That’s the message from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Deputy Administrator Ronald Medford who stopped in Florida recently for a town hall meeting to discuss strategies to  prevent such tragedies.

Nationwide, at least 27 children have died this summer after being left unattended in vehicles. The recent town hall meeting coincided with Child Passenger Safety Week,  an annual national campaign emphasizing the importance of properly securing all children in appropriate car seats, booster seats, or seat belts – every trip, every time.

“When it comes to child heat stroke in hot cars, one thing is clear: these deaths and injuries are 100 percent preventable,” said NHTSA Deputy Administrator Medford.

“Our challenge as a public health and safety agency is to pave the way for government, advocates, and our communities to put an end to these unnecessary tragedies,” Medford said in a news release.

NHTSA research shows that hyperthermia, commonly known as heat stroke, is the leading cause of non-crash vehicle deaths for children under the age of fourteen. Reports by the San Francisco State University Department of Geosciences show that at least 49 children under the age of 14 died in 2010 due to hyperthermia.

The body temperature of children can rise three to five times as quickly as an adult. Not only are children left alone in vehicles during hot weather at risk of death from hyperthermia, those who survive could be subject to serious injuries including brain damage, permanent blindness, and organ failure, among others.

“It’s critical for parents and caregivers to know that hyperthermia is a problem that sees no social, economic, or racial boundaries — child heat stroke can happen to anyone,” Medford said. “As we head into more temperate fall weather, we must remain vigilant, as the temperature inside a car can still climb well into the dangerous range for a young child.”

The town hall meeting included area health professionals, law officers, and concerned parents and is the latest push in NHTSA’s nationwide effort to step up child heat stroke education and prevention.

In July, NHTSA convened a roundtable in Washington, DC, to raise awareness about hyperthermia, bringing together for the first time ever child safety experts, representatives from the automotive industry, manufacturers, and victims’ families. NHTSA officials have already made stops in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada.

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

The proposal, issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), would expand the required field of view for all passenger cars, pickup trucks, minivans, buses and low-speed vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of up to 10,000 pounds so that drivers can see directly behind the vehicle when the vehicle’s transmission is in reverse.

NHTSA believes automobile manufacturers will install rear mounted video cameras and in-vehicle displays to meet the proposed standards.  To meet the requirements of the proposed rule, 10 percent of new vehicles must comply by Sept. 2012, 40 percent by Sept. 2013 and 100 percent by Sept. 2014.

On average, 292 fatalities and 18,000 injuries occur each year as a result of back-over crashes involving all vehicles, according to the NHTSA. Approximately 44 percent of fatalities involving light vehicles are children under five.

To help prevent back-over injuries in Volusia County and elsewhere, the NHTSA recommends the following safety tips

■Teach children not to play in or around cars.

■Always walk around your vehicle and check the area around it before backing up.

■Teach children to move away from a vehicle when a driver gets in it or if the car is started.

■Have children in the area stand to the side of the driveway or sidewalk so you can see them as you are backing out of a driveway or parking space.

■Make sure to look behind you while backing up slowly in case a child dashes behind your vehicle unexpectedly.

■Take extra care if you drive a large vehicle because they are likely to have bigger blind zones. Roll down your windows while backing out of your driveway or parking space so that you’ll be able to hear what is happening outside of your vehicle.

■Teach your children to keep their toys and bikes out of the driveway.

■Many cars are equipped with detection devices like backup cameras or warning sounds, but they cannot take the place of you actively walking around your car to make sure your children are safely out of the way.  Do not rely solely on these devices to detect what’s behind your vehicle.

For more on child safety issues, see the Child Injury library articles by Daytona Beach child injury lawyer

There are common exclusions that allow insurance companies to deny coverage if the motor vehicle is being used to carry persons for a charge, if the motor vehicle is being used in the automobile business, is the parties are in a fellow employee status at the time of the accident, if the party filing the claim is an employee of the insured or if the person injured and filing the claim is either a member of the insured’s family.  This is not meant to be an exhaustive list but rather examples of some common exclusions. 

There are many other ways that insurance companies deny coverage.  This Daytona Beach Personal Injury Lawyer believes that if you are involved in an accident it is important to become informed and not trust that your insurance adjuster is acting in your best interest.

If the minor is operating a motor vehicle owned and insured by the parent, liability coverage will extend to both the parent and the minor unless the minor at the time of the accident, the child does not reside with the parent.   Therefore,  if a parent signs the drivers license application on behalf of a minor child who does not live in their household, then the parent can be liable for the negligent acts of the minor and not have any coverage under their automobile insurance policy to pay for it.

Parents should also know that after the child reaches 18 then the parents are no longer responsible for the child’s negligent operation of a motor vehicle unless the parent owns the vehicle or is listed as a co-owner.

So make sure that the parent who lives with the child is the one who signs the application so that if the child causes an accident then at least there will be insurance to cover it.  Also, it is a good practice to make sure that the child owns the vehicle that he or she drives individually and in his or her own name.

As a result of the accident, the reckless driver lost his license.  During the course of my represention, the reckless driver believed that I had the power to help him get his license back by signing a particular document.   He came to my office with a story about how he had a young child and he needed to have a license to get to work.  I could not sign the document because what was stated on the ducument was not true.   Therefore, it is my belief that he was an unlicensed, uninsured motorist when he caused a crash months later in which he killed himself and two passengers.  

He was driving late at night and challenged another vehicle to race.  The vehicles drove in excess of 100 mph and the reckless driver ran into a concrete telephone pole.   This person had no respect for his own life or the lives of anyone else on the road.  He left a young child without a father.   These people are driving right next to you on the road.  Be careful,  pay attention and buy uninsured motorist coverage to protect yourself.

There are tests that show that texting while driving is more dangerous than drinking and driving.  States should enact laws that completely ban this behavior.  The state of Utah is taking a stand.    Utah passed the nations toughest law to crack down on texting and driving.  The new law penalizes a texting driver who causes a fatality as harshly as a drunken driver who kills someone.  The Utah legislators believe that texting and driving is a willful act.    While there are issues concerning how the violators will be prosecuted, this Daytona Beach Accident Attorney believes that Utah is on the right track with this issue and Florida should follow suit.

It seems that everyone in Florida has a cell phone.  A vast majority of those cell phones have built in cameras.  A lot of the phones even have video cameras.  If you are involved in an accident and you are well enough to use these cameras, you should do so.  If you are involved in a car accident and someone in the car is severely injured please use these cameras for them.  

Having photographic evidence of the aftermath of a car accident greatly reduces the chances that the event will later be misconstrued. 

Take photographs of the damage to the vehicles.  This prevents insurance companies from later diminishing the severity of the impact.

Take photographs of the other vehicles license plate and VIN number.  Look for the VIN number on the frame of the driver’s door and on the dash near the windshield.   This information will help locate the driver later if he or she is trying to evade you.   You should also take pictures of the at fault driver’s  drivers license card for identification purposes. 

Take pictures of the skid marks on the road and any parts of the vehicles that became dislodged in the accident. 

Take photographs of the entire scene including things that you think are not important.  You do not know what an accident constructionist may later need to analyze the crash.

Take photographs of the people involved in the accidents and any injuries that they may have sustained.

Take videos of any statements made by the other people involved in the crash. 

The more photographic evidence you can collect at the scene of the accident the better. 

For more information about what to do after a car accident go to zqlawyers.com

The report says that the ailing economy is partially responsible for the decrease.  The downturn in the economy has resulted in less motorists on the roadways, less tourists on the road, and drivers traveling at reduced speeds in a effort to reduce fuel consumption.  

The reduction is also due to improved safety features in cars, law enforcement initiatives such as click it or ticket and tougher traffic laws  and penalties for law breakers.  I make my living representing the families of those killed in traffic accidents in Wrongful Death lawsuits.   I see first hand the devisation that traffic fatalities cause and I am proud of Florida for becoming a safer place to driver, regardless of the reason.