4 Crossovers Score Well

FOUR compact crossover utilities received the highest ratings in recent crash tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The four vehicles that received “good” ratings in all three tests — for front, side and rear impacts — were the 2009 Ford Escape, 2008 Mitsubishi Outlander, 2008 Nissan Rogue and 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan. The Escape’s rating applies to several structurally identical models: the Mercury Mariner, Mazda Tribute and hybrid versions of all three vehicles.

The institute, which is financed by the insurance industry, gives ratings of good, acceptable, marginal and poor.

The Escape, Outlander, Rogue and Tiguan received the institute’s Top Safety Pick designation. To be a top pick, a vehicle must also have electronic stability control, which helps drivers to avoid skids. These vehicles also have standard side air bags.

Five years ago, most small S.U.V.’s did not have either stability control or standard side air bags; most were rated marginal or poor for side impacts.

Three previously tested vehicles are also Top Safety Picks: the 2008 Honda CR-V and Element and 2009 Subaru Forester.

Also tested but scoring lower were the Suzuki Grand Vitara, Jeep Patriot (with and without optional side air bags), Chevrolet Equinox/Pontiac Torrent and two-door Jeep Wrangler. The Wrangler, which was tested without its optional side air bags, did worst in the side-impact test, for which it got a “poor” rating. The Wrangler scored lower than it did before it was redesigned for the 2007 model year. And its driver’s door opened during the test.

The detailed ratings are at

iihs.org. CHERYL JENSEN

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THE BLOG; '59 vs. '09: A Safety Lesson

IT was no way to treat a senior citizen: sending a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air hurtling into a collision with a 2009 Malibu, with both cars traveling 40 miles an hour. As the video produced by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows, the outcome wasn't pretty.

The windshield dislodges, the driver's door opens and the front half of the Bel Air goes through something between crumbling and what looks like imploding as the dummy in the driver's seat flies around like Peter Pan.

''The Bel Air collapsed,'' said David Zuby, senior vice president for the institute's vehicle research center. ''The area in which the driver was sitting collapsed completely around him.''

The test was staged in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the institute, a group financed by the insurance industry. The idea was to show how much automotive safety has progressed in five decades.

While some people still think that the big steel bodies and sturdy frames of old cars meant they were stronger vehicles with good crash protection, the institute's crash test shows that just wasn't the case, Mr. Zuby said. Sophisticated engineering and high-strength steel give modern vehicles a huge advantage.

Here's how the institute described what happened to the Bel Air:

''This car had no seat belts or air bags. Dummy movement wasn't well controlled, and there was far too much upward and rearward movement of the steering wheel. The dummy's head struck the steering wheel rim and hub, and then the roof and unpadded metal instrument panel to the left of the steering wheel.

''During rebound, the dummy's head remained in contact with the roof and slid rearward and somewhat inward. The windshield was completely dislodged from the car and the driver door opened during the crash, both presenting a risk of ejection. In addition, the front bench seat was torn away from the floor on the driver side.''

Mr. Zuby said he did not know of any vehicle that performed worse in tests than the Bel Air.

The institute rates vehicles as Good, Acceptable, Marginal or Poor. The group looks at how well the structure of the vehicle held up and the likelihood of injuries to the head, chest and legs. The Bel Air got a Poor rating in every category.

The 2009 Malibu got Good in every category except for the left leg and foot, which was rated Marginal.

And what does this mean to owners of 1959 Bel Airs? Mr. Zuby said driving in a parade was probably safe because the speeds were slow and it was a controlled environment.

''I wouldn't recommend that anybody use an antique car like this for their daily driving around,'' he said.

PHOTO: MISMATCHED: A 2009 Chevy Malibu slicing through a 1959 Bel Air during a crash test. (PHOTOGRAPH BY INSURANCE INSTITUTE FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY)

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Delaware bans the use of hand-held phones and text messaging by all drivers

Texting bans don't reduce crashes; effects are slight crash increases

New booster ratings: 21 Best Bets and 7 Good Bets; 8 out of 72 seats evaluated aren't recommended

Cadillac Escalade, Ford F-250 pickup, and Infiniti G37 top list of highest insurance claims for theft

New rollover test results: Honda Accord Crosstour and 4 other midsize SUVs are rated marginal

Low-speed vehicles and minitrucks shouldn't share busy public roads with regular traffic

Institute calls on government to mandate antilock brakes for all new motorcycles

Motorcycles with antilock brakes have fewer fatal crashes and lower insurance losses than bikes without antilocks

First time Institute ratings small pickups for rollover protection; only one model rates good in test that assures strength of roof

Laws banning cellphone use while driving fail to reduce crashes, new insurance data indicate

Jonathan Bennett is elected IIHS board chairman

Bill Reddington is elected HLDI board chairman

Market your law firm online

Remarks at the National Transportation Center Academy Graduation

Remarks by Anne S. Ferro
FMCSA Administrator
National Transportation Center Academy Graduation
San Marcos, TX
September 2, 2010

I'm thrilled to share this most wonderful occasion with you and your families. I'm honored that you've included me in this ceremony marking a new beginning in your careers.

Today belongs to you and we are here to celebrate your achievement. Tomorrow you embark on a career of service to others as inspectors enforcing highway safety laws involving large trucks and buses. It will be a career that calls for physically demanding work and at times it will be isolating. But it has a clear and direct impact on saving lives and that reward makes it all worthwhile.

FMCSA's commitment to safety as our primary mission is predominantly unmatched in any other profession - either inside or outside of government service. We are proud of our safety mission and the steady progress we are making toward achieving our safety goal.

Our mandate is to reduce deaths and injuries as a result of large truck and bus crashes. We want the American people to travel with the confidence that they will reach their destination safely whether they are going to work, a trip home, an errand or delivering a load of shipped goods.

With your training behind you - and as you begin new duties; I want you to know that you have my full support.

You are on the front-line of FMCSA's work and at the core of our mission. Along with our state and local partners, you have become the force multiplier that enables us to fulfill our mandate.

I expect you to live up to your personal pledge to do your best and be your best everyday; to use what you have learned here. You, in turn, should expect me and your supervisors to be open to your feedback, thoughts and opinions on how we can help you perform your crucial work.

At Headquarters, my job is to give you the tools, trained supervisors, resources and partnerships to do your job. In return, I ask you to keep your enthusiasm level high and stay above any daily frustrations that may follow.

Every inspection you will do counts. CSA drives that point home. Also, know the CSA program. Drivers will ask.

For this occasion I want to pass along a few words from American writer H. Jackson Brown, Jr., the author of Life's Little Instruction Book:

"I've learned that if you spend your life always looking forward to something else, the present just slips away. I've learned that a shoeshine box made by my young son is my most prized possession. I've learned at age 25 you're finding yourself, at age 45 you know yourself and at age 65 you can be yourself.

I've learned that the only thing you can be sure of improving is yourself. I've learned that when you begin to ask yourself if it's your fault, it usually is.

I've learned that people tend to rise to accomplishments they thought were beyond them if you show by your confidence that they can do it."

These past six weeks have provided the foundation for the journey ahead as safety inspectors. I believe in you. I believe each of you will improve highway safety one driver and one vehicle at a time. The public is counting on you.

Be safe in the discharge of your duties. Get home safe everyday. Good luck in your new assignments. On behalf of Secretary LaHood and President Obama, you have our sincerest thanks and the thanks of the American people for the important work you do.

Thank you again. Congratulations.

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Truck Rated Safe, With Asterisk

WHEN the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced the latest list of what it considers the safest vehicles last week, there was a surprising newcomer: a pickup truck.

This is the first time a pickup has been on the list since the institute began giving out the Top Safety Pick designation two years ago. The institute had not tested pickups for side-impact protection until recently because it said it did not have the time. Now, pickups are undergoing the complete round of tests.

The newcomer is the Toyota Tundra, which beat its domestic competitors from Ford, Nissan and Dodge. The Chevrolet Silverado and a close relative, the GMC Sierra, were not among the vehicles tested.

To be named a Top Safety Pick, a vehicle must receive a score of good ? the highest rating ? in the institute?s front, side and rear-impact tests. By combining these tests ? which the institute says cover the most common collisions ? into a single award, the institute says it believes it is easier for consumers to identify vehicles that offer the best overall protection.

Starting last year, the institute added a crash-prevention feature, electronic stability control, to its criteria. Stability control, a computerized system designed to keep vehicles from skidding out of control, must be either standard equipment or available as an option. Studies have shown that a stability system significantly reduces single-vehicle crashes caused by a loss of driver control. The institute estimated that if all vehicles were equipped with such systems, as many as 10,000 fatal crashes could be avoided each year.

The Tundra got the top pick designation even though its stability control system doesn?t work when four-wheel-drive is engaged. That has drawn criticism from Consumer Reports.

?It?s troubling to me that the one time you would really need E.S.C. ? in the snow ? that there is no E.S.C. available,? said David Champion, senior director of auto testing for Consumer Reports.

Of course, stability control can still be valuable when a vehicle is in two-wheel drive on dry pavement, especially in a pickup with a high center of gravity, Mr. Champion said. If a driver loses control, a stability system can help prevent a slide and keep the truck from rolling over.

Mr. Champion noted that pickups like the Silverado and Dodge Ram had stability control systems that continued to work in four-wheel drive.

Toyota said its stability control would not work in four-wheel drive because the company chose a particularly rugged design that does not incorporate a center differential. In most four-wheel-drive vehicles, the differentials deliver power to all the wheels. Toyota said that a heavy-duty truck like the Tundra wouldn?t benefit from having a center differential because that?s just one more weak part that can break.

The insurance institute was unaware that Toyota?s system did not work when four-wheel drive was engaged, a spokesman, Russ Rader, said. But ?the Tundra has electronic stability control and it gets the award.?

The Tundra is one of 11 new winners for 2008, joining 23 previous Top Safety Picks. Other winners for 2008 include the Audi A3 and Honda Accord in the midsize-car category and the Subaru Impreza in the small-car category, but only those models that are equipped with optional stability control. With the addition of the Honda Odyssey minivan and the Honda Element to the list, Honda and its luxury division, Acura, now have a total of 7 of the 34 Top Safety Picks. Ford and its Volvo subsidiary have eight vehicles on the list.

Several midsize S.U.V.?s have been added, including the BMW X3 and X5 and the Toyota Highlander. Also named were Hyundai Veracruz models built after August 2007, when changes were made to the head restraints, and Saturn Vue models that will be built after December because of changes being made to a side- curtain air bag that didn?t deploy properly. Information on when a car was built can be found on the frame of the driver?s door.

Another 23 vehicles would have made the Top Safety Pick list if they had better seat and head restraint designs. Those 23 earned good ratings in front and side crash tests, but not in the rear impact test, which evaluates seats and head restraints for whiplash protection.

The institute tested three other full-size pickup trucks: the Nissan Titan, Ford F-150 and Dodge Ram. The Titan and Ram have stability control as an option; the F-150 does not. None of these, however, qualified as a top pick because none received a rating of good for rear impact, meaning their head restraints did not provide what the institute considered good protection in a rear-end collision. Other full-size pickups will be tested in 2008, the institute said.

The institute said that front and side impacts were the most common fatal crashes, killing nearly 25,000 of the 31,000 vehicle occupants who died in 2005, the latest numbers available. Rear-end crashes are usually not fatal, but they result in a large proportion of injuries. About 60 percent of insurance injury claims in 2002 reported minor neck sprains and strains, a common complaint of people involved in rear crashes.

Information about the Top Safety Picks is on the institute?s Web site, www.iihs.org.

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Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Announces New Anti-distracted Driving Regulations, Employer Policies, and Preliminary Results from Pilot Enforcement Campaigns

U.S. Department of Transportation
Office of Public Affairs
1200 New Jersey Ave., S.E.
Washington, DC 20590
www.dot.gov/affairs/index.html

USDOT 175-10
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Contact: Olivia Alair, Press Secretary
Tel: (202) 366-4570

WASHINGTON - U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood kicked off the 2010 national Distracted Driving Summit today by announcing new anti-distracted driving regulations for drivers transporting hazardous materials, commercial truck and bus drivers, and rail operators, and by identifying more than 550 U.S. companies - employing 1.5 million people nationwide - that have committed to enacting anti-distracted driving employee policies in the next twelve months. The Department of Transportation also released interim data this morning from its pilot enforcement campaigns in Hartford, Connecticut and Syracuse, New York, showing that its "Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other" enforcement efforts have already dramatically reduced distracted driving behavior in both cities.

In kicking off the 2010 national Distracted Driving Summit this morning, Secretary LaHood announced that he is initiating a new rulemaking to prohibit commercial truck drivers from texting while transporting hazardous materials. In addition, Secretary LaHood announced that two rules proposed at last year's summit have now become the law of the land. Rules banning commercial bus and truck drivers from texting on the job and restricting train operators from using cell phones and other electronic devices while in the driver's seat have been posted today.

"We are taking action on a number of fronts to address the epidemic of distracted driving in America," said Secretary LaHood. "With the help of the experts, policymakers, and safety advocates we've assembled here, we are going to do everything we can to put an end to distracted driving and save lives."

The U.S. Department of Transportation has also been working with the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) to engage the private sector to promote anti-distracted driving policies in the workplace. NETS, which was created by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is an employer-led public-private partnership dedicated to improving the safety and health of employees by preventing traffic crashes. The USDOT and NETS today announced that almost 1,600 U.S. companies and organizations have adopted distracted driving policies to date, covering approximately 10.5 million workers nationwide. An additional 550 organizations have committed to adopting policies that will cover another 1.5 million employees within the next 12 months.

"I am thrilled that businesses across the country are making anti-distracted driving policies an integral part of their employee culture," said Secretary LaHood. "President Obama led by example last year by banning four million federal workers from texting behind the wheel. Employers across America are doing the same to help us set an example and keep our roads safe."

Today, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also released interim data from its pilot enforcement programs currently underway in Hartford, Connecticut and Syracuse, New York. Dubbed "Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other," the year-long pilot campaigns were launched in April to test whether increased law enforcement efforts combined with public service announcements can succeed in getting distracted drivers to put down their cell phones and focus on the road.

During two week-long periods of stepped up enforcement to date, police in Hartford have written approximately 4,956 tickets and Syracuse police have issued 4,446 tickets for violations involving drivers talking or texting on cell phones. Before and after each enforcement wave, NHTSA conducted observations of driver cell phone use and collected public awareness surveys at driver licensing offices in each test and comparison site. Based on these observations and surveys, hand-held cell phone use has dropped 56 percent in Hartford and 38 percent in Syracuse to date. Texting while driving has declined 68 percent in Hartford and 42 percent in Syracuse.

"Good laws are important, but we know from past efforts to curb drunk driving and promote seatbelts that enforcement is the key," said Secretary LaHood. "Our pilot programs in Syracuse and Hartford are critical pieces of our overall effort to get people to realize distracted driving is dangerous and wrong. I want to commend the police in Hartford and Syracuse for their excellent work keeping our roads safe and serving as a model for other communities."

In 2009, nearly 5,500 people died and half a million were injured in crashes involving a distracted driver. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) research, distraction-related fatalities represented 16 percent of overall traffic fatalities in 2009.

To tune into the 2010 Distracted Driving Summit via live webcast and learn more about the U.S. Department of Transportation's efforts to stop distracted driving, please visit www.distraction.gov.

###

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A Dead End in Eradicating Drunk Driving

OSSINING, N.Y.

There was, of course, Diane Schuler, and the horrific accident on the Taconic State Parkway in which she drove the wrong way for almost two miles before crashing her minivan into a sport utility vehicle on July 26. The crash killed Ms. Schuler, her 2-year-old daughter, her three nieces and three men in the S.U.V. An autopsy showed she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.19 percent, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent, and indications of marijuana use as well.

Then there was Gregorio Pena, 44, of the Bronx, arrested after he drove north in the Taconic’s southbound lanes for almost two miles alone in his livery cab on Sept. 9, the police said. Officials said his blood-alcohol level was 0.20 percent.

And last week, there was Henry M. Garcia, a 19-year-old from Ossining who is in the country illegally. He was arrested and held on multiple charges and a $100,000 bond on Thursday, accused of driving six miles the wrong way on the Taconic. His blood-alcohol level was 0.27 percent, the police said.

At the least, this may indicate that an upgrade of signage on the Taconic now under way is long overdue. But beyond one road, it is yet one more reminder that almost three decades after drinking and driving first popped up in a big way on the national radar screen, we’ve reached a depressing dead end in eradicating it. That’s why, given the degree to which we seem incapable of keeping drunken idiots out of cars, making cars idiot-proof is increasingly being seen as the only hope of changing our culture of highway carnage.

Not that there hasn’t been progress. In 1980, alcohol was involved in about 28,000 car crash deaths a year. That has been reduced to around 13,000. But it has been about that number since the mid-1990s.

And forget the Taconic. You just have to pick up any suburban newspaper to be reminded just how commonplace drunken driving remains. So when my local newspaper, The Journal-News, reported Mr. Garcia’s arrest on Friday, there was also an item on the same front page about a playground in Mahopac dedicated to a father and daughter killed in 2004 by a drunk driver and another article inside about a woman accused of driving drunk with a 10-month-old infant in the back seat. The woman, Melonie Lendor, 41, of Walden, had already been convicted of two previous drunken driving charges.

So it goes. For three decades of public concern, driving drunk still can have the feel of a cultural misdemeanor. Hence, we have one football player, Plaxico Burress, about to receive a two-year prison sentence for carrying a concealed weapon with which he accidentally shot himself in the leg and another, Donte’ Stallworth, sentenced to 30 days in jail, two years of house arrest (which usually allows a person to go to work) and probation for killing someone while driving drunk.

And if the image of the driving-while-intoxicated offender remains some guy leaving the bar hammered, Ms. Schuler was not all that much of an aberration. According to the F.B.I., between 1998 and 2007, the number of men arrested for driving drunk or while on drugs fell by 7.5 percent. The figures for women rose by 28.8 percent. And women are more likely to be driving drunk with kids in tow.

SINCE we cannot seem to save us from ourselves, the growing consensus seems to be that maybe technology can. Eleven states now require ignition interlocks, devices that prevent cars from starting if the driver’s blood-alcohol level is unacceptable, for all convicted drunk drivers, including first-time convicted offenders, with blood-alcohol levels over 0.08 percent. There are 180,000 interlocks in use.

But those affect only people already convicted of offenses, who make up only a third of those arrested for drunken driving. A study released last week by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that about two out of three respondents said that they would support the use of less obtrusive advanced technology, now being developed, to prevent any driver from starting a vehicle after drinking too much. That is probably a decade and many thousands of highway deaths down the road. And given the rise of driving-while-texting accidents, who knows what new distractions we’ll have by then in our rolling pleasure domes on the road.

For now, it seems, we’re mad at everything — Acorn, bailouts, banks, liberals, the wars, the president, the idea of decent health care. But a little drunken driving is something we can live with. Except when we can’t.

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Study Says Minicar Buyers Sacrifice Safety

Insurance Institute for Highway SafetyFrom left, the Smart Fortwo, the Toyota Yaris and the Honda Fit after a head-on collision with a midsize sedan in which both vehicles were traveling at 40 m.p.h. The tests were conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

WASHINGTON — Consumers who buy minicars to economize on fuel are making a big tradeoff when it comes to safety in collisions, according to an insurance group that slammed three minimodels into midsize ones in tests.

In a report prepared for release on Tuesday, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said that crash dummies in all three models tested — the Honda Fit, the Toyota Yaris and the Smart Fortwo — fared poorly in the collisions. By contrast, the midsize models into which they crashed fared well or acceptably. Both the minicars and midsize cars were traveling 40 miles per hour, so the crash occurs at 80 m.p.h.

The institute concludes that while driving smaller and lighter cars saves fuel, “downsizing and down-weighting is also associated with an increase in deaths on the highway,” said Adrian Lund, the institute’s president.

“It’s a big effect — it’s not small,” he said in a telephone interview.

Yet the institute did not quantify how many more highway deaths might be expected statistically from any increase in the use of minicars.

Dave Schembri, president of Smart USA, said the crash type chosen, a head-on collision, was a tiny fraction of accidents. He countered that the Smart Fortwo, with front and side airbags and electronic controls meant to help a driver avoid skidding, was very safe.

The institute usually tests cars individually but in this case paired the Honda Fit with a Honda Accord, the Toyota Yaris with a Toyota Camry and the Smart Fortwo with a Mercedes C-Class. (Both the Fortwo and the Mercedes are built by Daimler.)

The argument over weight versus safety is not a new one but took on greater significance when gasoline prices rose sharply last year, making minicars more popular. Consumers also seek out vehicles that burn less fuel so they will contribute less to global warming. Production of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas, is proportional to fuel use, and the Smart claims to be the highest-mileage car powered by gasoline on the American market.

When the institute crashed the Smart into the Mercedes C-Class sedan, the Smart, which weighs half as much as the sedan, went airborne and spun around one and a half times. The institute’s crash laboratory did not clock the speed of the rebound, but calculated that in a collision between cars of that weight, the sedan would slow down by 27 m.p.h. while the two-seater would change speed by 53 m.p.h., moving backward at 13 m.p.h.

The institute suggested steps that would further both fuel economy and safety rather than put them in conflict: cutting the speed limit and reducing horsepower. (Average horsepower is 70 percent higher in new cars now than it was in the mid-1980s, the institute said.)

But there is little support for either move. Some car efficiency experts have recommended making cars light but also large, with energy-absorbing crush zones. With several feet of car body in front of the driver, the energy of a crash can be dissipated and the suddenness of the change in velocity can be reduced, they say.

In any case, the statistical connection between vehicle weight and the risk to occupants is not completely clear. In 2002, the National Academy of Sciences said that steps by car manufacturers to reduce vehicle weight to comply with federal fuel economy standards had resulted in 1,300 to 2,600 additional deaths in 1993. But the number has not been updated.

Complicating matters, a statistical graph included in the institute’s study indicated that per million cars registered that were one to three years old in 2007, the death rate was higher for drivers in small cars than in minis, which are even smaller. One reason might be that the smallest cars are not driven as many miles on high-speed roadways, Mr. Lund said.

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As the Roads Turn Gray, Ways to Make Driving Safer

Sara D. Davis for The New York TimesMargaret Fallers getting advice from an occupational therapist at a CarFit session in North Carolina.

IT’S called the gray tsunami, the great wave of aging baby boomers nearing retirement, making older adults the fastest growing segment of the population. And by 2030, the roads will be full of them.

Skip to next paragraph Sara D. Davis for The New York TimesVibeke Talley, standing, helps Debbie Coplin during a CarFit program.

According to the Census Bureau, the number of people 65 and older is expected to double, growing from 35 million in 2000 to more than 71 million in 2030. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety projected that by then one in four drivers will be 65 or older, statistics that have safety experts studying how cars and the drivers themselves will need to adapt as the roads turn gray.

At the AgeLab at M.I.T. in Cambridge, Mass., for example, there are at least 20 aging studies looking at such factors as driver fatigue, the impact of technology inside the vehicle and how emotions and medications affect driving. States are also redesigning intersections to make them less confusing for older drivers. And organizations like AAA and AARP are advising older drivers about how to measure their abilities and are evaluating their cars to determine what adjustments need to be made to counter a driver’s physical limitations.

Loren Staplin, a managing partner of TransAnalytics, a consulting firm specializing in transportation safety research and development, said that older people were usually superb drivers because of their lifetime of experience. But as a consequence of aging, vision, mental and physical abilities often decline, Dr. Staplin said, making it “more difficult for them to drive safely.”

Many of these factors are being studied at the AgeLab. Miss Rosie, a Volkswagen New Beetle, is a mobile lab used for research into how flexibility and strength affect driving performance. Miss Daisy, another New Beetle, and the AwareCar, a Volvo, are wired to track eye movements and to measure pulse, alertness and stress levels, as a measure of the kind of physical changes older people undergo while driving.

Joseph F. Coughlin, founder of the lab and director of the Department of Transportation’s New England University Transportation Center at M.I.T., said the findings could change how cars are designed. Cars of the future, he said, may have computerized dashboard displays where the driver could choose a type size and font that was easier to read, and could be customized to show only the information the driver found useful. There may also be collision notification systems and a way to route medical records ahead to the ambulance after a crash. A computer inside the car may someday adjust how it operates, depending on the physical weaknesses and range-of-motion limitations of the driver.

“The driving experience is about to become profoundly personal,” Dr. Coughlin said.

Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, cautioned that not all technology is appropriate for older drivers. She said technologies like lane departure warning systems; cruise control that maintains a set distance from the vehicle ahead; and systems where the driver receives a warning from a flashing light or a vibrating steering wheel (like blind-spot warning systems) may not work well with older drivers.

“There is concern that if systems require a response or attention, it may cause cognitive overload or distraction,” she said.

What many experts do agree would help older drivers is changing the design of roads, especially intersections, where drivers often have problems judging speed and distance. So some states are redesigning them. They are installing left-turn lanes, left-turn signals, street signs well before the intersection and replacing eight-inch traffic lights with 12-inch ones.

The Road Improvement Demonstration Program, started by AAA Michigan and financed by state, county and local governments, made some of these changes at nearly 400 intersections. An analysis of the first 84 completed in the Detroit area showed the injury rate over a two-year period for older drivers was cut by more than half, compared with the rate for drivers 25 to 64 years old. And the rate of left-turn collisions involving seniors dropped 73 percent when a left-turn signal was installed.

Bella Dinh-Zarr, the North American director of Make Roads Safe, a nonprofit organization based in London, said making roads more senior-friendly had been “scientifically proven to save lives,” adding, “Many are simple, inexpensive things that can be done when updating.”

Of course, cars can change and roads can be improved, but older drivers also need to assess themselves and know when it’s time to stop, or limit, driving. Dr. Staplin of TransAnalytics said many older drivers self-regulate by reducing their driving at night, in bad weather or in heavy traffic.

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Status Report: Vol. 45, No. 7

Texting bans aren't reducing crashes in 4 states where they've been enacted, insurance data reveal

Motorcycle antilocks lower crash risk, despite government claims in a poorly designed study

Motor vehicle injuries cost the US more than $99 billion a year

Hawk pedestrian signal makes crossing streets safer in Arizona

New boosters earn top ratings for safety belt fit, but many designs still need to be improved

Booster ratings from BEST BET to those that aren’t recommended

Parents don't always know the right time to switch to boosters and how long to keep using them

Child restraint questions are tackled in new Q&A

Tethers get used 43 percent of the time on forward-facing child restraints

Hot-button issues often drive highway safety policy, draining time and attention from initiatives with greater potential to save lives

Require speed limiters in big trucks for safety as well as fuel economy

Roof strength ratings for more than 100 passenger vehicles, most of which earn top mark of good

Parents favor strict rules for teenage drivers and support raising the licensing age for beginners

Cadillac Escalade remains a favorite target of thieves

Belt use increases in Maine after the state upgrades to primary law

Police officers die more in crashes than from any other cause of death on the job

Older drivers aren’t causing more crashes than they used to, and they aren’t dying more often when they do crash

Ignition interlocks prove more attractive to DWI offenders than house arrest

Raising alcohol prices and taxes reduces excessive drinking, alcohol-related crashes, and other harm, task force finds

Recorder rule for large trucks applies to just the worst offenders

Electronic stability control lowers risk of a fatal crash by a third

Low-speed vehicles and minitrucks are showing up on more public roads, and new crash tests illustrate the risk

Crash avoidance technologies for passenger vehicles could prevent or mitigate about 1 of every 3 fatal crashes

Large trucks will benefit from crash avoidance technology

Ejection is a problem when LSVs crash because doors are optional and occupants don't always use safety belts

Survey of motorcyclists focuses on travel patterns, crash involvement, helmet use, and other aspects of cycling and safety

New Jersey cuts beginners' crash risk with combination of older licensing age and restrictions on all beginners

Wearing a helmet reduces injuries, based on analysis of insurance claims for medical costs

Motorcycle antilocks are safety pluses

Mandatory training courses for motorcyclists don't reduce crashes

Special issue: phoning while driving

Patterns of phone use and crashes don't match, and researchers are trying to figure out why this is the case

New survey of driver phone use indicates this is a widespread practice, even in risky circumstances on the road

Laws that ban hand-held phone use while driving aren't producing the expected result, which is a reduction in the frequency of crashes

Technology to block phone use while driving is emerging but so far isn't widely used, and the safety payoff is unknown

Frontal airbags designed to meet the latest federal standards appear to have reduced protection for belted drivers in front crashes

Alcohol use is down sharply among nighttime drivers on weekends, but impairment remains a big problem in fatal crashes

People still die in frontal crashes because of personal factors like advanced age and vehicle factors like structures that don't do a good job of managing crash energy, NHTSA says

Institute rates small pickups for rollover and side impact crash protection

Market your law firm online

IIHS launches YouTube channel

Texting bans don't reduce crashes; effects are slight crash increases

New booster ratings: 21 Best Bets and 7 Good Bets; 8 out of 72 seats evaluated aren't recommended

Cadillac Escalade, Ford F-250 pickup, and Infiniti G37 top list of highest insurance claims for theft

New rollover test results: Honda Accord Crosstour and 4 other midsize SUVs are rated marginal

Low-speed vehicles and minitrucks shouldn't share busy public roads with regular traffic

Institute calls on government to mandate antilock brakes for all new motorcycles

Motorcycles with antilock brakes have fewer fatal crashes and lower insurance losses than bikes without antilocks

First time Institute ratings small pickups for rollover protection; only one model rates good in test that assures strength of roof

Laws banning cellphone use while driving fail to reduce crashes, new insurance data indicate

Jonathan Bennett is elected IIHS board chairman

Bill Reddington is elected HLDI board chairman

Market your law firm online

USDOT and USDOJ Fines Tornado Bus Company $55,000 for Violating Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Requirements

U.S. Department of Transportation
Office of Public Affairs
1200 New Jersey Ave., S.E.
Washington, DC 20590
www.dot.gov/briefing-room.html

FMCSA 14-10
Monday, September 27, 2010
Contact: Candice Tolliver
Tel: 202-366-9999 or 202-306-4580

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today announced $55,000 in fines against Tornado Bus Company, Inc. of Dallas, Texas.

Tornado was fined for violating passenger carrier accessibility requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In addition to the fine, the consent agreement issued by FMCSA and DOJ requires the bus company to upgrade its fleet to meet ADA requirements by February 2011 or have its operating authority revoked.

"Every person deserves the right to travel freely and have equitable access to transportation services," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "This enforcement case sends a strong message that we will not allow commercial bus companies to shun their responsibility to operate fairly and safely."

An extensive investigation conducted by FMCSA uncovered that Tornado had only one accessible bus in a fleet of 53 buses, while ADA regulations require that at least 50 percent of a carrier's vehicles must be accessible. The investigation also found the company had purchased new non-accessible buses, failed to train employees on interacting with disabled passengers and failed to establish a wheelchair lift maintenance program. The fine and citations came as a result of FMCSA's ADA strike force held in May of this year.

"Adhering to ADA accessibility requirements is not a choice, but a high standard that every commercial bus operator must follow," said FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro. "FMCSA will continue to work closely with the Department of Justice to vigorously enforce ADA compliance so that all travelers can enjoy destinations across America by way of commercial bus."

"At the foundation of our society is the freedom of travel and the ability to live independently and move freely," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "This freedom is no less important to people with disabilities. We are grateful FMCSA takes accessibility requirements seriously and has reached this agreement."

In February 2009, FMCSA and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice entered into a Memorandum of Understanding concerning the enforcement of commercial passenger buses. The memorandum between the two agencies was included in the Over-the-Road Bus Transportation Accessibility Act of 2007 and is designed to ensure consistent ADA enforcement nationwide.

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FMCSA Fines Moving Van Lines, Inc. $281,000 for Violating Multiple Federal Regulations

U.S. Department of Transportation
Office of Public Affairs
1200 New Jersey Ave., S.E.
Washington, DC 20590
www.dot.gov/affairs/briefing.htm

FMCSA 12-10
Monday, August 30, 2010
Contact: Candice Tolliver
Tel: (202) 366-9999 or (202) 306-4580

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration today announced $281,000 in fines against Moving Van Lines, Inc. of Tampa, Florida for violating multiple federal regulations including holding consumers' property hostage and requiring moving fees in excess of the original binding contractual agreement.

"Consumers should not have to fear the loss of their property at the hands of fraudulent household goods movers," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "Companies that violate federal regulations and take advantage of consumers will be held accountable and they will face serious legal and financial consequences."

"Ensuring that consumers can access safe, reputable household goods movers is a priority," said FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro. "We will continue to use every resource at our disposal to expose unscrupulous movers and protect consumers."

FMCSA issued these citations and fines against Moving Van Lines, Inc. following an extensive investigation of consumer complaints against the moving company. FMCSA issued a final order on August 16, 2010, and found the company in violation of 28 counts of failing to relinquish possession of a household goods shipment (hostage load), and 1 count of collecting fees more than the original binding estimate.

FMCSA encourages consumers to file any complaints involving household goods or other commercial motor carriers through FMCSA's nationwide complaint hotline at 1-888-368-7238 (1-888 DOT-SAFT) and to visit the National Consumer Complaints Database at http://nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov.

The agency also encourages consumers planning an interstate move to visit the federal government's "Protect Your Move" web site at http://www.protectyourmove.gov, which provides information on shippers' rights and responsibilities and information on how to research USDOT registered household goods carriers.

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Status Report: Vol. 45, No. 9

Texting bans aren't reducing crashes in 4 states where they've been enacted, insurance data reveal

Motorcycle antilocks lower crash risk, despite government claims in a poorly designed study

Motor vehicle injuries cost the US more than $99 billion a year

Hawk pedestrian signal makes crossing streets safer in Arizona

New boosters earn top ratings for safety belt fit, but many designs still need to be improved

Booster ratings from BEST BET to those that aren’t recommended

Parents don't always know the right time to switch to boosters and how long to keep using them

Child restraint questions are tackled in new Q&A

Tethers get used 43 percent of the time on forward-facing child restraints

Hot-button issues often drive highway safety policy, draining time and attention from initiatives with greater potential to save lives

Require speed limiters in big trucks for safety as well as fuel economy

Roof strength ratings for more than 100 passenger vehicles, most of which earn top mark of good

Parents favor strict rules for teenage drivers and support raising the licensing age for beginners

Cadillac Escalade remains a favorite target of thieves

Belt use increases in Maine after the state upgrades to primary law

Police officers die more in crashes than from any other cause of death on the job

Older drivers aren’t causing more crashes than they used to, and they aren’t dying more often when they do crash

Ignition interlocks prove more attractive to DWI offenders than house arrest

Raising alcohol prices and taxes reduces excessive drinking, alcohol-related crashes, and other harm, task force finds

Recorder rule for large trucks applies to just the worst offenders

Electronic stability control lowers risk of a fatal crash by a third

Low-speed vehicles and minitrucks are showing up on more public roads, and new crash tests illustrate the risk

Crash avoidance technologies for passenger vehicles could prevent or mitigate about 1 of every 3 fatal crashes

Large trucks will benefit from crash avoidance technology

Ejection is a problem when LSVs crash because doors are optional and occupants don't always use safety belts

Survey of motorcyclists focuses on travel patterns, crash involvement, helmet use, and other aspects of cycling and safety

New Jersey cuts beginners' crash risk with combination of older licensing age and restrictions on all beginners

Wearing a helmet reduces injuries, based on analysis of insurance claims for medical costs

Motorcycle antilocks are safety pluses

Mandatory training courses for motorcyclists don't reduce crashes

Special issue: phoning while driving

Patterns of phone use and crashes don't match, and researchers are trying to figure out why this is the case

New survey of driver phone use indicates this is a widespread practice, even in risky circumstances on the road

Laws that ban hand-held phone use while driving aren't producing the expected result, which is a reduction in the frequency of crashes

Technology to block phone use while driving is emerging but so far isn't widely used, and the safety payoff is unknown

Frontal airbags designed to meet the latest federal standards appear to have reduced protection for belted drivers in front crashes

Alcohol use is down sharply among nighttime drivers on weekends, but impairment remains a big problem in fatal crashes

People still die in frontal crashes because of personal factors like advanced age and vehicle factors like structures that don't do a good job of managing crash energy, NHTSA says

Institute rates small pickups for rollover and side impact crash protection

Market your law firm online

High-Tech Invitations Take Your Mind Off Road

Carlos Osorio/Associated PressThe interior of the 2008 Cadillac CTS. Safety experts say electronic devices can be distracting.

DETROIT — Drivers have never had so many distractions tempting them to take their eyes off the road and their hands off the wheel.

Skip to next paragraph PRINTER IS OPTIONAL Ford’s pickup equipped with a computer and Internet access, which operate only when in park.

Talking on cellphones and typing text messages while driving has already led to bans in many states. But now auto companies, likening their latest models to living rooms on the road, are turning cars into cocoons of communication systems and high-tech entertainment.

Some drivers are packing their car interiors with G.P.S. navigation screens, portable DVD players and even computer keyboards and printers.

State Senator Carl L. Marcellino of New York learned this firsthand while riding in a cab in Miami — the driver was watching a boxing match on a television mounted on the dashboard.

“I can understand a monitor in the rear, but up front it is a different world,” said Mr. Marcellino, who sponsored a bill last year to ban all “display generating devices” in the driver’s view. New York already has a law against TV sets in the front seat.

“The driver shouldn’t be doing anything other than driving,” Mr. Marcellino said.

Motorists have always engaged in risky behavior, whether it is eating a sandwich, arguing with a spouse, applying makeup or studying a map while speeding down the interstate.

But safety experts say the influx of electronics is turning cars into sometimes chaotic — and distracting — moving family rooms.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 80 percent of vehicle crashes and 65 percent of close calls are caused in part by driver distraction.

And some devastating accidents have drawn further attention to the dangers. Last June, five teenage girls were driving to a vacation home in upstate New York when their sport utility vehicle crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer, killing all of them.

The police later learned from phone records that the driver had been typing text messages on her phone just before she swerved out of her lane. Toxicology tests ruled out alcohol and drugs as possible causes. The rise in distraction-related accidents is chilling to auto-safety advocates who typically study air bags and rollovers.

“If we don’t do something about it, you’re looking at a situation that could rival drunk driving as a risk factor in crashes,” said Clarence M. Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington.

Automakers do not argue with bans that prohibit the use of hand-held phones while driving. Still, they are rushing headlong to equip vehicles with hands-free systems and elaborate navigation devices that can also deliver sports scores and the location of the nearest Chinese restaurant.

The companies say they are responding to consumer demand, not to mention the hefty profits that electronic options generate. At least one top Detroit auto executive has compared outfitting cars with creature comforts to furnishing a home.

Chrysler advertises its Dodge Grand Caravan minivan as a mobile “family room,” and Robert L. Nardelli, Chrysler’s chairman and a former Home Depot chief executive, likes the comparison.

“I think a vehicle today has to be your most favorite room under your roof,” Mr. Nardelli said last October at a magazine publishers’ conference. “It has to bring you gratification; it has to be tranquil. It’s incidental that it gets you from Point A to Point B, right?”

That assertion left Anne T. McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, almost speechless. “I don’t even know how to respond to that,” she said. “There’s just overwhelming evidence that distraction is a crash risk.”

The evidence cited most often by safety experts involved 100 cars and 42,000 hours of driving time monitored by in-vehicle cameras and sensors over a one-year period in northern Virginia and the Washington area.

The study, conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and released in 2006, found that “secondary task distraction” was a central factor in auto accidents. The biggest culprit was hand-held wireless devices, along with the act of dialing phone numbers or sending text messages.

“Texting is really bad, and so is dialing a cellphone, using your BlackBerry or manipulating through an iPod menu,” said Thomas A. Dingus, one of the principal investigators in the study.

But, Mr. Dingus added, any activity that takes a driver’s eyes off the road for even a couple of seconds can cause a crash.

Devices that can cause such inattention to the road include sophisticated guidance systems that alert drivers to the nearest Starbucks and cheapest gas stations, and stereo systems that connect to portable MP3 players, Mr. Dingus said.

Nick Bunkley and Mary M. Chapman contributed reporting.

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New rollover ratings: Three midsize SUVs are rated acceptable and one is marginal

Texting bans don't reduce crashes; effects are slight crash increases

New booster ratings: 21 Best Bets and 7 Good Bets; 8 out of 72 seats evaluated aren't recommended

Cadillac Escalade, Ford F-250 pickup, and Infiniti G37 top list of highest insurance claims for theft

New rollover test results: Honda Accord Crosstour and 4 other midsize SUVs are rated marginal

Low-speed vehicles and minitrucks shouldn't share busy public roads with regular traffic

Institute calls on government to mandate antilock brakes for all new motorcycles

Motorcycles with antilock brakes have fewer fatal crashes and lower insurance losses than bikes without antilocks

First time Institute ratings small pickups for rollover protection; only one model rates good in test that assures strength of roof

Laws banning cellphone use while driving fail to reduce crashes, new insurance data indicate

Jonathan Bennett is elected IIHS board chairman

Bill Reddington is elected HLDI board chairman

Market your law firm online

Massachusetts joins 28 other states in banning text messaging by all drivers

Texting bans don't reduce crashes; effects are slight crash increases

New booster ratings: 21 Best Bets and 7 Good Bets; 8 out of 72 seats evaluated aren't recommended

Cadillac Escalade, Ford F-250 pickup, and Infiniti G37 top list of highest insurance claims for theft

New rollover test results: Honda Accord Crosstour and 4 other midsize SUVs are rated marginal

Low-speed vehicles and minitrucks shouldn't share busy public roads with regular traffic

Institute calls on government to mandate antilock brakes for all new motorcycles

Motorcycles with antilock brakes have fewer fatal crashes and lower insurance losses than bikes without antilocks

First time Institute ratings small pickups for rollover protection; only one model rates good in test that assures strength of roof

Laws banning cellphone use while driving fail to reduce crashes, new insurance data indicate

Jonathan Bennett is elected IIHS board chairman

Bill Reddington is elected HLDI board chairman

Market your law firm online

Louisiana strengthens texting ban from secondary to primary enforcement

Texting bans don't reduce crashes; effects are slight crash increases

New booster ratings: 21 Best Bets and 7 Good Bets; 8 out of 72 seats evaluated aren't recommended

Cadillac Escalade, Ford F-250 pickup, and Infiniti G37 top list of highest insurance claims for theft

New rollover test results: Honda Accord Crosstour and 4 other midsize SUVs are rated marginal

Low-speed vehicles and minitrucks shouldn't share busy public roads with regular traffic

Institute calls on government to mandate antilock brakes for all new motorcycles

Motorcycles with antilock brakes have fewer fatal crashes and lower insurance losses than bikes without antilocks

First time Institute ratings small pickups for rollover protection; only one model rates good in test that assures strength of roof

Laws banning cellphone use while driving fail to reduce crashes, new insurance data indicate

Jonathan Bennett is elected IIHS board chairman

Bill Reddington is elected HLDI board chairman

Market your law firm online

FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Strike Force Removes Unsafe Commercial Drivers and Carriers from the Road

U.S. Department of Transportation
Office of Public Affairs
1200 New Jersey Ave., S.E.
Washington, DC 20590
www.dot.gov/affairs/briefing.htm

FMCSA 10-10
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Contact: Candice Tolliver
Tel: (202) 366-2309 or (202) 306-4580

WASHINGTON - U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that 109 commercial bus and truck drivers were removed from the roads and more than 175 carriers face enforcement actions as a result of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's annual drug and alcohol strike force sweep that occurred from June 21 through July 2.

"If you are a commercial driver or carrier operating in violation of federal drug and alcohol laws, we will remove you from our roadways," said Secretary LaHood. "Parents deserve to know their children are being driven by bus drivers who are drug and alcohol free, and every motorist deserves to feel confident that the drivers of large trucks and buses are safe and sober."

During the two week sweep, FMCSA strike force investigators examined the drug and alcohol safety records of commercial drivers employed by bus and truck companies, including school bus drivers, interstate passenger carriers, hazardous material transporters and general freight long-haul trucking companies. Their goals were to identify motor carriers in violation of federal drug and alcohol testing requirements and to remove from the road commercial truck and bus drivers who jump from carrier to carrier to evade federal drug and alcohol testing and reporting requirements.

"FMCSA is committed to ensuring that only safe commercial drivers and carriers are allowed to operate," said FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro. "Our annual drug and alcohol strike force is just one of the ways we weed out those 'bad actors' and make our roads safer for everyone."

The 109 commercial drivers identified in the sweep face the prospect of a monetary fine and being barred from operating a commercial motor vehicle for failing to adhere to federal drug and alcohol regulations. Additionally, 175 commercial carriers face pending enforcement actions for violations, such as using a driver who has tested positive for illegal drugs and for not instituting a drug and alcohol testing program. Both drivers and carriers will have an opportunity to contest the alleged violations and the amount of the civil penalties.

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U.S. Department of Transportation Strengthens Commercial Bus Safety with National Passenger Carrier Strike Force

U.S. Department of Transportation
Office of Public Affairs
1200 New Jersey Ave., S.E.
Washington, DC 20590
www.dot.gov/affairs/briefing.htm

FMCSA 13-10
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Contact: Candice Tolliver
Tel: 202-366-9999

WASHINGTON - At an event on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. today, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Administrator Ann Ferro joined state and local officials at a commercial bus checkpoint to observe the safety inspection of motor coaches, tour buses and other commercial passenger vehicles.

The Washington, D.C. checkpoint was part of FMCSA's annual national Passenger Carrier Strike Force, during which federal, state and local police agencies conduct thousands of motorcoach, charter bus and other passenger carrier inspections at popular travel destinations across the U.S. The sweep runs from August 23 to September 4 and is taking place in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

"Safety is our number one priority," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "We owe it to the millions of passengers who travel on commercial buses to make sure that every bus on the road is as safe as possible."

"By taking the Passenger Carrier Strike Force to some of the nation's busiest travel destinations, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be able to reach a greater number of carriers and remove unsafe vehicles and drivers from the road," said FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro. "This safety initiative is a crucial part of our efforts to prevent crashes and save lives."

In addition to these strike force sweeps, FMCSA performs roadside safety inspections of commercial buses on a daily basis throughout the year. In 2009 alone, FMCSA and its law enforcement partners inspected more than 130,000 commercial buses, which led FMCSA to place 4.3 percent of bus drivers and 7.6 percent of buses out-of-service for violations ranging from significant vehicle deficiencies to hours-of-service non-compliance. FMCSA also performs strike force sweeps of household goods movers and drug and alcohol compliance throughout the year.

FMCSA strongly encourages travelers considering passenger carrier transportation to visit the agency's website and review a carrier's safety records at http://www.ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/Passenger/home.asp. FMCSA also encourages the public to report unsafe carriers and incidents to its safety hotline at 1-888-DOT-SAFT or online at http://nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov.

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Mitsubishi Lancer earns the 2010 Top Safety Pick award

Texting bans don't reduce crashes; effects are slight crash increases

New booster ratings: 21 Best Bets and 7 Good Bets; 8 out of 72 seats evaluated aren't recommended

Cadillac Escalade, Ford F-250 pickup, and Infiniti G37 top list of highest insurance claims for theft

New rollover test results: Honda Accord Crosstour and 4 other midsize SUVs are rated marginal

Low-speed vehicles and minitrucks shouldn't share busy public roads with regular traffic

Institute calls on government to mandate antilock brakes for all new motorcycles

Motorcycles with antilock brakes have fewer fatal crashes and lower insurance losses than bikes without antilocks

First time Institute ratings small pickups for rollover protection; only one model rates good in test that assures strength of roof

Laws banning cellphone use while driving fail to reduce crashes, new insurance data indicate

Jonathan Bennett is elected IIHS board chairman

Bill Reddington is elected HLDI board chairman

Market your law firm online

Ford Displays a Wreck to Score Safety Points

DETROIT — Even car novices should have no trouble identifying the Ford Taurus at this week’s New York International Auto Show. It’s the one with a crumpled hood and half of the front bumper missing.

Skip to next paragraph Fabrizio Costantini for The New York TimesWorkers with the damaged car. Ford hopes visitors at the New York auto show will notice how well the car withstood a crash.

But this vehicle did not have an expensive mishap on its way to Manhattan from a warehouse in Michigan. Ford intentionally crashed the sedan in a test facility to show consumers how well the 2008 Taurus — and by extension, the rest of its vehicles — can withstand a crash.

Ford, which is desperate to re-establish itself with consumers who defected to Asian and European nameplates, hopes the same urge that makes commuters gawk at freeway smash-ups will kick in among those wandering the floor of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, where the show opens on Friday.

“One of the problems that almost all of the Detroit automakers have is breaking through the resistance that people have to even looking at the cars,” said Art Spinella, of the automotive consulting firm CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore. “You have to break through the clutter and you have to get people to somehow come and look at what you’re offering.”

Mr. Spinella said he did not recall ever seeing a car that had been in a crash at an auto show and called the Taurus display “brilliant.”

Automakers have long shied away from showing consumers graphic images of what happens to their products in crashes, but Ford is not the first to venture into this territory recently.

Volkswagen ran a memorable award-winning ad campaign called “Safe Happens” for two 2007 cars, the Jetta and Passat. Commercials showed people nonchalantly riding in one of the cars before suddenly being involved in a violent crash. But the occupants were not injured, and the car was shown to be mostly intact afterward.

The ads were controversial because some viewers found them too jarring, but they increased consumer interest in Volkswagen cars.

When Ford introduced the Taurus last year, bringing back what had been a venerable model name and using it on a sedan that had been called the Five Hundred, the company ran a marketing campaign calling the Taurus the “safest full-size car in America.” The Taurus earned five-star ratings in frontal and side crash tests by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and was named a “top safety pick” by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

But the ads about the ratings were widely criticized as bland and ineffective by dealers and industry experts, and sales of the new Taurus have fallen short of expectations. So far this year, Taurus sales are down 13 percent.

Robert Parker, Ford’s car group marketing manager, said most car shoppers identified safety as a high priority, but it was difficult to communicate safety features in a compelling way.

“Safety is highly important to large car buyers,” Mr. Parker said. “The challenge for us is when do you go up and shout about it from the mountaintops. I think we’ve been a little bit conservative at times in terms of communicating how good we are in this category.”

Mr. Parker said the Taurus display in New York also signaled a more hands-on approach that Ford planned to use at auto shows. He said Ford was trying to demonstrate scientifically how Ford’s safety features worked and to show “what’s under the skin” of a car as its electronics work to protect occupants in a crash. In contrast, Mr. Parker compared the Volkswagen ads to movies from driver’s education classes, “where they try to scare the daylights out of you.”

Many of Ford’s newer vehicles have earned high marks for safety, but the carmaker also has been dogged by past problems, including huge recalls of sport utility vehicles bearing defective Firestone tires and of trucks with cruise-control switches that could overheat and catch fire.

Ford says it took a 2008 Taurus SEL — equipped with chrome wheels and an optional navigation system but no different from the car any consumer could buy — and crashed it into a barrier at 35 miles an hour in a manner that occurs in many accidents.

A video of the crash, recorded by 12 cameras and 8 microphones, shows the car slamming into the barrier, sending debris flying and a dummy’s head into the air bag, and rising off the ground before landing at about a 45-degree angle from its direction of travel.

No repairs were done before taking the car to New York, but the floor and passenger-side doors of the Taurus were cut away, and the car will be elevated so that people can stand inside to watch how the crash happened on a large monitor suspended outside the still-intact windshield.

Extensive damage is visible from the front. The hood and the panel above the left front tire are buckled, and a hole where most of the bumper was allows a peek at how the engine compartment absorbed the energy of the crash. Ford’s distinctive three-bar grille is only partly intact, but the blue oval logo in its center appears to have been untouched.

“I was like an expectant father waiting for it to be crashed,” said Bob Adams, who retired from Ford’s auto shows division and worked on this project as a consultant. “When I saw that the blue oval survived the crash, I thought Henry Ford is up there looking over this whole thing.”

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New booster ratings: 21 Best Bets and 7 Good Bets; 8 out of 72 seats evaluated aren't recommended

Researchers assessed the safety belt fit of 72 boosters, assigning the best ones the top ratings of BEST BET or GOOD BET because they correctly position belts on average booster-age kids in most vehicles. The worst performers are ones the Institute doesn't recommend because they do a poor job of fitting belts. A good booster routes the lap belt across a child's upper thighs and positions the shoulder belt at midshoulder.

The Institute doesn't conduct vehicle crash tests to evaluate boosters because boosters don't do the restraining in a crash. It's the fit of the belt that's important.

"For the first time top-rated boosters outnumber ones the Institute doesn't recommend," says Anne McCartt, Institute senior vice president for research. "Now more than ever manufacturers are paying attention to belt fit, and it's showing up in our ratings."

Twenty-one boosters are BEST BET models, and 7 earn GOOD BET (see list below). Another 8 aren't recommended at all. This represents a market shift. Last year only 9 seats out of 60 the Institute evaluated earned BEST BET.

Even though poor performers make up a smaller percentage of boosters evaluated this year, 36 fall in the middle because they don't consistently fit belts well on most kids in most cars, minivans, and SUVs. Most of these are backless boosters with good lap belt scores but not good shoulder belt scores.

"Unlike the top performers, consumers can't assume boosters in the in-between group will work in every family vehicle. Some may be fine, but parents still need to try them out to see if the lap and shoulder belts fit their kids correctly," McCartt says. Obvious red flags are lap belts that ride up on the tummy and shoulder belts that either fall off the shoulder or rub against a child's neck. McCartt advises parents to keep looking until they find a booster that fits.

Institute engineers assess boosters using a crash test dummy representing an average-size 6 year-old. They measure how 3-point lap and shoulder belts fit the dummy in each of the boosters under 4 conditions spanning the range of belt configurations in a wide variety of vehicle types. A booster's overall rating is based on the range of scores for each measurement.

Boosters elevate children so safety belts designed for adults will fit better. The lap belt should fit flat across a child's upper thighs, not the soft abdomen. Good boosters have belt-routing features that hold lap belts down and forward. The shoulder belt should cross snugly over the middle of the shoulder. Then it's in position to provide effective protection in a crash.

Not all boosters provide good belt fit. Here the lap belt is too high on the abdomen, and the shoulder belt is too too close to the neck.

Why fit matters: No federal standard dictates how a booster should position belts. The government's dynamic tests of crash performance don't measure what boosters are meant to do, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration only ranks boosters by how easy they are to use. Manufacturers crash test boosters, but these simulations don't tell parents how boosters will fit kids in their cars. Every state and the District of Columbia has a child restraint law, but they differ when it comes to booster-age kids. In 27 states and DC, the laws cover kids until age 8, with exceptions for kids who are big for their ages.

The Institute in 2008 began evaluating boosters to help make selecting appropriate ones less of a guessing game. Since then some manufacturers have adopted the Institute's test protocol and booster seat fixture to help evaluate belt fit on the new boosters they're designing. Britax Child Safety Inc. is one. The North Carolina-based company has 1 BEST BET (Britax Frontier 85) and 1 GOOD BET (Britax Parkway SG) this year.

Belts do the main job of keeping kids in boosters safe in crashes, but belts along with vehicle seats are designed for adults, not children, so it's important for boosters to lift kids into position for lap/shoulder belts to provide proper restraint. Children 4-8 who ride in boosters are 45 percent less likely to sustain injuries in crashes than children restrained by belts alone.

Wider variety of seats: New this year to the BEST BET ranks are seats by Chicco, Cybex, Graco, Harmony, and The First Years. These manufacturers join Britax, Clek, Combi, Dorel, Evenflo, and Recaro, which had BEST BET boosters in Institute evaluations last year and have models in the latest round.

"Parents looking for top-rated seats now have more choices that include several affordable picks," McCartt says. "Consumers don't have to spend much money on a booster to get good all-around belt fit. In fact, shoppers can find several BEST BET boosters for $50 or less through online retailers."

Forty-nine boosters are carryovers from the Institute's 2009 ratings because they still are in production. These include 7 BEST BET models, 5 GOOD BET boosters, and 6 that aren't recommended.

Harmony improves: It's clear that some manufacturers are taking the ratings to heart. Harmony Juvenile Products has 5 BEST BET boosters, more than any other manufacturer. One of them, the Harmony Secure Comfort Deluxe backless, wasn't recommended last year. The company modified it to eliminate the earlier problem with lap belt fit. Dorel Juvenile Group has 5 seats that rate either BEST BET or GOOD BET, including the new Safety 1st Boost Air Protect. The firm sells seats under the names Cosco, Dorel, Eddie Bauer, Maxi-Cosi, Safeguard, and Safety 1st. Dorel also makes 4 boosters the Institute doesn't recommend, down from 7 in the prior round of evaluations.

What should parents do if a booster they already have isn't one the Institute recommends using? McCartt advises parents in this situation to take note of how the safety belts in their vehicle fit their child next time they're in the car.

"If the booster isn't doing a good job — if the lap belt is up on your son or daughter's tummy or if the shoulder belt is falling off your child's shoulder — then find a replacement booster seat as soon as practical, but you'll probably want to keep using the old one until then," McCartt says.

2010 IIHS BOOSTER EVALUATION RESULTS

Best Bets

Britax Frontier 85 (combination highback)
Chicco Keyfit Strada (dual highback)
Clek Oobr (dual highback)
Cosco Juvenile Pronto (dual highback)
Cybex Solution X-Fix (highback)
Eddie Bauer Auto Booster (dual highback)
Evenflo Big Kid Amp (backless)
Evenflo Maestro (combination highback)
Graco TurboBooster Crawford (dual highback)
Harmony Baby Armor (dual highback)
Harmony Dreamtime (dual backless)
Harmony Dreamtime (dual highback)
Harmony Secure Comfort Deluxe (backless)
Harmony Youth Booster Seat (backless)
Maxi-Cosi Rodi XR (dual highback)
Recaro ProBOOSTER (highback)
Recaro ProSPORT (combination highback)
Recaro Vivo (highback)
Recaro Young Sport (combination highback)
Safety 1st Boost Air Protect (dual highback)
The First Years Pathway B570 (highback)

Good Bets

Britax Parkway SG (dual highback)
Combi Kobuk Air Thru (dual backless)
Combi Kobuk Air Thru (dual highback)
Evenflo Symphony 65 (3-in-1 highback)
Graco TurboBooster Sachi (dual highback)
Graco TurboBooster Wander (dual highback)
Maxi-Cosi Rodi (dual highback)

NOT RECOMMENDED

Eddie Bauer Deluxe (combination highback)
Eddie Bauer Deluxe 3-in-1 (highback)
Evenflo Express (combination highback)
Evenflo Generations 65 (combination highback)
Evenflo Sightseer (highback)
Harmony Baby Armor (dual backless)
Safety 1st All-in-One (3-in-1 highback)
Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite (3-in-1 highback)

Note: Thirty-six boosters are in the middle range. They may provide adequate belt fit for some kids in some vehicles.

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2011 Ford Fiesta earns Top Safety Pick award

Texting bans don't reduce crashes; effects are slight crash increases

New booster ratings: 21 Best Bets and 7 Good Bets; 8 out of 72 seats evaluated aren't recommended

Cadillac Escalade, Ford F-250 pickup, and Infiniti G37 top list of highest insurance claims for theft

New rollover test results: Honda Accord Crosstour and 4 other midsize SUVs are rated marginal

Low-speed vehicles and minitrucks shouldn't share busy public roads with regular traffic

Institute calls on government to mandate antilock brakes for all new motorcycles

Motorcycles with antilock brakes have fewer fatal crashes and lower insurance losses than bikes without antilocks

First time Institute ratings small pickups for rollover protection; only one model rates good in test that assures strength of roof

Laws banning cellphone use while driving fail to reduce crashes, new insurance data indicate

Jonathan Bennett is elected IIHS board chairman

Bill Reddington is elected HLDI board chairman

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Tiny Saves Gas, but Big Can Save Lives

A Smart Fortwo after a federal crash test.

WITH gasoline prices having settled past $3 a gallon and increased talk about global warming, one of those darling little fuel-efficient cars like the Smart Fortwo, Toyota Yaris or Honda Fit may seem more attractive than ever. But are they safe?

Knowing for sure is an enormously and perhaps hopelessly complex task. One problem is human ingenuity. People find so many ways to crash that one can’t test for all of them. Then there are variations in engineering. Also, cars of different sizes attract drivers of different ages, different levels of skill and different regard for self-preservation.

Some side-impact crash tests done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have indicated that although there can be exceptions to the bigger-is-better rule, fatality statistics show that, over all, small cars are more dangerous. Occupants of the smallest cars are about 51 percent more likely to be killed in a crash than those in midsize or large cars, according to 2006 fatality figures analyzed by the insurance group.

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It is not that automakers are not trying to make small cars safer. Over the last 10 or 15 years, they have become far more crashworthy, said Adrian Lund, president of the institute. But larger vehicles have also gotten safer. “So, the fact is that size and weight, even with all the improvements we have in crash protection, are still an important factor,” Mr. Lund said.

Put another way, having a perky look, better fuel economy and being surrounded by air bags does not counter the unyielding freight train of physics. Consider the huge differences in weights.

For example, minicars typically weigh about 2,500 pounds or less. The Smart Fortwo weighs only about 1,800 pounds.

Meanwhile, a midsize V-6 sedan like the Ford Fusion weighs about 3,300 pounds. A large sedan like the Chrysler 300C weighs about 4,000 pounds and a four-wheel-drive S.U.V. like the Chevrolet Tahoe weighs about 5,500 pounds.

“Almost everything you hit in the real world is more capable of causing damage to you if you are in a small, lightweight car than in a larger, heavier one,” Mr. Lund said.

Small vehicles are among those crash tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the insurance institute. In many of those tests, small vehicles get top ratings.

But there is some crucial fine print: In frontal crash tests the vehicles can be compared only against other vehicles of similar size and weight. That’s because in a frontal crash test the vehicle hitting a barrier provides the amount of striking force.

So, while the 2008 Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris and Mini Cooper got “good” ratings, the highest, from the institute, that means they are only safer than another small car with a lower rating. They are not necessarily safer than a larger car with a lower rating.

Side-impact crash tests are different. The impact comes from a ram that strikes the car. Because the striking force is the same for each test it is possible to compare vehicles of different sizes.

That can result in some surprises when comparing a well-engineered small car and a large car that is an old design or poorly engineered. The Honda Fit, for example, got a “good” rating for side-impact protection from the insurance institute. The 2008 Ford Crown Victoria got a “marginal” rating. “Marginal” is one step better than the institute’s worst rating of “poor.”

“If you are in the crash that we did for the Fit and the Crown Vic then you are better protected in the Fit than in the Crown Vic. Period,” Mr. Lund said.

Crash ratings are available at iihs.org and safercar.gov.

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2010 Cadillac SRX earns Top Safety Pick award

Texting bans don't reduce crashes; effects are slight crash increases

New booster ratings: 21 Best Bets and 7 Good Bets; 8 out of 72 seats evaluated aren't recommended

Cadillac Escalade, Ford F-250 pickup, and Infiniti G37 top list of highest insurance claims for theft

New rollover test results: Honda Accord Crosstour and 4 other midsize SUVs are rated marginal

Low-speed vehicles and minitrucks shouldn't share busy public roads with regular traffic

Institute calls on government to mandate antilock brakes for all new motorcycles

Motorcycles with antilock brakes have fewer fatal crashes and lower insurance losses than bikes without antilocks

First time Institute ratings small pickups for rollover protection; only one model rates good in test that assures strength of roof

Laws banning cellphone use while driving fail to reduce crashes, new insurance data indicate

Jonathan Bennett is elected IIHS board chairman

Bill Reddington is elected HLDI board chairman

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Remarks to the Toward Zero Deaths Stakeholder Workshop

Remarks by Anne S. Ferro
FMCSA Administrator
Toward Zero Deaths: A National Strategy for Highway Safety
Stakeholder Workshop
Washington, DC
August 26, 2010

Good morning to all and a special hello to those joining us on the web.

Thank you to Tom Sorel (Sor-el), Vern Betkey and the entire steering committee for your leadership in putting together this workshop and the TZD strategy development effort.

You have covered a lot of ground here; from examining the scope of highway deaths and injuries, exploring how to shift in our safety culture, and honing in on how we can make drivers, vehicles and our infrastructure far more safe.

You have identified a wide range of steps to move our nation dramatically Toward Zero Deaths and you've challenged each other to step outside of your comfort zones. A major challenge as we move forward is staying united and helping each other stay outside of those comfort zones as we implement this visionary strategy.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is proud to be an integral part of this effort because our top priority is your top priority - safety.

Our employees, 1100 nationwide, come to work every day with a mind to save lives…and they don't do it because people can see and thank them for their life-saving work, they do it because it matters to them that all drivers get home safely to their families each night.

The fact is... in 2008 alone, more than 4200 people were killed and another 100,000 were injured in crashes involving large trucks and to a lesser extent, buses.

FMCSA's workforce is dedicated to eliminate these severe and fatal crashes, and we are determined to do so one driver, one vehicle, one bus or truck company at a time.

FMCSA's strategic focus is shaped by three core principles:

One is to raise the safety bar to enter the motor carrier industry. Two – to make sure those who operate and hire commercial transportation operations maintain high safety standards to remain in the industry; and our third is to remove high risk behaviors and operators from operating.

FMCSA carries out its safety mandate in a variety of ways:

Develop and enforce data-driven motor carrier safety regulations and policies.We are putting into place a core set of IT systems to better identify higher risk carriers.We target education messages to carriers, commercial drivers and the public - We need to be sure those messages reach younger, inexperienced drivers who represent a disproportionate share of crashes with CMVs.And, we rely on our partnerships with state and local enforcement and licensing agencies, the motor carrier industry, safety advocates, and labor organizations on collaborative efforts to reduce bus and truck crashes.

Seven out of 10 of our employees work outside the Washington Beltway, and on any given day across our nation, you will find these safety investigators, inspectors and others working with state and local officers on strike force crackdowns against illegal and unsafe carriers, protecting highway safety at our nation's borders, strengthening our commercial driver's licensing program, and growing our medical program that focuses on driver health and wellness.

This year, FMCSA is implementing a more finely-honed set of tools and strategies which utilizes current performance data, collected from over 3 million roadside inspections per year, to detect and intervene with high risk carriers.

The program, Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010, CSA for short - drives truck and bus companies, drivers, and others engaged in commercial vehicle improvements to raise the bar on Compliance, Safety and Accountability. It is built on 3 components - system, process, rule.

Through CSA, and the sharper set of tools it offers, we expect to prevent many roadway tragedies from happening in the first place.

We know that to achieve a truly safety-oriented culture, safer drivers, safer vehicles, and a safer infrastructure, it comes down to the combination of the many E's of highway safety you've discussed here: effective laws and regulations, education of highway users, enforcement using highly visible and high tech methods, an EMS system that's second to none, and E for empowering citizen engagement in moving families, friends, neighbors and colleagues collectively toward zero deaths - they'll care about getting to 0 deaths because YOU care about it.

In closing, thank you again for this outstanding forum on how to win the race to Zero Deaths. Some of the best minds and best ideas have converged here. As Vern said this morning, we will be judged not by the goals and action items we put on paper, but by the actions we take and -- bottom line -- the results of those actions when we leave here.

The teamwork, unified strategies and unwavering commitment begun here must carry on. On behalf of Secretary LaHood and my USDOT colleagues, I want you to know... we are energized and committed to our partnership with you to bring our nation swiftly and surely toward zero deaths on our highways.

View the original article here

Status Report: Vol. 45, No. 10

Texting bans aren't reducing crashes in 4 states where they've been enacted, insurance data reveal

Motorcycle antilocks lower crash risk, despite government claims in a poorly designed study

Motor vehicle injuries cost the US more than $99 billion a year

Hawk pedestrian signal makes crossing streets safer in Arizona

New boosters earn top ratings for safety belt fit, but many designs still need to be improved

Booster ratings from BEST BET to those that aren’t recommended

Parents don't always know the right time to switch to boosters and how long to keep using them

Child restraint questions are tackled in new Q&A

Tethers get used 43 percent of the time on forward-facing child restraints

Hot-button issues often drive highway safety policy, draining time and attention from initiatives with greater potential to save lives

Require speed limiters in big trucks for safety as well as fuel economy

Roof strength ratings for more than 100 passenger vehicles, most of which earn top mark of good

Parents favor strict rules for teenage drivers and support raising the licensing age for beginners

Cadillac Escalade remains a favorite target of thieves

Belt use increases in Maine after the state upgrades to primary law

Police officers die more in crashes than from any other cause of death on the job

Older drivers aren’t causing more crashes than they used to, and they aren’t dying more often when they do crash

Ignition interlocks prove more attractive to DWI offenders than house arrest

Raising alcohol prices and taxes reduces excessive drinking, alcohol-related crashes, and other harm, task force finds

Recorder rule for large trucks applies to just the worst offenders

Electronic stability control lowers risk of a fatal crash by a third

Low-speed vehicles and minitrucks are showing up on more public roads, and new crash tests illustrate the risk

Crash avoidance technologies for passenger vehicles could prevent or mitigate about 1 of every 3 fatal crashes

Large trucks will benefit from crash avoidance technology

Ejection is a problem when LSVs crash because doors are optional and occupants don't always use safety belts

Survey of motorcyclists focuses on travel patterns, crash involvement, helmet use, and other aspects of cycling and safety

New Jersey cuts beginners' crash risk with combination of older licensing age and restrictions on all beginners

Wearing a helmet reduces injuries, based on analysis of insurance claims for medical costs

Motorcycle antilocks are safety pluses

Mandatory training courses for motorcyclists don't reduce crashes

Special issue: phoning while driving

Patterns of phone use and crashes don't match, and researchers are trying to figure out why this is the case

New survey of driver phone use indicates this is a widespread practice, even in risky circumstances on the road

Laws that ban hand-held phone use while driving aren't producing the expected result, which is a reduction in the frequency of crashes

Technology to block phone use while driving is emerging but so far isn't widely used, and the safety payoff is unknown

Frontal airbags designed to meet the latest federal standards appear to have reduced protection for belted drivers in front crashes

Alcohol use is down sharply among nighttime drivers on weekends, but impairment remains a big problem in fatal crashes

People still die in frontal crashes because of personal factors like advanced age and vehicle factors like structures that don't do a good job of managing crash energy, NHTSA says

Institute rates small pickups for rollover and side impact crash protection

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