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Claire R.'s List: safe driving

  • Jan 27, 10

    www.drivingmba.com/teenstats.html

    • • Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15-20  year olds
      • Teens have the highest involvement rates in all types of  crashes
      • 17 teens lose their lives every day in car crashes
      • Many fatal  teen crashes involve excessive speed or driving too fast for
        existing  road conditions
      • 77% of teen crashes involved avoidable driver errors
      •  31,000 people were killed in crashes involving teens between 1995 and
         2004
      • In a 4-year period, over 4,000 American soldiers were killed in  war-
        related incidents.  In the same time period, over 27,000  teens 15-19
        died in car crashes on U.S. roadways. 

  • Feb 02, 10

    www.car-accidents.com/...seat_belts.html

    • Seat Belts are the best protection in a car  accident.

      Failure to wear a seat belt  contributes to more fatalities than any other single traffic safety-related  behavior. 63% of people killed  in accidents are not wearing seat belts.       Wearing  a seat belt use is still the single most effective thing we can do to save lives  and reduce injuries on America's roadways.

       

      Data suggests that education alone is not doing the job  with young people, especially males ages 16  to 25 ­ the age group least likely to buckle up. They simply do not  believe they will be injured or killed. Yet they are the nation's highest-risk  drivers, with more drunk driving,  more speeding, and more crashes.  Neither education nor fear of injury or death is strong enough to motivate this  tough-to-reach group.

       

      Rather, it takes stronger seat belt laws and high  visibility enforcement campaigns to get them to buckle up.

       

      Seat belts are the most effective safety devices in  vehicles today, estimated to save 9,500 lives each year. Yet only 68 percent of  the motor vehicle occupants are buckled. In 1996, more than 60 percent of the  occupants killed in fatal crashes were unrestrained.

       

      If 90 percent of Americans buckle up, we will prevent  more than 5,500 deaths and 132,000 injuries annually.

       

      The cost of unbuckled drivers and passengers goes beyond  those killed and the loss to their families. We all pay for those who don't  buckle up ­ in higher taxes, higher health care and higher insurance  costs.

       

      On average, inpatient hospital care costs for an unbelted  crash victim are 50 percent higher than those for a belted crash victim. Society  bears 85 percent of those costs, not the individuals involved. Every American  pays about $580 a year toward the cost of crashes. If everyone buckled up, this  figure would drop significantly.

       

      By reaching the goal of 90 percent seat belt  use, and 25 percent reduction in child fatalities, we will save $8.8 billion  annually. See information on air bags  

  • Feb 02, 10

    www.nhtsa.gov/...4a601cdfe97fc239d17110cba046a0

    • America's Seat Belt Campaign
      Click It or Ticket (CIOT) is the most  successful seat belt enforcement campaign ever, helping create the highest  national seat belt usage rate of 83 percent. Coast to coast, day or night, the  message is simple - Click It or Ticket.

  • Feb 02, 10

    ehs.okstate.edu/...seatbelt.htm

    •   
      The figures are familiar: 40,000 people die each year in  car accidents, the leading cause of death for people under the age of 35.  Safety belts can prevent death in about half of these accidents. If you know  this and are still not wearing a safety belt, you may need to ask yourself why  not. But first, let's look at what happens when a car crashes. 

      The Human Collision
      Imagine running as fast as  you can - into a wall. You'd expect to get pretty banged up. Do you think you  could stop yourself if the wall suddenly loomed up when you were two feet away  from it? This is exactly the situation you face when the front of your car hits  something at only 15 miles an hour. The car stops in the first tenth of a  second, but you keep on at the same rate you were going in the car until  something stops you - the steering wheel, dashboard or windshield - if  you're not wearing your safety belt.. Bad enough at 15 miles an hour, but a 30  miles you hit "the wall" four times as hard as you would at 15. Or to put it  another way, with the same impact you'd feel as if you fell three  stories.

         
      A properly worn safety belt keeps that second collision -  the human collision - from happening. 

         
      Wear It Right
      "Properly  worn" means with both straps snugly fitted to transfer the impact of the  collision to the parts of your body that can take it - your hipbones and  shoulder bones. With just the shoulder strap on, you can still slide out from  under it and be strangled, while the lap belt alone doesn't keep your face from  hitting the steering wheel. 

      What's Your Reason For Not Wearing  One?
      "I'm only going to the shopping center." Actually,  this is the best time to wear a safety belt, since 80% of traffic fatalities  occur within 25 miles of home and under 40 miles an hour. 

      "I won't be in an accident: I'm a good driver." Your good driving  record will certaily help you avoid accidents. But even if you're a good driver,  a bad driver may still hit you. 

      "I'll just brace myself." Even if you had the split-second timing to  do this, the force of the impact would shatter the arm or leg you used to brace  yourself. 

      "I'm afraid the belt will trap me in the car." Statistically, the best  place to be during an accident is in your car. If you're thrown out of the car,  you're 25 times more likely to die. And if you need to get out of the car in a  hurry - as in the extremely tiny percent of accidents involving fire or  submergence - you can get out a lot faster if you haven't been knocked  unconscious inside your car. 

      "They're uncomfortable." Actually, modern safety belts can be made so  comfortable that you may wonder if they really work. Most of them give when you  move - a device locks them in place only when the car stops suddenly. You can  put a little bit of slack in most belts simply by pulling on the shoulder strap.  Others come with comfort clips, which hold the belt in a slightly slackened  position. If the belt won't fit around you, you can get a belt extender at most  car dealerships. 

      "I don't need a belt - I've got an airbag." Lucky you! An air bag  increases the effectiveness of a safety belt by 40 percent. But air bags were  never meant to be used in place of safety belts, since they don't protect  against side impacts at all.

  • Feb 02, 10

    "Technology has been used to engineer out much of the risk that is beyond the
    driver's control. For example, road and vehicle designs have improved and
    reduced the likelihood of collisions, as well as the chance for injury and the
    severity of injury. This has made the overall mechanics of driving safer. But
    driving is still risky so it must be the human element that is contributing to
    the majority of that risk. How is that happening? Well, America's roadways are
    busier than ever before and drivers deal not only with more traffic, but more
    distractions. Technological advances in roadside advertising, cell phones and
    other devices have made it easier to do other things while driving. The demands
    on drivers' attentions are at an all time high. It is possible, however, for
    each driver to control, to some extent, the degree of distraction. We also
    control the decisions we make on the road, which either reduce or increase the
    overall risk we are exposed to behind the wheel of a car. One of those decisions
    is wearing a seat belt."

    findarticles.com/...ai_76334024

  • Feb 02, 10

    "I'M A GOOD DRIVER: Good drivers should not have to wear seat belts because
    they are rarely involved in accidents. Well, Webster's defines an accident as
    "an unexpected happening causing loss or injury which is not due to any fault or
    misconduct on the part of the person injured..." Therefore, it stands to reason
    that being a good or bad driver is not necessarily a relevant factor. Expecting
    the unexpected is. That means every time we climb into our vehicle we should
    anticipate and be prepared that we might not make it to our destination in the
    same condition we are starting in. A seat belt will help improve our odds
    whether we are a good driver or not."

    findarticles.com/...pg_2

  • Feb 02, 10

    "If your vehicle leaves the road, begins to roll and, by some miracle, you are
    thrown out of an open door, the law of physics still apply. You will continue to
    go in the same direction as your vehicle until the point at which you are
    usually reunited with it. It is at that instant that you will become intimately
    familiar with what a 4,000-pound car can do to 170 pounds of flesh and bone."

    findarticles.com/...pg_3

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