Until recently, SUVs and pickups were more likely than cars or minivans of the same weight to be involved in crashes that killed occupants of other cars or minivans. That’s no longer the case for SUVs, and for pickups the higher risk is much less pronounced than it had been.

For example, among 1-4-year-old vehicles weighing 3,000-3,499 pounds, SUVs were involved in crashes that killed car/minivan occupants at a rate of 44 deaths per million registered vehicle years in 2000-01. That rate dropped by nearly two-thirds to 16 in 2008-09. In comparison, cars and minivans in the same weight category were involved in the deaths of other car/minivan occupants at a slightly higher rate of 17 per million in 2008-09.

The researchers attribute much of the change to two things: improved crash protection in the cars and minivans, thanks to side airbags and stronger structures, and newer designs of SUVs and pickups that align their front-end energy-absorbing structures with those of cars.

The more compatible designs are the result of efforts by automakers, the government, and the Institute to address the problem of mismatched vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asked automakers to address the compatibility issue amid concern about the changing vehicle mix on U.S. roads. Participating automakers included BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Isuzu, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota, and Volkswagen.

The companies agreed to build the front ends of SUVs and pickups so that their energy-absorbing structures would line up better with those of cars, reducing the likelihood that an SUV or pickup would override a car in a collision. Better alignment allows both vehicles’ front ends to manage the crash energy, helping to keep it away from the occupant compartments.

The automakers also pledged to strengthen head protection in all vehicles in order to improve outcomes when an SUV or pickup strikes another vehicle in the side. They accomplished this by installing more head-protecting side airbags.

“By working together, the automakers got life-saving changes done quickly,” says Joe Nolan, the Institute’s chief administrative officer and a co-author of the new study. “The new designs have made a big difference on the road.”

Institute researchers looked at 1-4-year-old SUVs, pickups, and cars/minivans in 2000-01 and 2008-09 and compared the number of car and minivan occupants killed in 2-vehicle crashes with those models per million registered vehicle years. (A registered vehicle year is 1 vehicle registered for 1 year, 2 for 6 months, etc.) The cars or minivans in which people were killed, known as crash partner vehicles, could be of any age, size, and weight.

Data on crash deaths came from the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System, and registration information came from R.L. Polk & Co.

In both 2000-01 and 2008-09, the number of crash partner deaths generally went up as vehicle weight increased. This isn’t surprising since vehicle weight is a key factor in the outcome of crashes.

However, in the first period, SUVs were more deadly to people in other vehicles than cars of the same weight, and pickups were more deadly than SUVs.

Between 2000-01 and 2008-09, the rate of crash partner deaths declined for all weight categories of all 3 types of vehicles, except the relatively small group of cars and minivans weighing 4,500-4,999 pounds.

Improvements in occupant protection in the crash partner cars and minivans helped lower the number of deaths. The spread of Electronic Stability Control or ESC, as well as changes in travel patterns due to the sluggish economy and high gas prices, likely also contributed to this decline.

Crash partner death rates for pickups, SUVs, and cars/minivans in 2008-09 weren’t as far apart as they were in 2000-01. Among 1-4-year-old vehicles in a given weight category, an SUV usually posed no more risk to people in a car or minivan than another car or minivan. Pickups still fatally injured people in cars and minivans at a higher rate, particularly in frontal crashes.

“Pickups lagged behind other vehicles in getting ESC, and designs of some top-selling models were slow to change. Those facts help explain why the numbers didn’t improve as much for pickups as for SUVs,” Nolan says. “Also, pickups often carry loads, so the trucks in these crashes could be a good deal heavier than their curb weights.”

In general, SUVs and pickups are heavier than cars, so in that sense different types of vehicles always will be mismatched. But the study shows that, beyond weight, differences in vehicle styles don’t have to be a safety problem.

The study of car/minivan crash partner deaths is the latest piece of Institute research showing that SUVs aren’t the safety concern they once were. Recently calculated driver death rates for 2005-08 models show that drivers of SUVs are among the least likely to die in a crash. That change is due largely to ESC.

“Whether you’re in an SUV or just sharing the road with one,” Nolan says, “recent improvements to these vehicles are making you safer.”

For more on traffic safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

“Drunk driving is simply not worth the risk. Not only do you risk killing yourself or someone else, but also the trauma and financial costs of a crash or an arrest for impaired driving can be significant,” said FHP Director, Colonel David Brierton, in a news release. “Violators often face jail time, the loss of their driver license, higher insurance rates, attorney fees, time away from work and dozens of other expenses. Do not take the chance. Our troopers will pull you over if you do not drive sober.”

The campaign encompasses the Labor Day holiday weekend, which begins Sept. 2. The holiday caps off the summer season for many, and historically travel increases with people driving to celebrate with friends and family.

All uniformed FHP personnel, including those normally assigned to administrative duties, will patrol interstates and other major state roads during the four-day holiday period. FHP Auxiliary troopers also will volunteer to augment the Patrol this weekend.

For the July 4 weekend, FHP troopers issued nearly 8,600 traffic citations and made 90 arrests for Driving Under the Influence of alcohol or drugs. They cited more than 3,200 drivers for speeding and nearly 1,100 for failure to buckle up. Troopers also investigated more than 900 crashes during the holiday period, including 12 crashes that resulted in 13 fatalities. Additionally, troopers assigned to commercial vehicle enforcement conducted 232 safety inspections on trucks.

Through the “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign, the Patrol aims to increase its presence throughout Florida in an effort to deter traffic violations and to enhance services to motorists who break down while traveling or who need other assistance.

Motorists can dial *FHP (*347) from a cell phone to contact FHP to report an aggressive or impaired driver or to request roadside assistance.

For more on traffic safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

The survey included 93 University of Alabama at Birmingham students who own a smartphone and use Internet-based applications on it at least four or more times per week. Among survey respondents, one in 10 “often,” “almost always” or “always” use mobile apps while driving; more than one-third use them “sometimes.”

“The participants seemed to understand that using mobile apps while driving is dangerous, and some have even experienced motor vehicle crashes while using mobile apps, but they continue to do it,” said Lauren McCartney, the UAB student who conducted the survey, in a university news release.
National statistics point to how dangerous distracted driving really is:

• Cell phone use is a factor in nearly 1 in 4 crashes.
• In 2009, 5,474 people were killed and an estimated 448,000 people were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted driving.

McCartney, a student in the Department of Psychology, will present her findings in August to the  American Psychological Association convention in Washington, D.C. Her work was chosen because her survey of this at-risk population is unique.

“The technology is evolving so rapidly that science hasn’t caught up to looking at the effects that mobile app usage can have behind the wheel of a car,” says McCartney. “But something needs to be done because in psychological terms, Internet use involves substantial cognitive and visual distraction that exceeds talking or texting, making it much more dangerous.”

Among survey respondents, one in 10 “often,” “almost always” or “always” use mobile apps while driving; more than one-third use them “sometimes.”

The survey’s findings are cause for concern, said David Schwebel, Ph. D.,  director of the UAB Youth Safety Lab.

“Driving a car is an incredibly complex task for humans to complete safely. There are enormous cognitive, perceptual and motor tasks an automobile driver must complete, frequently very quickly and with split-second precision,” says Schwebel. “A driver using his or her smartphone is clearly distracted, both visually and cognitively, and really should not be driving. The fact that 10 percent of college students with smartphones ‘often’ are using them while driving is astounding — the fact that 35 percent ‘sometimes’ do is equally concerning.”

Thirty-four states ban text messaging while driving; zero states ban the specific use of mobile Internet with the penalty of a primary or secondary offense. Florida is one of a few states that have no distracted driving laws, despite numerous and repeated attempts by legislators. In 2011, the Legislature rejected or ignored all bills that would limit drivers’ use of cell phones and text messaging devices.

The data in McCartney’s findings were part of a larger research study at the UAB Youth Safety Lab that examined the effects of mobile application use on pedestrian safety. Because the study was small and presented in a medical meeting, the findings should be regarded as preliminary until confirmed in larger studies and published in a peer-reviewed journal.

For more on traffic safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

According to the study led by David Phillips, a sociologist at University of California, San Diego, blood-alcohol levels well below the U.S. legal limit are associated with incapacitating injury and death.

Researchers examined official data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). This dataset includes information on all persons in the U.S. who were involved in fatal car accidents – 1,495,667 people in the years 1994 to 2008. The researchers used FARS because it is nationally comprehensive, covering all U.S. counties, all days of the week and all times of day, and, perhaps most important, reports on blood-alcohol content in increments of 0.01.

All the accidents included in FARS are, by definition, severe. But the authors looked at different levels of accident severity by examining the ratio of severe injuries to minor ones.

“Accidents are 36.6 percent more severe even when alcohol was barely detectable in a driver’s blood,” Phillips said in a university news release. Even with a BAC of 0.01, the study notes, there are 4.33 serious injuries for every non-serious injury versus 3.17 for sober drivers.

There are at least three mechanisms that help to explain this finding, Phillips said: “Compared with sober drivers, buzzed drivers are more likely to speed, more likely to be improperly seat-belted and more likely to drive the striking vehicle, all of which are associated with greater severity.”

There also seems to be a strong “dose-response” relationship between all these factors, the authors write: The greater the blood-alcohol content, the greater the average speed of the driver and the greater the severity of the accident, for example.

In general, accident severity is significantly higher on weekends, between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. and in the summer months, June through August. But when the researchers standardized for day of the week, for time of day and for month, the relationship between BAC and more dangerous car accidents also persisted.

“Up till now, BAC limits have been determined not only by rational considerations and by empirical findings but also by political and cultural factors,” Phillips said, citing as evidence that the U.S. national standard of 0.08 is relatively recent and that BAC limits vary greatly by country. In Germany, the limit is 0.05; in Japan, 0.03; and in Sweden, 0.02.

“We hope that our study might influence not only U.S. legislators, but also foreign legislators, in providing empirical evidence for lowering the legal BAC even more,” Phillips said. “Doing so is very likely to reduce incapacitating injuries and to save lives.”

For more on traffic safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

The survey of 1,500 drivers by Insurance.com reveals some disturbing news about driver safety, with many respondents admitting to behaviors known to raise the risk of deadly car accidents.

• Almost 9 percent admit to texting while driving
• About 30 percent talk on their cell phones while driving
• A shade over 39 percent eat or drink while driving.
• About 3 percent say they are shaving or putting on makeup
• Almost 2 percent are reading.

And the fact that drivers are candid enough to admit their bad behaviors offers a ray of hope, according to Bob Passmore, spokesperson for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, an industry trade group.

“If people admit to recognizing their bad behaviors, it’s the first step on the road to redemption,” he says.

Still, the relatively high number of people who confess to dangerous driving behaviors should trigger alarm bells for all motorists, according to experts.

Drivers absorbed in a cell phone conversation or who take their eyes off the road to reach for a soda or sandwich are at much greater risk of causing an accident, says Michael Barry, a spokesperson for the Insurance Information Institute.

“Their ability to concentrate on the act of driving is severely impaired,” he says.

Passmore says drivers too often underestimate the danger of such behaviors.
“It really only takes one moment of distraction and you could end up in a very bad situation, and sometimes tragic,” he says.

In addition, the finding that one in 10 drivers has driven without any auto insurance – a practice that is legal only in New Hampshire – means other drivers need to take defensive measures to protect their finances, Barry says.

“Insured drivers ought to make sure their policies include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage,” he says.

Without such coverage, a driver struck by an uninsured or underinsured motorist might not be compensated for damages such as medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

For more on driver safety, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

“Drive First” will be installed on all future Sprint Android phones, but subscribers must pay an additional $2 a month to engage the app. Owners of Android phones don’t need to upgrade as they’ll be able to download the app once the service launches, sometime in the third quarter, according to a press release from Sprint.

The app engages GPS to determine when a cell phone is in a moving vehicle. Incoming calls are sent to voice mail while texts trigger auto-response messages. It also blocks all but three of the smartphone’s apps, in theory allowing just for essentials such as navigation.

The distracted driving technology allows parents or employers to control settings for each Sprint phone via a Web page. Although the technology allows for a user override (for emergencies or when traveling without driving), the Drive First portal logs the action.

Other upper-tier distracted driving solutions have similar functionality — such as Taser’s new Protector system and the TeenSafer subscription service — but Drive First comes with a wireless carrier’s branding, support and billing.

The Drive First app comes from the Location Labs, the same shop behind T-Mobile’s DriveSmart Plus, introduced several months back.

DriveSmart Plus is a full-featured subscription service that can be applied to all lines on a customer’s account. It’s priced at $4.99 a month and works with the LG Optimus T Android Phone.

Sprint limits Drive First customers to one smartphone per subscription, making $2 a month a better deal if two or fewer smartphones are controlled.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile said  the AT&T purchase of the company is not expected to affect existing services such as DriveSmart Plus for at least a year.

For more on traffic safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

In the online edition of “Accident Analysis and Prevention,” the study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers, compared reaction times and perception of pedestrians as hazards between experienced elderly and non-elderly drivers.

The study was conducted in response to an increasing number of pedestrian-related accidents among elderly drivers. Drivers aged 65 and older are the fastest growing group in the Western world, with more elderly drivers than ever are on the road.

BGU researchers used two evaluation methods: driving in a traffic simulator while watching video of traffic scenes, and identifying hazardous situations by pressing a button.

The results of the video observation method showed that elderly drivers took longer to respond to pedestrian hazards. Approximately half of the pedestrian-related events presented in the videos were difficult for elderly drivers to perceive when compared with the non-elderly drivers.

The simulator drive test also revealed that the elderly performed “braking actions” half as often as the non-elderly group in response to pedestrians on sidewalks and shoulders.  However, the elderly group attempted to cope with hazards by reducing their driving speed by almost 20 percent, providing them more time to process the potential hazards and dangers, even if they couldn’t detect them.

“These findings strengthen the notion that elderly drivers, shown to have a narrower useful field of view (UFV), may also be limited in their ability to detect hazards, particularly when outside the center of their view,” said Tal Oron-Gilad a researcher in the BGU Department of Industrial Engineering, in a press release.

“Authorities should be aware of these limitations and increase elderly drivers’ awareness of pedestrians by posting traffic signs or dedicated lane marks that inform them of potential upcoming hazards,” said Oron-Gilad.

The research was conducted in BGU’s Human Factors Safety Lab, which features a 2008 Cadillac sedan and sophisticated simulation technology. The multidisciplinary lab recently developed one of the world’s only pedestrian simulation labs to conduct research on how pedestrians perceive and react to drive.
For more on traffic safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

New research shows those nail-biters at major sporting events are often followed by a significant increase in fatalities – but only for fans of the winning team,

Researchers at North Carolina State University found that traffic fatalities increased significantly after close games, and that games which were rated as nail-biters were far more likely to result in traffic fatalities than blow-outs. Each increase in the closeness rating was associated with a 21 percent increase in fatal accidents at the game site. To go from a blow-out to a nail-biter resulted in a 133 percent increase in observed fatal accidents.

Furthermore, researchers found that the increase in fatalities occurred only in places where there were winners – the site of the competition and the hometown of the winning team.

“This pattern of results is important in that it suggests that the cause of the relationship might be associated with competition-induced testosterone,” said Stacy Wood, lead author and professor of marketing at NC State, in a news release.

“During a close game, testosterone increases for the fans as well as the players – that has been established by previous studies,” Wood says. “After the game, testosterone levels drop for the losing side, but spike for the winning side. Because testosterone is linked to aggressive behavior and potentially aggressive driving, we hypothesize that this may play a role in the increased number of traffic fatalities in areas with a high proportion of winning fans.”

Wood and researchers from the University of South Carolina (USC) evaluated traffic fatalities after 271 games played between 2001 and 2008, including championship, tournament and rivalry games in professional and college football and basketball. The researchers looked at traffic fatality data in the area where the game was played, and in the hometowns of the winning and losing teams.

The researchers also used a panel of experts to rate how close each game was on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being a blow-out and 5 being a nail-biter.

“A previous study showed that traffic fatalities increased in the hours following the Super Bowl. We wanted to see if that held true for other high-profile sporting events and, if so, whether the number of fatalities was influenced by whether the game was a close one,” said Wood.  “Are blow-outs more dangerous because they’re boring, and people may drink more? Or are close games more dangerous because the excitement drives up testosterone levels?”

The paper, “The Bad Thing about Good Games: The Relationship between Close Sporting Events and Game-Day Automobile Fatalities,” is forthcoming from the Journal of Consumer Research and was co-authored by Dr. Melayne Morgan McInnes, a professor of economics at USC, and David Norton, a Ph.D. student at USC.

For more on traffic safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

Total ATV-related injuries in 2009 decreased 2.4 percent from 2008, the third consecutive decline in total number of deaths since 2006, which accounts for a total 16 percent decrease during that period. In 2009, there were 376 reported ATV-related deaths and an estimated 131,900 emergency room treated injuries.

The CPSC also reported that the risk of injury per 10,000 four-wheel ATVs in use declined by five percent from 2008 to 2009. This is the eighth straight year that injury risk for ATV riders has decreased – a downward trend that the CPSC also describes as statistically significant – and it is now lower than at any time since CPSC began calculating this injury risk in 1985. Four-wheel ATVs have become increasingly popular with the number of vehicles in use more than tripling since 1998 to over 10.5 million.

“The commitment of the member companies of the ATV Safety Institute (ASI) to rider education, parental supervision, and state legislation is reflected in the continued decline of ATV injuries and fatalities as reported by the CPSC,” said Paul Vitrano, executive vice president of ASI, in a press release. “Since 1984, the major manufacturers and distributors of ATVs in the United States have worked closely with the CPSC to implement ongoing safety initiatives.”

Learning to drive an ATV can be challenging, experts agree. Many deaths and injuries occur when an inexperienced driver loses control of an ATV, is thrown from an ATV, overturns the vehicle, or collides with a fixed object or a motor vehicle. Good ATV training teaches new drivers how to handle multiple off-road riding situations.

That is why the ATV Safety Institute this year began offering a new version of its internationally-recognized ATV RiderCourseSM in select states, including Florida. Leveraging ASI’s award-winning ATV e-Course online education program, the new ATV RiderCourse will reach more riders because students will have the flexibility of taking half the course in their homes and at their own pace. A new riding skills development component complements the knowledge and judgment obtained online.

Students choose one of three age-appropriate modules, which include riding-experience videos from a first-person point of view, animation, and interactive learning exercises and quizzes to self-test knowledge gained. Users can bookmark the course, take a break at any time and resume later from where they left off.

After completing the e-Course, the riding component teaches students riding skills on a controlled training range.  Riders will learn about pre-ride inspection, starting and stopping, quick turns, hill riding, emergency stopping and swerving, riding over obstacles, protective gear, local regulations, places to ride and environmental concerns.

Experienced ATV drivers (with more than one year of experience) have a much lower risk of injury than relatively new drivers. Training can help bridge that gap. Yet, less than 10 percent of all ATV drivers and only about one-quarter of new drivers receive professional training.

While the ATV industry is committed to the safety of its customers, more than 92 percent of ATV-related injuries involve one or more behaviors that the industry strongly warns against in its rider education programs, in all of its literature and on the vehicles themselves.

ATV enthusiasts and their families are urged to follow the ATV Safety Institute’s Golden Rules:

1. Always wear a DOT-compliant helmet, goggles, long sleeves, long pants, over-the-ankle boots, and gloves.
2. Never ride on paved roads except to cross when done safely and permitted by law – another vehicle could hit you.  ATVs are designed to be operated off-highway.
3. Never ride under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
4. Never carry a passenger on a single-rider ATV, and no more than one passenger on an ATV specifically designed for two people.
5. Ride an ATV that’s right for your age.
6. Supervise riders younger than 16; ATVs are not toys.
7. Ride only on designated trails and at a safe speed.
8. Take the ATV RiderCourse and the free online e-Course. Visit ATVSafety.org or call 800.887.2887.
For more on traffic safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

In the wake of multiple state bans on caffeinated alcoholic beverages and an U.S. Food and Drug Administration warning to four companies to remove their products from the marketplace, an article published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine delineates the scope of the public health problem and suggests areas of research that might help address it.

“Although several manufacturers of caffeinated beer have withdrawn their products from the market, there is no sign that young people have decreased the practice of combining alcohol and energy drinks,” commented lead author Jonathan Howland, PhD, Department of Community Health Sciences and Department of Emergency Medicine, Boston University, in a press release. “Critically, (caffeinated alcoholic beverages) may increase alcohol-related risks in a number of different domains, but have been subject to very little systematic research.”

As part of the study, Howland had 129 people ages 21 to 30 drink alcohol with or without caffeine. Thirty minutes later, they were tested in a driving simulator. Their driving ability was worse, and the caffeine made no difference. So Howland says: “If you’re intoxicated – whether you have caffeine or not – you shouldn’t be driving. Your performance really falls apart.’’

The article provides 44 references gathered from newspapers, magazines, and the scientific literature showing the current understanding of the effects of stimulants combined with alcohol.

One study found that bar patrons who consumed these drinks had a three-fold risk of leaving the bar highly intoxicated, compared to those who consumed alcohol without caffeine, and a fourfold risk of intending to drive after leaving the bar.

Another compelling study concluded that students who consumed these drinks had approximately double the risk of experiencing or committing sexual assault, riding with an intoxicated driver, having an alcohol-related accident, or requiring medical treatment.

The root of the problem may have started with so-called energy drinks.  Depending on the brand, these beverages contain several stimulants, primarily caffeine, but also guarana, taurine, and sugar derivatives.  Of the 577 caffeinated beverages listed on the Energy Fiend website in 2008, at least 130 contained more than the 0.02 percent caffeine limit for soft drinks imposed by the FDA.

Combining these energy drinks with alcohol became popular when marketers promoted the perception that energy drinks counteract the sedating effects of alcohol and related impairment and suggested that caffeine will increase enjoyment by allowing one to party for a longer time. According to a 2006 survey, 24 percent of college students reported mixing energy drinks with alcohol in the past month.

For more on traffic safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach personal injury lawyer.