. A joint police and traffic police operation which started on Friday was aimed at curbing accidents during the University of Transkei's graduation ceremony, transport spokesperson Tsepo Machae said.... In another incident, a motorist who failed to stop at a roadblock later overturned his vehicle at Ngangelizwe during a high-speed chase. He died at the scene. [Source: News 24] ______________________________
Police are at a loss to explain a 47 per cent increase in the number of women killed on Victoria's roads this year compared with the same period in 2003. The [overall] Victorian road toll is up only 4 per cent. Superintendent Peter Keogh, of the traffic operations support division, said there was "no reasonable comment or excuse" to account for the increase in female fatalities. But he added that mobile phones were "absolutely" an area of concern for the police, though it was yet to be identified if male or female drivers were the biggest culprits.... "Australia has one of the highest number of mobile phone users and in a relatively short number of years the frequency of people using them has increased enormously," he said. "There have been a number of studies at intersections that counted people driving with mobile phones up against their ear - it's disappointing that motorists have not recognised that it's dangerous," he said.... Full story, from The Age ______________________________
With a view to spreading awareness on road safety, a 10-km-long cloth banner was put up here today, with a top police official launching the campaign. Nearly 3,000 schoolchildren and road safety volunteers held the lengthy banner from near the Marina Beach to Adyar in south Chennai. The banner today was created by Lions Club International and the campaign was launched in association with the city traffic police and Tamil Nadu Police Traffic Wardens Organisation. [Source: Chennai Online News] ______________________________
Officer Michael Moses had just stopped another vehicle yesterday but was still in his patrol car, on the shoulder of Highway 30 in Texas, when his Ford Crown Victoria was struck from behind by an SUV. Several other motorists, including two off-duty police officers, pulled Moses from the burning patrol car. He was hospitalized with second-degree burns and is in serious but stable condition. All 146 of Arlington's patrol cars are fitted with gas tank shields, which Ford recommended in response to the string of fiery crashes. Moses' 2003 Crown Victoria was one of 40 in the fleet that had a factory-installed shield. The 21-year-old driver of the SUV suffered only minor injuries and is in police custody, charged with intoxication assault. His wife is in hospital, also in a serious but stable condition. Since 1983, at least 18 police officers have died after their cars were hit from behind and the gas tanks burst into flames. [Multiple sources for main info'. Detroit Free Press for the post-1983 and gas-tank-shield data] ______________________________
The state Highway Patrol and local authorities will soon be targeting aggressive drivers on the interstates and U.S. 70 in Johnston County, North Carolina. The Speed Reduction Campaign starts Monday and ends Friday and runs from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. daily. A similar campaign took place in Wake and Durham counties last year. The move to focus on Johnston County comes after a number of wrecks there during the Memorial Day weekend. Officials said aggressive drivers account for the majority of the traffic collisions that occur on state roadways. According to the Highway Patrol, aggressive drivers are those who flagrantly violate the motor vehicle laws, including but not limited to: excessive speeding, following too closely, erratic lane changes, safe movement violations and other forms of reckless endangerment.... Full story, from WRAL.com ______________________________
City Traffic Police are intensifying operations to ensure motorists obey traffic laws while it studies Kuala Lumpur roads to prepare for the implementation of the "Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic" (SCAT) system. Traffic Chief ACP Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah said SCAT, to be implemented by City Hall next year, involved traffic lights which responded to vehicular movements along the affected roads. "The people must obey traffic rules if they want the system to be applicable as the system will fail if road users refuse to respect the law," he said on Friday. He said strict enforcement was necessary towards this end including by publishing the names of traffic offenders and not entertaining appeals against fines. "Kuala Lumpur is congested because some motorists still flout traffic rules. Among the offences are beating red lights, cutting queues and stopping in the yellow box," he said. Tun Hisan said police would also carry out strict enforcement on practices which could contribute to injuries in accidents like speeding and road users not wearing crash helmets and seat belts.... [Source: Utusan Online] ______________________________
Driving safely and courteously may get you pulled over by Kansas City police next week.... Beginning Monday, North Division police patrol officers will pull over motorists driving safely to reward them with coupons for free ice cream donated by Belfonte Ice Cream and Dairy Foods Co. and Sheridan's Frozen Custard. The program — a relatively new safety awareness program in the metropolitan area and successful in other states — was established in the Northland to promote safer driving.... Since January, there have been 2,118 traffic accidents in Kansas City, North, according to police statistics. Faulty drivers contribute to the number, said Maj. John Armilio, commander of the Kansas City North Patrol Division. Wearing a seat belt, yielding to pedestrians, adhering to posted speed limits, yielding the right of way or coming to a complete stop can single out a safe driver, Armilio said. “[But] not these New York roll stops,” he said, referring to how some drivers merely yield at a stop sign instead of making a complete stop.... Richard Kurtenbach, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri, said the sweet reward may leave a sour taste for some drivers because a serious issue may be lurking: racial profiling.... If the driver is suspected of violating the law, Armilio said, the police officer will perform his or her duty.... As for the possibility that police would racially profile through the reward program, Armilio said he was offended. “We're just trying to do something positive,” he said.... Full story, from Kansas City ______________________________
There will be 80 police vehicles in service, one every 25km, along the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway for the rest of the summer, according to an announcement by Police director Pasquale Piscitelli during a press conference to present the Anas plan to avoid traffic and problems along the 443 km of highway. In the 23 rest areas, there will be police mobile offices, and in order to prevent crime along the roadway there will be undercover units as well. Monitoring from the air is also expected, with the use of state police airplanes to provide on the spot information regarding the state of traffic. Police have also organized the use of speed measuring systems which will be in use throughout the road system. [Source: AGI] ______________________________
Most road accidents in the country are preventable because they are caused by human error, says South East District Commissioner Gaewetse Koketso. Launching a road safety campaign at Otse recently.... "As such, unlike other calamities, road accidents are highly avoidable by way of obeying traffic regulations, as well as respecting other road users." Koketso appealed to motorists to be tolerant and respectful of other road users, saying the move would go a long way in saving lives.... Koketso explained that the purpose of road-blocks is to discourage drunken driving, speeding and teach drivers about safe driving. Secretary of the Lobatse Road Safety Committee Kefalotse Tsalaile-Mmese said the stop-and-rest points were first introduced at the Tropic of Capricorn and later mounted at Kang and Nata. The initiative had been so successful that it had been extended to other areas such as the Mogobane junction, Sehithwa and Topise. Mmese complained about cattle that are roaming road reserves, as well as the narrowness of the road from Gaborone to Boatle. She appealed to motorists to avoid night travel and pupils to use public transport as it was safer. Last year's President's Day holiday statistics show that there were 614 road accidents, 78 of which were fatal, 28 deaths [sic] and 204 minor injuries. [Source: Republic of Botswana Daily News] ______________________________
At least 36 people have been crushed to death after a gasoline-laden truck skidded off a busy highway and crashed into a roadside market in central Nigeria, say road marshals. The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in Benue state said on Friday that the truck veered off the Makurdi-Gboko highway after a tyre burst and rammed into three stationary vehicles before it crashed into the busy farm produce market near the cement town of Gboko.... Fatal crashes are frequent on Nigerian roads and marshals usually blame them on overloading, poorly maintained vehicles and speeding. Many motorists attribute the accidents to Nigeria's extensive but crumbling highway network. At least 43 people were killed in June when the truck in which they were riding crashed in a ditch on a northeastern Nigerian highway. [Source: Reuters UK] ______________________________
______________________________
August a couple of days away, Hangzhou Traffic Police Detachment released a traffic alert yesterday, reminding people of the coming August, the time which is deemed as a peak time of traffic accidents. According to a report by the traffic police detachment, the death toll resulting from traffic accident in August in 2001, 2002 and 2003 [DSA note: there is clearly part of the report missing from here], with most of the traffic accidents caused by overloading and over-speeding. [Source: ZJOL] ______________________________
A relatively new profession, driving cars for drunk people, made its debut on Tuesday in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province. To avoid the risks of driving when under the influence of alcohol, people in the city can now hire drivers to take them and their cars home. The charge for the service ranges between 30 yuan and 100 yuan (US$3.6-US$12) based on distance, said Zhang, the owner of the new company which offers the service.... According to the Law on Road Traffic Safety that took effect on May 1, drunk drivers face fines of up to 2,000 yuan (US$240) as well as up to 15 days of detention.... Full story, from Xinhuanet ______________________________
Shocked German motorists found themselves sharing a motorway with a Swedish vacationer traveling by skateboard until police "prevailed upon him" to seek safer passage home, authorities said Friday. "He said he was down to his last two euros and couldn't afford a train ticket," said a spokesman for police in the West Palatinate region of southwest Germany. "The man said he didn't think using the autobahn would be a problem."... Police took the man, who was lugging a heavy rucksack and a golf club, to the nearest autobahn exit where he continued his journey on foot. It was not clear how far he had traveled by skateboard, police said. [Source: Reuters] ______________________________
PATNA: Local residents including school students blocked the Bailey road at two different points near Abhiyanata Nagar Mor and Ram Jaipal Singh Mor under the Danapur police station in protest against the killing of a 12-year-old girl Garima. The girl, who was a student of DAV school branch at Gola road in Danapur area, was killed when a speeding truck hit her near Abhiyanta Nagar Mor at around 7.30 am. The girl was on way to her school by bicycle. Full story, from The Times of India ______________________________
______________________________
WASHINGTON -- In the Senate and now on the campaign trail, U.S. Sen. John Edwards faithfully wears the Outward Bound pin of his son Wade. The Democratic vice-presidential candidate rarely speaks publicly about Wade's death in a car accident in 1996. Still, much media attention has focused on how the loss of his 16-year-old son was a turning point for Edwards, who soon after left his private law practice and ran for the Senate. His is a tragedy several other U.S. lawmakers know all too well. House GOP Chairwoman Rep. Deborah Pryce lost her daughter, Caroline Pryce Walker, in September 1999, a year after Caroline was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. Former Congressman Tony Hall from Dayton, Ohio, considered ending his legislative career when his son Matt died of leukemia. Sen. Gordon Smith, a Republican from Oregon, wept on the Senate floor two weeks ago as he spoke of his 21-year-old son Garrett's suicide less than a year ago. And both of Ohio's senators have lost daughters in car accidents.... Full story, from The Ledger ______________________________
The number of people being killed in road accidents has dropped drastically since new traffic rules were implemented in February. Transport minister John Michuki said yesterday the number of accidents fell by 73.5 per cent between February and June compared with the same period last year. As a result, the number of lives lost on the roads had reduced by 70 per cent from 1,091 between February and June last year to 327 over the same period this year. [DSA addendum: The new rules include requirements for seatbelts and speed regulators on matatus -- a type of passenger vehicle commonly used by commuters.] ....The campaign seeks to educate pedestrian, cyclists, motorists and all other road users on the need to use roads safely.... Full story, from allAfrica ______________________________
Senator Gladys Johnson-Sands has appealed to the Ministry of Works to create a hotline to handle all matters involving roads that would affect the motoring public. She also said that the government had to ensure that roadways were up to standard and safe. Full story, from the Nassau Guardian ______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
Virginia -- The investigation into a fiery crash on Interstate 66 in Fairfax County on Tuesday that killed a 2-year-old boy, critically injured his pregnant mother and killed her fetus focused yesterday on why the gas tank in the family's Geo Metro exploded when rear-ended, a statistically rare occurrence.... Statistics compiled by the federal government and industry groups show how unusual the explosion was. In 2002, only 102 of the 32,480 vehicle occupants who died in crashes nationwide were killed by a rear-end impact that resulted in a fire, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an Arlington-based research group funded by insurance companies. Full story, from the Washington Post (subscription necessary) ______________________________
(AGI) - Rome, July 21. - Infrastructure interventions in townships and provinces, to create safe big streets and runabouts inserting; a project to create house-school and house-work routes; education at school. These are the objectives that Cnel (National council for economy and work) wants to reach thanks to a billion euro asked to the Government today. According to Cnel, this financing corresponds to a medium investment for a citizen of 30 euro, while Today only 8 euro are provided. Mario Sai, co-ordinator of the national council for streets safety explained " money asked to the government should be shared between local bodies for 80 pct and the government for 20 pct. The principal interventions are fundamental for common and provincial roads and for motorways , that are too dangerous. To reduce incidentsÂ’ number runabouts have to be build, as it is abroad." But Cnel wants to direct its attention on young people "we have to ensure house-school routes, so that children can go school walking or by bike, and schools have to educate children explaining them how to move in a city." Mario Sai stated cases of many incidents that happen around 6pm, after work, so there is the need of house-work routes too. As for points of driving licences, sanctions are not enough, but we have to promote a virtuous way to have points back, with psychological help to avoid accidents to happen again. [Source: AGI, a special service on behalf of the Italian Prime Minister's office] DSA Comment: This piece has clearly lost clarity in translation but we do not want to make what appear to be obvious corrections in case we are mistaken. We presume that the 'runabouts' referred to are roundabouts [USA: rotaries]. ______________________________
(AGI) - Rome, July 21 - Despite July's data show a negative trend of death accidents, accidents registered between July 1st 2003 and June 30 2004 a decrease of 14.5 pct, compared to 2002/2003 same period. This is what Minister of the Interior, Giuseppe Pisanu, stated answering to Pierluigi Castagnetti (Margherite party) during the Chamber of deputies question time. Other data followed: death accidents decreased (-18.2 pct), victims decreased (857 less) and accidents with injured people decreased too (-16.6 pct). [Source: AGI, a special service on behalf of the Italian Prime Minister's office] DSA Comment: As above, re lost clarity in translation. ______________________________
Taiwanese fighter jets practiced landing and taking off on a highway that was temporarily closed to traffic early today – a rare drill to prepare pilots for the possible bombing of their air bases by China, officials said. Two French-made Mirage 2000-5s landed, refueled and loaded ammunition on the road in Tainan, southern Taiwan. [Sources: The Scotsman, and Spacewar.com] ______________________________
Kota Marudu: Early education on traffic rules is required to develop good driving habits and make the public roads safe for all, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili said Thursday. Flagging off the Shell road safety education programme here, Ongkili said such programme was vital to inculcate the road safety culture, especially at a young age, thereby reducing accidents and death toll on public roads. In Sabah, he said, a large part of rural road accidents were caused by carelessness and drink-driving.... “The slogan ‘berhati-hati di jalan raya’ (be careful on the road) is a good slogan to promote and to adopt personally to ensure our public roads are safe for all users,” he said.... Full story, from the Daily Express, East Malaysia ______________________________
Despite the alarming rise in the number of vehicles, Chandigarh continues to remain a city without traffic snarls. Thanks to better traffic management, broad and good roads, and the self-imposed traffic discipline by locals, this planned city breathes easy in comparison to India's other metros. Between 1967 and 1982, only 84,000 registered vehicles moved through the city's streets. That figure has since risen to six lakh.... [DSA glossary note: We are given to understand that one lakh generally means 100,000 though apparently the number can be rather flexible.] In order to ensure the same traffic flow in the decades to come, the local traffic police leaves no stone unturned to impart the requisite traffic education to GenNext. Chandigarh SP (Traffic) AS Dhillon said: "Traffic Education is a very important tool being used by the Chandigarh traffic police. A well-equipped children's traffic park provides basic traffic education to these future drivers: kids of the city. The children are told about traffic signals, and traffic rules. Quite naturally the idea is to catch them young, as once children at the age of 5-6 years learn the importance of road safety.".... Full story, from New Kerala ______________________________
The number of rape cases in the national capital has been showing a rising trend in last three years, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. As against 490 cases in 2003, 269 incidents were reported till June 30 this year.... The Minister said that acting on recommendations made by National Commission for Women after meeting with police and Delhi government officials and NGO representatives, police had been directed to conduct survey of poorly-lit parking areas and inform concerned civic bodies. Special patrolling had been ordered in vulnerable areas and traffic police asked to step up drive against vehicles using tinted glass.... Full story, from The Times of India ______________________________
Some 243 people were killed and 990 seriously injured in 8,968 traffic accidents during the first six months of the year, according to police data released yesterday. In June alone, 37 people were killed in 1,341 accidents, of which 33 were fatal and 147 resulted in grave injuries. During the first half of the year, 18,159 people were injured in accidents. Full article, from Haaretz ______________________________
A 34-year-old man was killed today following a collision on the hard shoulder of a motorway in Kent, England. He parked on the shoulder and got out to help an employee who had broken down in another car but as he did so, a Range Rover struck him and his Ford Mondeo, a police spokesman said. DSA Comment: A remarkable proportion of drivers seem to believe that the shoulder is a safe place to be, but it's not. Never stop on the shoulder except in an emergency. Many people have been killed while sitting in broken down vehicles, waiting for a tow truck so if there is somewhere safe to stand, use it. If there is a barrier or guard rail behind which people can safely stand, get any occupants out of the car and behind that barrier. If there is a rising, grass embankment, get your passengers up to the top of it. If you must stay in the vehicle because there is nowhere safer, keep your seat belts fastened in case your vehicle is hit. Please don't ever think it won't happen to you because hundreds have died after thinking exactly that. ______________________________
When summer break ends, thousands of college students will be driving back-to-school and an urgent plea to be safe on America's highways is being issued from CollegeBound Teen Magazine and Precision Tune Auto Care (PTAC). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports 7,452 fatal crashes involving young drivers (16-20) in 2003. According to the Car Care Council, poor vehicle maintenance is responsible for five percent of road accidents involving 2,600 deaths and 100,000 disabling injuries each year. "Our goal is to educate students on car care, safe driving practices and give them incentives to have their vehicles inspected before they drive back to college," explains Gina LaGuardia, editor-in-chief of CB Teen.... Full article, with the 11 tips, from the Dispatch Tribune ______________________________
Driving in Seoul is a trip. It is a video game junkie's dream come true, an enthralling real-life trip into the depths of one's resolution, courage, patience, motor skills and co-ordination. In a country suffering one of the highest traffic death rates in the world, the challenge becomes a daunting case of miss or be missed. While most in the West grew up with cars, motorcycles and their associated evils, Koreans did not. The country has an infant driving culture, but a modern, fully developed vehicle base. Some say that Montrealers are crazy drivers, that driving there is like trying to survive a Formula One race where everyone including old ladies, business people and mothers try to reach the finish line– which is the next red light – before the other. Seoulites are a lot like that. One of the busiest streets in Seoul is Gyeongin Street, which connects cities to the west of Seoul (like Incheon and Bucheon), to one of the world's most densely populated cities. There were 45 traffic lights on a recent drive along the 22-kilometre stretch, many of them red, but the bus stopped at just three. Some motorcycles didn't stop at all, while 15 cars made sure to look both ways before blowing past the lights.... Full story, by Yoav Cerralbo, at CBC News ______________________________
Emergency workers are trained to save lives - but in the past few days they have left a trail of death and destruction in South Africa. There have been at least three accidents involving emergency vehicles in which three people died - two of whom were medics - Gauteng Emergency Management Services (EMS) spokesperson Malcolm Midgley confirmed on Monday.... Geoff Rees, whose son was killed in a collision with a fire truck last month, has embarked on a campaign to expose emergency drivers who drive negligently. "... There is death on the roads because these drivers think they are above the law," said Rees. Full story, from IOL ______________________________
This nation's families long have sent sons and daughters into the military. They need to know that - given the inherent dangers of many military occupations, especially during wartime - the armed forces are taking adequate safety precautions, starting with day-to-day activities. A five-month Detroit News investigation, detailed in a recent series, discovered military vehicles too often are unsafe and cause accidents that sometimes are fatal. "Outdated designs, a lack of safety features and poor training are contributing to the unnecessary deaths of U.S. soldiers in military vehicles," the News reported. "With increased mobilization of troops for the Iraq war, the Army had its worst accident record in a decade last year: 833 crashes, 50 deaths and 223 injuries...." Full story, from the Kinston Free Press ______________________________
Wisconsin Trooper Foils Plunge From Bridge
Full story, from CBS News DSA Comment: This, of course, is just one good example of the many life saving actions that traffic patrol officers undertake around the world each year, sometimes at the cost of their own lives. From watching the video footage, one certainly gets the impression that Trooper Boldt could easily have been dragged over the side of the bridge by the woman's momentum. Our full admiration goes to this trooper and the many other police officers like him. ______________________________
Young drivers in Queensland could soon be required to undergo a mandatory 120 hours of driving training and experience before they can sit for a licence. Transport Minister Paul Lucas has welcomed a suggestion from the Driver Trainers Association that Queensland Transport's recommended 120 hours of driving experience be enforced. It follows his rejection of the National Motorists Association of Australia's recommendation for one day's defensive driver training after drivers get their licences. He said cost was a prohibiting factor and that there was little evidence linking advanced driver training to lower crash rates. Driver Trainers Association vice-president Peter Tuck yesterday said cost would not be a factor in his organisation's suggestion. He said the DTA wanted young learner drivers to fill out a log book, signed by their driver trainer, school teacher, or a responsible driver who had held their licence for more than one year. "They don't have to do any more hours with a driving school, just get more experience on the road," he said. "Two driving schools are already implementing the log book system, but it is not compulsory. We want the Government to at least trial the system." At present learner drivers are encouraged to fill in a log book to record their driving experience, but it is not compulsory. Opposition transport spokeswoman Fiona Simpson said the NMAA proposal for a one-day defensive driving course made sense and should not be dismissed out of hand. "The statistics show young drivers are at more risk than older drivers of having car accidents and many of these result in death and injury," Ms Simpson said. Full story, from The Brisbane Courier-Mail (first published on 17 July)
______________________________
Make U-turns in midblock if you like. Drive on sidewalks if you must. Scream at oncoming traffic if you dare. But, increasingly, even the boldest and most resourceful of Moscow's drivers can't escape the city's probky, or "corks," the Russian word for traffic jams.... No other major city in Europe or the United States has seen its traffic grow so fast, Western experts say. As a result, Moscow's streets are often outrageously congested, noisy and polluted. They're also increasingly perilous. Traffic deaths in Moscow rose almost 30 percent in the past three years, police say. Last year, 1,327 people died on Moscow roads, about 3 1/2 times the number in New York City, which has roughly the same population.... Full story, from the Baltimore Sun ______________________________
Using a headset or speaker phone to talk while driving isn't necessarily safer than using a hand-held cell phone, new research suggests. The mental distraction of talking on the phone alone is enough to cause accidents. These are the initial findings of two university studies sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal agency in charge of vehicle safety. One study, from the Virginia Tech Center for Transportation Research, videotaped 100 drivers for a year to study cell phone safety. A second University of Iowa study, to be presented at a conference in September, used simulations to compare the reaction times of drivers using hands-free and hand-held phones. "There's a growing body of evidence, even absent this new research we're doing, that suggests using hands-free cell phones does not minimize the risks of getting into an accident," said Rae Tyson, spokesman for the federal agency. "The act of conversation can be extremely distracting, whether or not your hands are on the phone." Tyson added that talking on a hands-free phone isn't the same as speaking to a passenger while driving, because the person on the other end of the line has no awareness of the hazards the driver might be facing.... Full story, from the Chicago Sun Times DSA Comment: Similar research was undertaken by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in the UK last year, at which time they showed that the distraction of holding a conversation by mobile phone while driving -- irrespective of whether the phone was hand-held or hands-free -- has the equivalent effect on a driver's reaction time as having a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08%. ______________________________
American drivers collectively spend about a billion minutes a day talking on their cellphones, an estimated 40 percent of all cellular minutes. Earlier this month, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., joined New York in requiring drivers to use headsets or other so-called hands-free devices when they talk on cellphones.... But new research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and others suggests that hands-free devices may actually add to the overall risk. The growing evidence could put safety regulators - who have been reticent to act so far - on a collision course with the nation's wireless business. "The thing that disturbs me is that we have states and local municipalities making rules that basically give hands-free phones a free pass as being safe," says Jeffrey Runge, NHTSA's administrator. "That's not good policy." A sizable body of research concludes that headsets and speaker-phones don't improve safety because it's the mental distraction of talking on the phone, not holding it, that causes the danger while driving. And recent research suggests the devices could actually increase risk by encouraging people to spend more time on their cellphones and drive faster while doing so.... Full story, from the Wall Street Journal, via AZ Central
______________________________
A Czech police officer took a police campaign to cut traffic accidents a little too far when he shot at a pedestrian who crossed a road on a red light. The policeman in the western city of Pilsen first fired a warning shot in the air. But when the man refused to return to the pavement, the officer shot at him twice but missed, the online edition of the Czech daily Pravo said. No one was injured. The police officer faces a criminal investigation. [Source: Reuters] ______________________________
Derrick Thomas, the 33-year-old superstar linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, [died in February 2000], stricken by a heart attack less than a month after being paralyzed in a rollover accident in his Chevrolet Suburban sport utility vehicle. Now, more than four years later, a jury in Thomas’ adopted hometown will be asked to decide whether the crushed roof of his SUV killed him. The case against GM could be a pivotal event in the debate over stronger roof design. Full story, from the Detroit News ______________________________
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung has ordered authorities to come down heavily on traffic violations and bring down the rate of casualties by the year-end. He was speaking at a meeting of the National Traffic Safety Committee held to review traffic safety for the first six months of the year. More than 6,300 people have been killed and 8,700 injured on the country’s roads during the first six months [of 2004], and casualties increased by 352 compared to the same period last year, according to statistics tabled at the meeting. On an average, 35 people are killed in accidents every day. Reacting to the report, Dzung asked ministries and localities to take necessary measures to ensure traffic safety by strictly punishing violations, expanding the public transport service and improving the quality of testing for driving licences.... Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Transport, Pham The Minh said 96 per cent of fatalities occurred on roads and over 70 per cent of casualties related to motorbikes. While the number of motorbikes have increased, reckless and drunken driving and riding without helmets have seen a corresponding increase resulting in fatal accidents, Minh added. Full story, from VNS ______________________________
Too many people seem intent on killing themselves and others on the roads. If a gunman walked into the Bourke Street Mall one Friday night, killed eight people and injured nine others, the community would be outraged, and rightly so. Yet the same community is strangely immune to the same level of killing on the roads. It appears to have developed a level of tolerance to road deaths that somehow devalues the lives lost. What other explanation can there be for the horror of last Friday night and Saturday morning? The appalling weekend on Victoria's roads had neither rhyme nor reason. Victoria already has tough road laws, with penalties equal to or heavier than those in other jurisdictions. The state's roads have also improved markedly over the past 30 years, along with the construction and safety features of motor vehicles. All of this has had a significant impact on the state's road toll, which peaked at 1061 in 1970 and has halved since 1989 to 330 last year. But there is still too much carnage on the roads. We must conclude that much of the blame lies with individual drivers... Full story, from The Age ______________________________
[In the USA, it is becoming the accepted norm that bar staff, waiters/waitresses, and bar/restaurant owners are taken to court if they sell too much alcohol to someone who is subsequently found to be drunk-driving.] A Charlotte waitress is facing charges for allegedly selling alcohol to a teenager who was killed in a drunk driving accident. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police say Tracye28-year-old tailedkilled when his car struck a tree on N-C 16 in Weddington. He was the second Mecklenburg County teenager killed in an alcohol-related wreck over the weekend. Full story, from the Wilmington Star ______________________________
Julian Patrick, a 28-year-old British driver, is furious that although he tailed a car for over an hour and forty minutes, that seemingly had a very drunk driver, and he called the police several times using his hands-free mobile phone, the police never came and the drunk driver got away. Full story, from This is Lincolnshire ______________________________
If you break the speed limit while visiting France this summer, you risk more than a fine. ...British drivers [used to] rely on the Gendarmerie having a laissez-faire attitude to anyone with a GB sticker and a steering wheel on the wrong side. If they did stop you, it was simply a matter of pleading ignorance, demonstrating a woeful [inability to speak] French and being sent on your way with a slapped wrist to while away the next leg of the journey with some hilarious Inspector Clouseau impersonations.... [For drivers visiting France,] carte blanche appears to have been superceded by the carte rouge. The EU is on a mission to cut road deaths by half across mainland Europe, and with a lamentable tally of more than 7,000 fatalities a year, double that of Britain, France is placing road safety high on its agenda. The French police offered a preview of their new "zero-tolerance" attitude during this year's Easter break, stopping 126 vehicles on the A26 south of Calais, 110 of which were speeding Britons. Seven were claimed to have been travelling at more than 45mph above the 81mph motorway limit, with one driver being stopped outside Bethune at an alleged 146mph. All received on-the-spot fines of up to £200 and the seven were arrested and bailed to appear in court. Roads in northern France such as the A26, A16, A131 and N13 -- fast routes from the ferry ports of Calais, Boulogne, Le Havre and Cherbourg -- are likely targets for a summer speeding blitz, as are the A61, A9 and A8 in the south. The A8 is where the Colombian Formula One star, Juan Pablo Montoya, was stopped for travelling at more than 120mph in a BMW X9, earning himself a £720 fine.... There are now more than 1,000 laser guns in use throughout the country and being caught speeding by one can seriously ruin a holiday, as Kevin Delaney, head of traffic and road safety at the RAC Foundation, explains: "There is often the suggestion that the French police lie in wait for tourists, but what they say is that the tourist routes have a higher level of crashes during holiday periods so, by being there during the summer, they are making those roads safer. "What British [and other nationality] drivers must appreciate is the fact that the on-the-spot fine system used in France means you are not allowed to continue your journey until you've paid up. As a result, someone stopped on a remote part of the A6, for example, could find themselves escorted 30 or 40 miles out of their way to the nearest bank to withdraw cash to pay the fine. They don't take plastic, and if you don't have sufficient money to pay the fine, the car will be impounded until the debt is cleared. If you don't settle up, any passengers will be advised to take the TGV." [i.e. the train].... Read the detailed article, from the Daily Telegraph ______________________________
Police in southwestern France stopped two long-distance buses headed for Morocco and found them massively overloaded and being driven by people who had not taken the regulation rest pauses, gendarmes said. The stopping of the two vehicles, of the type which mostly take immigrant workers home from France for the holiday season, came four weeks after a similar bus crashed in western France, killing 11 people. Gendarmes in the southwestern Gironde region around Bordeaux said one of the buses stopped on Saturday was overloaded by almost 12 tonnes and the other by 7.7 tonnes. "That's enormous, because they were almost scraping along the ground," a gendarmerie official said.... The two drivers, who were both Moroccan, were given on-the-spot fines of EUR 1,500 (USD 1,860). They were also due to be brought up before a local court, along with the heads of the companies that employed them.... Full story, from Expatica -- France ______________________________
The road safety equivalent of the Oscars are now open for schools, community groups businesses and individuals to enter and showcase their road safety projects. The 2004 Road Safety Innovation Awards recognise innovation in road safety, and encourage individuals and organisations in the road transport industry, business sector and community to pursue innovative practices to improve road safety.... The inaugural Road Safety Innovation Awards were held last year and the top prize went to dairy company Fonterra for a comprehensive programme aimed at improving the safety of the company's large fleet of milk tankers. This programme helped to reduce injury crashes among the company's tanker fleet by 63%.
There are five categories, plus the Premier award:
Inspired by the Prince Michael Road Safety Awards in the UK, the New Zealand awards highlight examples of road safety innovation in this country with the aim of encouraging others to follow suit. To be eligible for the awards, innovations must have originated within New Zealand or have been significantly adapted for New Zealand conditions. Full story, from Scoop ______________________________
Drunk and drugged motorists were nabbed, stolen cars found, and speeds of up to 163km/h (102mph) clocked during a massive crackdown on drivers by Wellington police. It involved 55 police officers and three booze buses. In a big checkpoint operation that stretched between Thursday night and Saturday night, police stopped 13,000 motorists, breath-testing them and ensuring everything was above board. Wellington's traffic boss, Acting Senior Sergeant John Press, said 22 drivers would face alcohol-related charges. Thirteen vehicles were impounded from disqualified and unlicensed motorists, four licences were suspended for excessive speed or alcohol, two stolen vehicles were found, and three drug-related arrests were made during the blitz.... Full story, from STUFF ______________________________
Seven passengers were killed and ten others were injured on Sunday in the northeastern Turkish province of Trabzon when a minibus plunged into a gorge.... Yilmaz Kartal' minibus was returning from Tasköprü Upland Meadows in the neighboring province of Gümüshane when it flew into a roadside gorge due to excessive speed. The minibus reportedly plunged into the water when it failed to make a curve.... Nearly 9,000 people are killed every year in traffic accidents across Turkey. [Source: Turkish Press] ______________________________
Forty people, most of them commuters, were killed when a crowded bus shot off an Indian highway in torrential rain and plunged into a ditch yesterday. The bus skidded off the road in the town of Laxmipur, 355 kilometres from Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal state. "The bus sank in the ditch filled up by monsoon rains," said state police Inspector General Chayan Mukherjee.... Full story, from SMH ______________________________
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's emphasis on accident prevention has some worried that collision protection will suffer. Federal auto safety regulators — seeking to reverse a troubling rise in highway deaths — are shifting their focus from mandates that allow occupants to survive crashes to emerging technology that will help drivers avoid deadly accidents altogether.... But NHTSA’s philosophical shift is drawing fire from some safety advocates, who question the wisdom of de-emphasizing safety features such as seat belts, air bags and a strong occupant compartment that have been the cornerstone of the government regulatory efforts for 34 years.... “I’m all for technology improvements in vehicles, but that is no excuse not to act on crashworthiness,” said Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA administrator who now heads Public Citizen, a Washington safety advocacy group. “We’re absolutely not at the end of the line. The lives lost each year show that.”.... Read the full, important story here, from the Detroit News ______________________________
More than 70 percent of children ages 5 to 14 -- roughly 27.7 million -- ride bicycles. This age group rides 50 percent more than the average bicyclist and accounts for about 21 percent of all bicycle-related deaths and nearly half of all bicycle-related injuries. According to the National SAFEKIDS Campaign, bicycles are associated with more childhood injuries than any other consumer product except the automobile. Head injury is the leading cause of death in bicycle crashes and is the most important determinant of bicycle-related death and permanent disability, according to the Campaign. In Iowa, State Patrol Trooper Scott Miller, a safety education officer, teaches safe bicycling to children. Miller said whether its himself or a parent that teaches children, the most important bicycle safety tip is to wear a helmet. "Every time a child gets on a bike, not some of the time, not part of the time, every single time, make them wear their helmet," he said. "The number-one reason I think kids don't wear them is that they are labeled as not being cool. But it would be a lot worse if they fall on their head." [Source: an article in the Daily Nonpareil] ______________________________
The State has a grim record, but it's unclear whether lawmakers will back stronger protections.... Alabama had more than 3,500 rollover deaths from 1991 to 2002, according to statistics compiled by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit group that helped mount last week's news conference. On a per-person basis using 2000 census data, Alabama's rollover death rate was the highest in the country.... Full story, from al.com ______________________________
A toddler, a great grandmother and a man about to be married were among eight people killed during 18 hours on Victoria's roads that police have described as the worst in memory. Assistant Commissioner Bob Hastings said the carnage, between 6pm on Friday and noon yesterday, was appalling.... As well as the eight deaths, nine people were injured in seven incidents. Five were last night fighting for their lives....
Mr Hastings said the community should reassess its attitude to road fatalities. "If there were 8 murders in 18 hours, there would be a call for a royal commission, but if it's on the roads, it's like we don't care," he said. "Well, some of us do care, particularly the police and the people in the other emergency services who have to go out and deal with what's there and deliver the messages and pain to those people who are left. "Last night we saw different climatic conditions, but at the end of the day, we have to adjust to those sorts of conditions," he said. "Are we complacent, are we being stupid, are we being irresponsible? If it's all of those things, please, let's slow down, stick to the speed limit, let's drive responsibly and do the right thing by everyone out there so we stop this sort of carnage on our roads...." Full story, from News.com.au ______________________________
Insurance Rates Skyward Across the State A staged car accident in Brooklyn may seem meaningless to [drivers] in Western New York. But it isn't. You're paying at least $60 more a year for your car insurance because of a ballooning fraud industry. Despite an all-out offensive against it, losses and rates could go higher.... Full article -- Highway Robbery -- from the Buffalo News ______________________________
After a long week at work, the last thing you need is to do battle with Friday evening traffic... so you hop in the car, tell it you’re heading home, and relax with a novel until you pull into the driveway. It’s a scenario that has been dreamed about for decades — and one that auto industry experts agree is now close to becoming reality. Automakers are beginning to outfit their vehicles with technologies that are the first steps toward self-driving cars.... Full story, from the Detroit News ______________________________
Idaho teenagers account for one out of every four car crashes, even though they represent only 7 percent of the state's driving population. Overall, teens age 15 to 19 are more than twice as likely to be involved in crashes as all other drivers, according the Idaho Transportation Department's Office of Highway Safety. An OHS-sponsored Web site is designed to counter this trend by promoting safe driving practices among teens. The site, www.XTR4.com Teen Driver ("Xtra Training Resource for teens"), combines education and entertainment in an effort to prepare young drivers for their exams, help them better understand the principles behind Idaho's driving laws and ultimately reduce the number of fatal or serious-injury crashes involving teens. "Reaching teens with safety information is a challenge for a couple of reasons," said Josephine O'Connor of OHS. "First, teenagers are typically the most difficult audience to reach, especially when it comes to social issues such as driver safety. Second, any communications with them would have to appeal to the teen mindset to be effective." The colorful, action-oriented site engages teens and offers them the chance to win prizes while furthering their driver education. It received national recognition recently from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.... During its first six months, XTR4.com had more than 5,000 hits, and 90 percent of the visitors registered with the service. Full story, with website excerpts, from the Idaho Statesman
Addendum: ...The project has cost about $80-thousand dollars. That includes developing, maintaining and refreshing the site to include new games and content. Highway safety used a portion of the federal funds it received for the youthful driver program to pay for the site.... From a second article, at NBC News Channel 6, July 26, 2004. ______________________________
It’s summertime and that means kids are out and about -- on skateboards, on bicycles, on-foot. It also means an increased risk of sudden, life-threatening recreational mishaps. With that in mind, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian will host the state’s seventh annual Safety Day (formerly Bicycle Safety Day) this Tuesday, in Warwick’s Goddard Memorial State Park. Since its inception, Bicycle Safety Day has been a rare opportunity for young bicyclists to learn the rules of the road from law enforcement professionals across the state. The name was changed this year, said RIDOT Spokeswoman Heidi Cote, because organizers decided to incorporate seat-belt, in-line skating, skateboard and pedestrian safety into the program’s curriculum..... Full story, and event curriculum, from the Pawtucket Times ______________________________
______________________________
Ludhiana: Despite education and constant warnings, Ludhiana faces an imminent problem of minors taking to driving, both on two-wheelers and four-wheelers. In some cases, courtesy indulgent parents. And in other instances, unruly children who want their way with everything, with reluctant parents giving in. So these teenagers may tell you they are learning driving, or that they need to take a vehicle to school. But the fact is that underage driving has become a menace and has resulted in open violation of traffic rules. Interestingly, neither the schools, nor the Traffic Department is ready to take on the responsibility to curb the increasing incidences of minors taking to driving at very young age. The responsibility, say department officials, also lies with the parents, who accede to the unreasonable demands of their children and provide them with vehicles to move around independently.... Traffic officials too believe it is the parents’ responsibility to curb underage driving. Ask SP Traffic Gurdial Singh about the problem, and he shrugs helplessly. ‘‘Most of the time when we stop the minors, they don’t stop. And when they do, they start wailing,’’ he says, taking a helpless attitude.... Full story, from Express India ______________________________
Traffic awareness and public relations supervisor Captain Mohammed bin Dayna said new laws allow drivers to get their windows tinted without getting written permission from the General Directorate of Traffic. "These new laws are designed to make things more convenient for drivers. Previously permission had to be obtained before windows could be tinted," he said. "But we ask the public not to abuse these easier regulations and stick to the 30 per cent maximum level of tinting allowed by law." This rate applies only to side and rear windows and not to the windshield, which shouldn't be tinted under any circumstances.... Full story, from the Gulf Daily News ______________________________
All twelve student members of the Avon Grove Lookin' Out Committee played a role in the PSA, along with West Grove (Pennsylvania) Borough Patrolman, Jay Anderson. The storyline of the PSA centers on the patrolman visiting a home to deliver the somber news of the death of a young driver as a result of a drunk driving accident. View the Lookin' Out website, by students for students. Also see the Fast Focus web page where another great video is available Full press release (two sources) available here, or here. ______________________________
Published: CT91.2 Causes of road traffic accidents update (2001-2004) (price £20) Forthcoming publications: TRL599 Road safety behaviour of adolescent children in groups by L Chinn, M Elliott, J Sentinella and K Williams TRL600 The effect of traffic calming on child pedestrian skills development by L Chinn, J Guy, G Stothart, J Thomson and A Tolmie TRL601 The attitudes and behaviour of adolescent road users: an application of the theory of planned behaviour by M Elliott TRL607 The accident risk of motorcyclists by B Sexton, C Baughan, M Elliott and G Maycock TRL613 The drink/drive rehabilitation scheme: evaluation and monitoring. Final report by L Smith, G Buckle, M Keigan, S Buttress and J Sentinella Summaries of published reports are available from the TRL website at www.trl.co.uk (Choose "Publications" and then "Search for Reports"). ______________________________
ST. LOUIS, Mo, July 16, 2004 - For teenagers, obtaining a driver's license is a significant rite of passage, a sign that they're growing up and ready to accept the responsibility of operating a motor vehicle. For parents, however, it can be a frightening time as statistics show that teenagers are 10 times more likely to be in a traffic accident than adults, and traffic fatalities remain the leading cause of death for teenagers. That's why Ford Motor Company, along with representatives from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), have joined forces to launch Driving Skills for Life, a multi-year, educational campaign aimed at teens, parents and the driver education community. ______________________________
KUALA LUMPUR -- The City Traffic police will deploy traffic investigating officers in a number of police stations in the city to speed up accident cases. City Traffic Chief Supt Ahmad Shamsuri Ahmad Mukri said placing investigating officers in police stations through the centralised on-line system could help to solve accident cases faster. "The move is vital as many police stations do not have a traffic team in place. As such, when accidents happen in the outskirts of the city, there is a delay in the investigating process due to the distance as such officers are stationed in Kuala Lumpur," he said.... Full story, from Utusan Online ______________________________
At least 50 taxi drivers have been penalised in Mbarara for defying the new traffic regulations. The district traffic Police officer, Mohammed Mafabi, on Tuesday said most of the drivers were caught talking on phone while driving, while others committed offences like dangerous loading and carrying excess passengers. He said some of the culprits were netted after passengers sent SMS messages to the Police. "We are glad members of the public are joining us in the fight for the restoration of law on our roads. We are requesting every member of this country to join the struggle," Mafabi said. [Source: New Vision, Kampala] ______________________________
It was a woolly, if not wild, report from Romanian traffic police: Authorities stopped a convoy of three cars after they heard the “passengers” bleating – and found the vehicles stuffed with sheep. Three Turks men were transporting 94 sheep in three small pick-up trucks. Thirty-four of the animals were crammed into a single vehicle. County veterinary authorities in the eastern village of Rediu fined the three men £250 each for mistreating the animals and for not having the proper documents for them. [Source: The Scotsman] ______________________________
You would have thought Alvaro Malicia would have learned his lesson after being found guilty of drunk driving not once, but nine times.... Full story, from the Globe and Mail ______________________________
______________________________
The contents include:
The newsletter is available via: www.oecd.org/cem/events/newslet.htm ______________________________
A recent study conducted by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a watchdog group, found that the five deadliest roads in New York State are in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, on Long Island. THE state Department of Transportation and many others have a preoccupation with maximizing speed and the number of vehicles on our roadways. It is this approach that has created a system of dangerous roadways throughout Long island. Road design dictates speed and safety. As long as the people hired to plan our roadways believe that their job is to get people from point A to point B in the shortest time, regardless of the safety hazards and the impact of the local community, we will continue to have the deadliest roadways in the state. These planners should recognize that high accident rates can be caused by outdated road design, operator error, negligent police enforcement of speeding violations, lack of sidewalks and curbs, and bigger, wider highways that encourage higher speeds.... Common sense is [a] strategy rarely used by the DOT in transportation planning. Center turning lanes are dangerous and confusing, and that's why many people call them suicide lanes. Also, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to know that people go too fast on the Long Island Expressway. How about more enforcement? There are low-cost ways to solve such problems, but the first step is admitting the problem.... Full Op-Ed, from Newsday ______________________________
Saturday marks the 20-year anniversary of the law that raised the national drinking age to 21, but local advocates and officials say too many Texans are still dying in alcohol-related accidents. The national chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving hailed the law Wednesday as the most effective anti-drunken driving legislation ever passed. It says 20,000 young lives have been saved since it was enacted on July 17, 1984. "Unknowingly so many young people have been given a second chance to live long, productive lives," said Wendy Hamilton, MADD national president in a statement released Wednesday. Yet statistics show that the state of Texas has the highest number of alcohol-related driving fatalities in the nation. In Texas, 1,745 people were killed in drunken-driving accidents in 2002 compared with 1,612 killed in California, a state with nearly 10 million more people, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.... The most recent data available shows 3,543 drunken drivers under the current legal drinking age were involved in accidents in Texas and eight underage drunken drivers were killed in Harris County in 2000, said Garry Rand, a traffic safety specialist for the Department of Transportation.... Full story, from the Houston Chronicle
DSA Comment: In terms of its overall road-crash death rate, relative to the size of the population, Texas is more or less in the middle of all states. In 2002 (latest available data) Texas lay in 29th position, with 16.86 deaths for every 100,000 people. The average for the USA, as a whole, was 14.8. This would appear to confirm MADD worries that the state displays a notably poor performance in terms of drunk driving. To view a table showing the per capita death rate for each American state, click here. ______________________________
A new campaign to teach youngsters road safety messages has been launched. Road safety charity Brake wants nursery schools and playgroups to organise a Beep Beep! Day to teach tots valuable road safety messages. The event can be organised between August 1 and September 12 and aims to give carers the chance to educate toddlers and also raise charity cash. Brake says children as young as two can be taught simple road safety messages, such as holding hands with adults when close to roads and the importance of the word stop when there is danger from traffic. One child under six is killed every week on Britain's roads and 24 children are injured. The Beep Beep! Day, which is being organised with Green Flag Motoring Assistance, can take the form of a supervised toddle, or by using safe pavements or sitting on ride-on toys to learn road safety in the playground.... Money raised will go to Brake, which provides support to families who have been bereaved by a road crash. Information packs can be obtained from Brake on +44 [0] 1484 559909, or e-mail: beepbeep@brake.org.uk [Source: IC Huddersfield] ______________________________
Johannesburg -- The accident statistics on the Arrive Alive road safety Web site have been updated, and the site is receiving a significant amount of public response, says Free State-based site developer Johan Jonck.... While the information on the site is provided by the Department of Transport, Jonck says the Web site is mainly driven by private interests.... [He] added that a proposal on the government branding the entire site is “being considered”. Full story, from IT Web ______________________________
The rising death toll on A10 road, commonly known as the Gaborone-Kanye highway, has Works and Transport Minister Tebelelo Seretse deeply worried about the safety of both commuters and pedestrians. "The May 2004 incident where10 people were killed in a single accident near Thamaga Bridge has even led our media to aptly label the A10 'the corridor of death," she lamented. The minister was speaking at a road safety awareness campaign between Thamaga and Moshupa villages at a spot along the A10 where some people were killed. The road was officially opened in 1993 and between 1999 and _[blank]_ 48 people had died along this road while 53 were seriously injured and disabled.... Seretse noted that at Kumakwane, pedestrians have become the main victims of vehicles that transit the village at break-neck speed. The campaign was also aimed at sensitising the public on the hazards of the highway.... She said the negative consequences of this infrastructure continued to be a source of grave concern, noting that the number of livestock, especially donkeys grazing beside the A10, increased the risk factor.... She said planned activities on the highway would include more police traffic surveillance, educational roadblocks, children's traffic education and community seminars as well as workshops on road safety.... Full story, from the Government of Botswana Web Site ______________________________
TEHRAN: Twenty-four people have been killed and 13 others injured when the driver of a heavy truck dozed off and smashed into a passenger bus on a road in southern Iran, state media said Wednesday. The accident occurred shortly before dawn between the towns of Darab and Fasa, in Fars province. “The driver had fallen asleep and lost control,” a provincial police official was quoted as saying. Iran’s roads are already considered to be among the most dangerous in the world. More than a quarter of all cars are over 20 years old, and drivers in general seem to display suicidal tendencies when they are behind the wheel. Close to 100,000 people have died in road accidents over the past five years, and during the last Iranian year from March 2003 to March 2004, a total of 25,772 were killed. [Source: the Daily Times, Pakistan] ______________________________
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) has today welcomed Road Safety Minister David Jamieson's announcement of measures to be included in a road safety bill in the Autumn but noted that the proposals 'lack narrative'. PACTS welcomes the Government commitment to finding Parliamentary time for a road safety bill. Particularly welcome are the long-awaited decision to introduce evidential roadside breath testing, the commitment to expanding speed awareness courses and the new power to give grants to Local Authorities for undertaking innovative road safety work. However, there is no clear narrative in the contents of the proposed bill. Hoped-for proposals that have been overlooked include targeted breath testing; a new penalty for drivers significantly over the alcohol limit; the introduction of a new charge of 'negligent driving'; and reviewing direct access to high-powered motorcycles. The DfT memorandum to the Transport Committee also makes no mention of motorcycling, despite the worrying recent increase in motorcyclist fatalities, or of specific proposals to protect vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. PACTS Executive Director, Robert Gifford, commented: "This is something of a rag-bag set of measures that tinkers with the existing structure rather than the more comprehensive package of measures needed to cut drinking and driving or to reduce serious motor offending. I look forward to MPs and Peers strengthening the Bill at whatever point it begins its Parliamentary process." PACTS also expressed caution about the proposals to change the penalty points system for speeding offences to a sliding scale of 2 to 6 points. In an open letter to Secretary of State for Transport Alistair Darling, PACTS Policy and Campaigns Officer Jonathan Gaventa warned: "Reducing the penalties for speeding by margins of 5-10 mph in 30 mph zones sends the wrong message to drivers about the safety and acceptability of driving at this speed." [Source: PACTS Press Release] ______________________________
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) has published its response to the Government's three-year review of road safety targets. Targets 2010: Where Next? welcomes the review and the considerable successes identified in the review, but also notes that further action will be necessary to achieve the targets and summarises areas requiring further improvement. These include: the levelling off of fatalities at 4% below the baseline, the emerging split between rural and urban casualty trends, the increase in motorcycle fatalities, seat-belt wearing, drink driving, vehicle design, reliability of data and integrating road safety priorities into wider agendas. The response includes a table mapping out key priorities for legislation, research, guidance and education.
Other news includes:
All of the above topics may be viewed in detail at the PACTS website. ______________________________
These are the words of Max Power, a fast-talking magazine serving up a monthly fix of racy cars and even racier women to a hot-blooded male audience. From this week, that same language will be used to try and do something the Government has consistently failed to do - to promote safer, more advanced driving among young British drivers. Max Driver is a new initiative which sees an unlikely pairing between Max Power magazine and the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM). And it's backed by Honda, a brand which is becoming increasingly respected and popular among the "Max Power generation". Young male drivers are the most at-risk group of motorists in the UK - they are also the hardest group to influence. Max Power has had extensive experience of promoting specialist road safety information and other hard-hitting topics in an easy to read, fun and non-preaching way. ______________________________
South Carolina's senior citizens think aggressive driving is the state's most pressing highway safety concern. A survey, released on Monday by AAA Carolinas, found that 58 percent of senior citizens who responded think aggressive driving most endangers their highway safety -- not large trucks (23 percent), drunken drivers (21 percent), traffic congestion (19 percent) or overall road conditions (8 percent). More than 85 percent of the seniors polled said that in the past year, they have witnessed an aggressive driver, defined as one who commits two or more traffic offenses at once. Sixty-three percent said aggressive driving is on the rise in their area. But the AAA study pointed out that senior citizens may not be solely victims of aggressive driving, at least at some point in their lives. The study found that 14 percent of seniors admitted tailgating, although the study did not include a time frame in which the offense occurred. About 20 percent of those polled said they had exceeded the speed limit by at least 20 mph, and about 13 percent committed a traffic offense as a result of something another driver did. [Source: the Island Packet] ______________________________
For the second time since it was created, the Governor's Task Force on driving while impaired met to outline the issues it would tackle for the rest of the year. Governor Mike Easley created the Task Force as part of his Highway Safety Program. Its purpose is to examine current DWI laws to determine whether they are effective. The group also discusses what steps need to be taken to make them even better at getting and keeping drunk drivers off the road. Right now there aren't any laws or changes in the works, but the Task Force has identified one group it plans to pursue in the future. “I think one of the topics the Task Force is going to look at most seriously is the issue of repeat offenders," said Jill Lucas of the Highway Safety Program. "So many times you hear of someone who's been arrested for drunk driving and they've been arrested before. Maybe they've been arrested several times before. There has to be steps taken to make people take this issue much more seriously and really keep them off the road.” [Source: News 14 Carolina] ______________________________
Every Saturday night at about 9:30, the feelings rise from somewhere deep within the Oyster Bay pediatrician. That was the day and time almost two years ago when Greg Gulbransen got into his BMW X5 sport utility vehicle, started to back out of his Woodbury driveway and then accidentally ran over his 2-year-old son, Cameron, killing him. Not far away, in Dix Hills, Bill and Adriann Nelson mourn their 16-month-old son, Alec, who was killed when a close relative accidentally backed over him with a Ford Explorer on April 24. On Father's Day last month, Matthew Cavallaro accidentally backed over and killed his daughter, Agatha, 2, with the family's Ford Expedition after a family barbecue in Muttontown. So far this year, at least 28 children in this country have died after being backed over by a vehicle [and 72 were killed in this manner in 2003], according to a group seeking to improve car safety for children [i.e. Kids and Cars -- see below]. While there are devices available to help prevent such tragedies -- including cameras that provide an extra "eye" on the back of vehicles and sensors that emit beeps when there is an obstruction nearby -- advocates are pushing to make them standard on all vehicles.... Full story ('I still feel the thump'), from Newsday Also see: Kids and Cars ______________________________
Ten people who were injured when the minibus in which they were travelling collided with a car along the Old Harbour Road in Spanish Town yesterday have been admitted to hospital. The driver of the car, who was also hospitalised, is said to be in serious but stable condition, the same as three of the passengers from the small bus. The driver of the minibus... has been arrested and charged with dangerous driving. Full story, from the Jamaica Observer ______________________________
One in five victims of road accidents in the Durban metro last year were youngsters between the ages of five and 19. This statistic was released by the eThekwini Municipality's Traffic and Transport Department to highlight the dangers faced by pupils on our roads. In total, there were 56 000 accidents between January and December 2003. Youngsters made up 4 085 of the 19 196 people involved in those accidents. The situation was so serious that it prompted a meeting between the provincial Transport Department, school governing bodies and pupils' drivers to find ways of making school transportation safer.... Full story, from The Mercury ______________________________
According to one online report, Richard Gelula, the National Sleep Foundation's chief executive [officer] is alleged to have said: "Driving while feeling drowsy or fatigued can be a deadly combination. People must remember that drowsy driving is an impairment that compares to truck driving." We, at DSA, rather suspect that should have read "...compares to drunk driving." Either that or truck drivers have been doing some dreadful things to upset the writer! ______________________________
On the weekend, several parts of the city of Accra, the Ghana capital, had electric power outages - as usual. Naturally, traffic lights were affected. Need we continue? The dangerous junctions and intersections where traffic lights are a vital component of traffic management were left untended. Neither the police nor the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) seemed to give a damn, and so it was free for all at these dangerous points with the law of the jungle reigning, that is, until some public-spirited individuals stepped into the breach to help.... These good Samaritans, who often take over traffic control during these emergency periods, are generally unemployed youth. Why doesn't the government organise them into voluntary traffic gangs and pay them some allowances for their services? Already some of us who feel gratified by their services donate a thousand cedis or two when we drive and see them providing this most vital service to society. The consolidated fund or the District Assemblies Common Fund or the myriad of sources available to the government could provide the funds for the allowances. This way they will be motivated to work more and perhaps even form the core of our next generation of dedicated traffic police/wardens.... Full story, from allAfrica ______________________________
Seniors are perceived as safe drivers because they are less prone to speeding and recklessness. The downside is, senior drivers may be less alert due to age, and they may not see too well either. Slow and steady may not ensure fewer road accidents in the case of senior drivers. Older drivers may be conscientious drivers and the least likely to speed but they may drive too slowly and pose a danger to themselves as well as to other drivers.... Full story, from The Star ______________________________
As a result of reforms carrying out by the State Traffic Police of Georgia, eight administrations, including traffic police were liquidated in the Ministry of Interior Affairs; 2200 [of the] 3800 employees were dismissed. Traffic police was replaced by patrol force in Georgia, July 12, AzerTAj correspondent reports. Duty of traffic police in the streets and crossroads were eliminated. 960 policemen in the regions, and 650 patrol forces in Tbilisi will assume a duty. [Source: AzerTAj -- The State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan] ______________________________
Ghana could lose about 12,000 lives in the next six years and another 30,000 persons injured if adequate, sustainable and cost effective counter measures are not put in place to curb road accidents, Mr Noble Appiah, Acting Executive Director of the Ghana Road Safety Campaign (GRSC), said on Tuesday. He said from 1993 to 2003, over 120,000 road accidents were recorded with more than 15,000 persons killed, 50,000 seriously injured and over 70,000 slightly injured.... Full story, from GhanaWeb ______________________________
A Rockford woman was found guilty of reckless homicide Monday in the death of a 47-year-old toll booth worker.... Sara Jiminez was accused of barreling through the Belvidere Toll Plaza at close to 60 mph on Aug. 28, 2003, striking and killing toll booth worker Howard Collier of Loves Park. The impact of Jiminez' car reportedly threw Collier over 90 feet. Jiminez and her attorney, Rene Hernandez, blamed the crash on faulty brakes. [But] witnesses reported seeing Jiminez stop then drive like a "bat out of hell," as she sought to flee the scene. Prosecutors painted a picture of a woman who did little or nothing to avoid hitting Collier, a 22-year veteran of the tollway system who was known as one of its safest employees.... Assistant state’s attorneys Troy Owens and Nicole Perry-Owens... used a computer-generated video which was shown to jurors during testimony last week. It was one of the first used at a criminal trial in the state. Developed by Illinois State Police accident reconstructionists, it gave jurors three different views of the Aug. 28 toll plaza accident “from behind the driver’s wheel, from behind the vehicle Jiminez was driving and a street-level shot.”... Full story, from the Rockford Register Star ______________________________
Some 83 percent of Americans polled want the federal government to require stronger light vehicle roofs to protect passengers in rollover crashes, according to a national survey released on Monday. Consumer groups used the survey results to again call for tougher federal rules to reduce the likelihood of a rollover, prevent ejections and minimize the damage caused when larger light trucks collide with smaller vehicles. Congress is finalizing a $275 billion, six-year highway spending plan that safety advocates say is an opportunity to cut down on the rising number of highway fatalities. There were 43,220 Americans killed on U.S. roads last year, the highest number since 1990. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration attributes part of the jump in fatalities to 4,451 deaths involving SUVs in 2003, 456 more than in 2002. The number of SUV-related deaths increased 11 percent, reflecting a jump in SUV registrations.... Full story, from the Detroit News Full research survey, from the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety ______________________________
The Responsibility Has Its Rewards Promotion will send designated drivers to World Series and All-Star games. Major League Baseball has launched the Responsibility Has Its Rewards Promotion, which encourages fans to pledge to be designated drivers at each of its 30 ballparks. The promotion includes signage in the ballparks and on video boards. Public Service Announcements (PSAs) for television and radio will begin airing this month. Designated driver programs have existed in MLB ballparks for many years and have been supported by the beer industry and concessionaires. A league-wide promotion in support of positive behavior elevates the importance of these programs. Further announcements will be made at a press conference in Houston, TX. [Source: TEAM Coalition] ______________________________
An Adelaide Hills blackspot is among 33 of the state's roads listed for safety improvements within 12 months.... The work is part of a $3.5 million blackspot program announced in Adelaide yesterday by federal Roads Minister Ian Campbell. The 33 city and country projects include roundabouts, traffic signals, non-skid treatments and pedestrian facilities. The funding was welcomed by RAA chief executive John Fotheringham yesterday but he said South Australia was still being "cheated" by the Federal Government. "Blackspot programs are very very effective in improving road-safety performance," he said. "All of these programs are welcomed . . . but in terms of the total road funding spend they are very, very small amounts of dollars."... Full story, from The Advertiser ______________________________
"The road does not kill. Rather, we have made it an instrument of death, " the Minister of Transport, Charles Sale told proprietors of inter-urban transport agencies at a "road safety forum" which took place in Yaounde last week. Minister Sale intimated that 65 per cent of road accidents reported on major inter-urban roads in the country are caused by high speed, alcoholism, non-respect of traffic rules and poor vehicle maintenance. ...The minister regretted that drivers do not only drink before driving, but drive at excessive speed while using cell phones on the steering. Many, he said, have never been to a driving school while others have refused to acquire basic vehicle road-worthy permits. The minister announced that stringent road-safety measures will henceforth be applied, both at the bus stations and bus stops. These will include routine control of vehicle tires and breaks, the lighting system, the weight of the vehicle and the official reflective CEMAC number plates. Alcohol test on drivers will be regularly carried out by transport and security officials at each bus station. He added that apart from facing the law, defaulters will immediately be deprived of their business licences.... Full story, from allAfrica ______________________________
In Britain, almost 90% of young men think they are 'good' or 'very good' drivers despite the fact that almost two thirds describe their driving as 'fast' and a quarter admit that they are 'aggressive'. These stark figures have been released by the RAC Foundation, from a survey of 1525 respondents conducted by Max Power magazine. The report suggests that key safety messages are not being received by young drivers whose perception of their driving ability contrasts starkly with the actual facts.... ______________________________
Another three teenagers died in yet another single vehicle accident on Thursday. That brought the week's death toll on the Republic's roads to seven and by Sunday night the total had reached 12. Road fatalities for the year to date now stand at 205, an increase of more than 10% compared with the same period last year. Buncrana youths Shane Cuffe and Owen Doherty, both aged 18, and Áine O'Leary (16), from the Skerries area of Dublin, were killed instantly when their car crashed into a bridge and then struck a tree at Ballymagan, north of Buncrana, at 11:00pm on Thursday. The dead girl's cousin, Liz-Anne O'Keeffe (17), the daughter of a local garda [i.e. police] sergeant, was seriously injured in the crash and is recovering in Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry. According to gardaí [this girl, who was the only survivor] was the only person in the car who was wearing a seat belt.... Full article, from Irish Emigrant Online ______________________________
A top traffic police officer instructed driving test examiners to "forego minor mistakes" to help driving licence aspirants, but stressed major errors should not be ignored. Brigadier Mohammed Saif Al Zafeen, Director of Dubai Traffic Police Department, said an ideal driver was the one who respects the law. He said accidents are caused as a result of the failure to abide by the law. Brig. Zafeen was speaking to driving test examiners at Al Fahidi Hall of the police headquarters. "We should follow objective, scientific and precise criteria when passing judgment on driving licence aspirants. What we need to do is to ensure that the person has full control over the vehicle and does not ignore safety inside and outside the car," said the official.... Full article, from the Khaleej Times ______________________________
Probe discovers reporting delayed and evidence destroyed ...What Union Pacific did not say [following one fatal crash] was that the warning signal at the crossing contained parts that the manufacturer had said, 12 years earlier, should be replaced "as soon as possible" because they might be defective. After a witness to the accident said the signal appeared to have malfunctioned, a lawyer for Lopez’s family arranged with Union Pacific in October 2001 to inspect the signal. But a railroad manager beat the lawyer there by several hours and secretly swapped the suspect parts for newer ones. The cover-up was not discovered until weeks later, when the Lopezes’ lawyer noticed that the serial numbers on the parts did not match the railroad’s records. The railroad’s conduct is a stark example of how some companies, even as they blame motorists, repeatedly sidestep their own responsibility in grade-crossing fatalities. Their actions range from destroying, mishandling or simply losing evidence to not reporting the crashes properly in the first place, a seven-month New York Times investigation has found. Union Pacific stands out. In one recent 18-month period, seven federal and state courts imposed sanctions on Union Pacific, the nation’s biggest railroad, for destroying or failing to preserve evidence in crossing accidents, and an eighth court ordered a case retried.... Read the full, harrowing report here, from the Houston Chronicle ______________________________
As I travel into many neighborhoods of our fair city, I am very much aware of the citizens' driving habits. One would say they are bad.... I have compiled a record from a Sunday to Saturday with 63 traffic violations from a U-turn in the middle of the street, switching from one lane to another, not coming to a complete stop on red to turn right. Give no signal lights for any movement of the automobile and drive up to a mechanical traffic light that has a left-turn lane to move traffic safely and quickly and the automobile is going straight ahead, as this provokes the driver in the rear to dart out from behind to the left side to set up an accident waiting to happen. Don't forget, as you are driving down the street in the distance you can see the light turn yellow, which is your signal to accelerate and run a red light. Where in the world are you going? Surely, a minute or two at the stop sign is much better than tearing up your car and injuring yourself and others. Maybe you should have left sooner than you did to arrive on time.... Start now to enforce our traffic code and ordinances or throw the book out the window, take down all signs to let everyone drive like they want to.... Letter from Emil Nick, Greenville, in the Delta Democrat Times ______________________________
You've just watched your freshly licensed 16-year-old pull out of the driveway. Nervous? You should be. Your son or daughter has more chance of being involved in a fatal crash today than any other driver. For every million miles driven by 16-year-olds there are 43 crashes, 17 of them fatal the highest rate of any age, drunk or sober, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. About half the 16-year-olds who get their licenses this month will have an accident within a year. Their wrecks will be caused by one thing, experts say: Inexperience. There has been good news since Ohio's graduated driver's license law, which governs teen drivers, went into effect Jan. 1, 1998. Crashes for 16-year-old drivers dropped from 7,335 in 1997 to 4,632 in 2003 36.8 percent. The three-step law, in place for teens from age 15½ to 18, requires a parent or guardian to rack up 50 hours of practice time with their teen before he takes his driver's test, as well as requiring teens to take a driver's education course. Drivers under 18 may not drive between 1 and 5 a.m. This fall, two Ohio legislators will introduce a bill to tighten the law. The bill is in the draft stage, but Reps. James Hoops of Napoleon and Gary Cates of West Chester will probably address two proven causes of teen accidents: having too many passengers and being out too late.... Full story, from The Plain Dealer ______________________________
...Elderly drivers are involved in fewer crashes than people younger than 25. But as Florida's elderly population grows, along with the number of people older than 60 who have a driver's license, the state is scrambling to address what it calls a critical situation.... The National Institute on Aging predicted that in 2020, one in five Americans will be older than 65, and most will be licensed to drive. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reported that almost 250,000 people in the state are older than 85, and at least 20 percent are drivers with dementia.... Full story, from the Daytona Beach News Journal
______________________________
Sales of anatomically perfect inflatable dolls are set to explode. Well, at least that’s my prediction in the wake of the announcement by Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary, that carpool lanes are to be introduced on some British motorways. When the same policy was implemented in the United States long ago, sex shops across America were inundated with demands for dolls. Drivers who wanted to use the less congested carpool lanes attempted to fool the police by adding an inflatable passenger. (Or at least that’s the reason they gave.) Darling has been a busy man of late. The carpool wheeze, more properly known as High Occupancy Vehicle (or HOV) lane, was quickly followed by an announcement that a new five-mile ‘pay-as-you-go’ route to the north of the existing M6 toll road near Birmingham would be created.... What worries me is that both measures have been justified by reference to American practice. Nowadays, government ministers have a dangerous tendency to assume that the American way is automatically the right way. We need to ask ourselves whether we should be slavishly copying a country with an incredibly weak economy and a criminal tendency to squander natural resources. Copying American transport policy seems the height of absurdity. The US gave up on trains long ago and encouraged everyone to take to the road in private cars, which have become distorted symbols of American freedom. Transport policy in the US consists of laying wide ribbons of concrete into the hinterlands, encouraging Detroit to build ever-bigger cars and subsidising the consumer’s selfish wastefulness by keeping petrol prices ridiculously low*. Last year, the US consumed more than one-quarter of the world’s oil production, hardly an example worthy of imitation.... Full article, from Gerard DeGroot, in The Scotsman [*Note: Even though America is reeling from increased gas prices, it must be remembered that gas in the USA still costs only one third, or an even smaller fraction, of its price in Europe and elsewhere.] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
July 31, 2004: 
July 31, 2004: 
July 31, 2004: 
July 30, 2004: 
and 
(July 31, 2004): 
July 30, 2004: New
Survey in Ireland Reveals a Disturbing Attitude Towards Road Safety
July 30, 2004: Another
Deadly Bus Crash -- This Time it's in Turkey
July 30, 2004: 
* July 29, 2004: Daily Danger on
Swaziland's Roads
July 29, 2004: Probe
Into Illegal Driving Licences in South Africa
July 29, 2004: Cell
Phones Are Used to Report More Drunk Drivers to the Police
July 29, 2004: New
Rural Road Safety Programme in Scotland
July 29, 2004: 
July 29, 2004: 
July 29, 2004: 
* July 29, 2004: 
July 28, 2004: 
and 
July 27, 2004: Four
Dutch Youths Killed in a Traffic-Jam Crash
July 27, 2004: Banning Cruise
Control in Trucks
July 27, 2004: On
this day in 1939: The Start of Safety Development at Mercedes-Benz
July 27, 2004: State Probes Use of
K60m Traffic Police Training Fund
July 26, 2004: Road Safety On
The Beach
July 26, 2004: Alcohol and
Driving Don't Mix -- a Recent French Decree
July 26, 2004: Athens Police
Stage a Pre-Olympics Road Safety Test
July 26, 2004: 
July 26, 2004: 
July 23, 2004: In Kuala Lumpur, Traffic
Cops Intensify Operations
July 23, 2004: Police Enforcement Stepped Up on the Salerno-Reggio
Calabria Highway, in Italy
July 23, 2004: 
July 23, 2004: 
July 23, 2004: Hangzhou Police Release Traffic Accident Alert
for August
July 22, 2004: New Traffic Rules
Have Allegedly Lead to a Major Drop in Crashes and Fatalities in Kenya
July 22, 2004: 
July 21, 2004: Was That a Mirage on the Road, or was it REALLY
a Mirage?
July 21, 2004: 
and
July 19, 2004: 
July 17, 2004: 
July 16, 2004: 
July 16, 2004: 
July 15, 2004: 
July 14, 2004: 
July 14, 2004: 
* July 13, 2004: 
July 12, 2004: