CAR SAFETY

How to Keep Children Safe in a Crash

February 1, 2018 by admin 2 Comments

Children need special protection when riding in a car.

children and car seat safety — Child car seat safety PSA. How *not* to buckle your child.

More than 30,000 Americans die in car crashes each year, including 1,300 children aged 12 and younger. Car safety begins by properly buckling in all occupants with special consideration given to ensuring that children are adequately protected. The kind of protection used varies by age with the federal government recommending that all children under 13 sit in the back seat if one is available.

Vehicle Occupant Basics

Children aged 12 and under should ride in the back seat if there is one. Moreover, in some states such as California, Georgia, New Jersey and Wyoming, state law mandates using a rear seat for younger children if one is available. For the past 25 years new cars have been equipped with airbags, a safety protector for adults, but a lethal weapon that can kill kids according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Babies and Toddlers

From birth thorough age 2, kids should be placed in a rear-facing child safety seat. That safety seat should carry a five-star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to provide the protection your kids need and the instructions you can understand. Specifically, the Ease-of-Use Ratings furnished by the NHTSA go beyond seat safety to cover four essential areas: evaluation of instructions, vehicle installation features, evaluation of labels and securing the child. The NHTSA notes that child safety seats “must fit right to work right.”

See Also — Child Heatstroke Dangers and Your Car

Pre-Kindergarten Children

When young children outgrow their first child safety seat, a larger forward-facing seat should be used. Such seats hold children who weigh up to 40 pounds and must be used with the seat’s harness. Some of the newer seats have a higher weight limit and provide protection for kids older than the customary four-year-old child limit.

Your School-Aged Children

Children from about aged four to aged eight can move to a booster seat once they reach the height and weight limits of their child safety seat. Belt-positioning booster seats provide adequate protection and should be fitted with the upper (shoulder) strap crossing the chest and out across the shoulder near the neck. Kids should sit up straight with their knees bent at the seat’s edge advises the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Preteen Vehicle Occupants

Once children reach 4 feet 9 inches tall, a booster seat is no longer needed. Instead, youngsters should use seat belts just as an adult does. The lap portion of the belt should cross the upper thighs and the shoulder belt portion should cross the chest and out across the shoulder near the neck.

LATCH Requirements

To make it easier for parents to strap their kids in, the federal government mandates that car manufacturers install lower anchors and tethers for children (LATCH) system to make it easier to attach child restraints to vehicle seats securely. Check your vehicle’s owner’s manual for instructions on how to connect child safety seats and booster seats.

Child safety seats and booster seats can help reduce injuries and death, but they’re only as effective as they are used properly. Keep tabs on the safety of your seats by following the seat recall list and responding to those recalls immediately.

See Also — Pet Safety: Subaru Goes for the Dogs

Photo credit: Steven DePalo

Christmas Holiday Traffic to Hit a Record This Year

December 21, 2015 by admin 2 Comments

Record numbers of people will be taking to the road this holiday season. Get there safely this Christmas by keeping in mind the following statistics and advice.

Lexus NX — Not all roads will be clear and traffic-free this holiday travel season.

If you’re planning to travel at least 50 miles this Christmas season, you’ll be joined by nearly 30 percent of the other 320 million Americans who will be doing the same. That’s the prediction of AAA, America’s largest roadside assistance and leisure travel organization.

For the first time more than 100 million people are expected to take to the road for the year-end holiday season, beginning on Dec. 23, 2015, and ending on Jan. 3, 2016. Lower gas prices and slightly higher incomes are combining to make travel more affordable in 2015. AAA has forecast 100.5 million people will travel at least 50 miles across that 12-day period this year.

Lowest Fuel Prices Since 2009

The national average for a gallon of regular grade gasoline is right at $2 per gallon. That’s about 25 cents lower than last year and more than a $1.30 below 2013’s average. By New Year’s Day, AAA says fuel prices will be the lowest we’ve seen in seven years for the holiday.

Inasmuch as Americans will be traveling in record numbers, accidents will rise in conjunction with the increased travel. The independent National Safety Council has forecast 307 deaths and 37,200 serious injuries for the three-day Christmas travel period alone (Dec. 24-26).

2014 Ford Fusion PHEV. — Reduce your speed when traveling on slick roads.

Another 346 deaths and 41,900 serious injuries are forecast for the three-day New Year’s travel period (Dec. 31-Jan. 2). The NSC notes that as many as 405 lives could be saved across these two holidays if everyone wore seat belts.

“Too many celebrations are marred by tragedies during the holiday season,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, president and CEO of the National Safety Council. “When you are traveling, remember that you are your car’s most important safety feature. Getting to zero deaths on our roadways requires each of us to be safer behind the wheel.”

High Impaired Driving Rates

For its part, AAA is warning against impaired driving throughout the two-holiday season. AAA notes that 21 percent of licensed drivers who drink at least occasionally have admitted to taking to the road when their alcohol consumption may have been close to or over the legal limit.

“As we celebrate the holiday season, AAA urges travelers to be cautious about their safety and the safety of everyone sharing the roadways,” said Marshall Doney, AAA President and CEO. “Ninety-seven percent of licensed drivers consider it unacceptable to drive when they may have had too much to drink, yet there is an average of one alcohol-impaired-driving death every 53 minutes.”

Lexus IS C — Make it a safe and fun Christmas this year!

Get Road Ready

For drivers planning to take to the road for Christmas or New Year’s Day, ensuring that the vehicle is ready for the trip is especially important (see How to Get Your Car Ready for Winter). That may mean replacing your all-season radials with winter tires, especially if your trip involves winter driving conditions. Ensuring that your roadside assistance plan is current is important as insurance for a possible breakdown.

As for the driver and vehicle occupants, the NSC recommends that everyone wear a seat belt. If you plan to drink, then a designated driver is a must. You should also begin your trip rested — get plenty of sleep and take regular breaks along the way.

Avoid using a cell phone while behind the wheel, including hands-free. Importantly, if your teens take to the road — even for short distances — don’t allow them to drive with their friends. The NSC notes that just one teen passenger will increase distractibility as well as your teen’s crash fatality rate by 44 percent.

See Also — Should I Buy a Car Now or Wait?

Photos copyright Auto Trends Magazine.

Entirely Morbid: The CDC Distracted Driving Study

March 18, 2013 by admin 1 Comment

Distracted Driving

Distracted driving remains a significant problem, one that accounted for an estimated 3,311 of the 32,367 traffic fatalities in 2011 according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Such distractions are attributed to a number of factors including texting and reading email while driving, occurrences that were tracked by the federal government for the first time beginning in 2010.

Though the overall traffic fatalities death rate continues to fall, death by distracted driving rose by 1.9 percent over 2010. Data for 2012 is expected to be released later this year.

CDC Weekly Report

girl on cellphone The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently conducted its own study of distracted driving and published that information in its appropriately named Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released this month. That study looked at two areas of distracted driving:

1) cell phone use while driving; and

2) reading or sending text or e-mail messages while driving.

The CDC surveyed US drivers aged 18 to 64, and compared American driving habits with a corresponding demographic in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. European data was pulled from 2011 EuroPNStyles and HealthStyles surveys.

Driven to Distraction

What the CDC discovered was startling including:

69 percent of U.S. drivers talked on their cell phone while driving within the 30 days before they were surveyed. In the UK, some 21 percent admitted to doing the same.
31 percent of American drivers reported that they had read or sent text messages or emails while driving. In Spain, 15 percent of drivers reported engaging in the same behavior.
There is virtually no gender gap in the US when it comes to distracted driving, with both sexes just as likely to engage in potentially deadly behavior.
Young people, including drivers that grew up in the digital age, are more likely to drive distracted than more mature individuals. A higher percentage of people aged 25 to 44 have admitted talking on a cell phone while driving than drivers aged 55 to 64. Among the youngest group, 18 to 34 year olds, emailing and texting while driving outpaced drivers aged 45 on up.

Safety Advocate

GPS Driver Melanie Batenchuk, vice president at the BeeKeeper Group, editor of BeCarChic.com and president of the Washington Automotive Press Association weighed in following the reports release. Ms. Batenchuk has been a leading advocate for speaking out against distracted driving, by highlighting the risks to drivers, passengers and pedestrians all.

Said Batenchuk, We have become so accustomed to holding our mobile devices in our hands while doing everything else that using it while driving is almost second nature. We must resist the temptation and challenge ourselves to put the device aside and focus on the drive. That is precisely what the Distraction Free Fridays campaign focuses on – encouraging others to commit to driving without using their mobile devices one day a week. By consciously setting aside one day to drive distraction-free, it makes it easier to say, ‘no’ to those demanding buzzes and pings more often. Batenchuk and Carlos Beltrán coordinate DFF, placing special emphasis on April as part of a Distracted Driving Awareness Month campaign.

Car manufacturers, federal and state governments, mobile phone manufacturers, wireless carriers an industry advocates have teamed up to, implement common-sense solutions that help to keep drivers out of harm’s way, said Batenchuk who also noted how mainstream these devices have become in just the past 10 years. One of the solutions is handsfree integration of cell phones with vehicle infotainment systems, technologies that are now available in mostly every model built today.

At the wheel. — Keep both eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel.

Young Drivers Targeted

The CDC notes that a variety of strategies have been used to combat distracted driving in the US and elsewhere with driver education, legislation, technology and communication campaigns each playing a part. Young drivers, given their increased vulnerability, are particularly targeted in the US with 33 states and the District of Columbia now restricting them from cell phone use while driving. Parents, of course, can play a significant role in helping to curb distracted driving with the CDC encouraging families to implement a parent-teen driving agreement in a bid to keep youngsters safe.

There are other ways that policy makers are seeking to save lives. The NHTSA has teamed up with the Ad Council to run TV spots, including one that shows the average texting based distraction is five seconds, or enough time to cover the length of a football field when traveling at 55 mph.

See Also — Solving the Distracted Driving Problem

Nifty Idea: Inflatable Seat Belts!

November 5, 2009 by admin 2 Comments

I like this new safety feature from Ford: offer customers inflatable seat belts to protect rear occupants who don’t have the benefit of an airbag to protect them in a frontal crash. Sure, many cars now come with side curtain airbags, but when it comes to a head-on collision, rear seating passengers don’t have all the protection that they need.

Well, buyers of the next generation Ford Explorer due out next year will find that they’ll have one more reason why to consider Ford when shopping for a sport utility vehicle. That vehicle will include the new feature which Ford says will protect occupants including small children who are most vulnerable in an accident.

“Ford is pioneering inflatable seat belt technology to help enhance crash safety protection, while encouraging more people to buckle up with a more comfortable belt,” said Paul Mascarenas, Ford vice president, Engineering, Global Product Development.

New Arrival: 2011 Ford Explorer

Speaking of the Ford Explorer, the next generation model will be a clear departure from the current model. Instead of residing on a truck chassis, the Explorer will be underpinned by a car chassis. Thus, the 2011 Explorer will probably lose its SUV designation in favor of CUV crossover utility vehicle.

Autoblog and some other sites have published spy photos of the next generation Explorer which give the vehicle a more wagon-like appearance, more rounded than the squared off Flex.