We’ve returned from Japan and notice other differences concerning safety besides the seat belt requirement in motor buses.  For one thing, at every construction site there was one and sometimes two men in official looking outfits that somewhat resembled police uniforms, wearing helmets, standing on the street or on the sidewalk to direct vehicular and pedestrian traffic.  They were there even if nothing going on inside the work-site appeared to be effecting the street or sidewalk. (more…)

Last week we posted a blog concerning the NYC Pedestrian Safety Study conducted by the New York City Department of Transportation.  Based on the study’s findings, the DOT has made several action plan recommendations to continue to drive down pedestrian traffic fatalities and ensure New York City truly has world class streets that are safe for everyone. (more…)

Last week we posted a blog discussing the U.S. Department of Transportation proposal requiring seat belts in buses to attempt to reduce bus accident fatalities. Coincidentally, I’m in Japan on a tour bus equipped with a seat belt. In and of itself barely noteworthy, except that as we’re about to enter a highway, the tour guide announced that everyone should put on their seatbelt. Apparently, in Japan wearing a seatbelt on a bus that is travelling on a highway is required. (more…)

Motorcoaches carry 750 million passengers annually in the U.S.  An average of 19 motorcoach occupants are killed each year on U.S. roadways.  Ejections account for seventy-eight percent of the fatalities in motorcoach rollover crashes and twenty-eight percent of the fatalities in non-rollover crashes.  Wearing lap-shoulder belts on motorcoaches could reduce the risk for passengers of being killed in a rollover crash by 77 percent, primarily by preventing occupant ejection in a crash, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).  Motorcoach rollover crashes, while relatively rare, can cause a significant number of fatal or serious injuries in a single event. (more…)

In 1910, the City of New York began collecting data to determine traffic fatalities among NYC pedestrians.  Nearly a century later, in 2009, pedestrian fatalities are at its lowest rate in New York City history, down by 35% from 2001.  The New York City Department of Transportation is undertaking an ambitious task to reduce by half the number of traffic deaths by 2030, to do this, the agency has collected and analyzed data about the causes of traffic deaths and injuries and where they are happening, using this information to design better streets. (more…)

Last summer Nassau County on Long Island initiated a red-light camera program, with cameras placed above intersections to videotape motor vehicles running red lights and making right turns on red without coming to a full stop. $50 tickets are then sent to the vehicles’ owners. In its first year the program has generated more that $10 million from nearly 260,000 violations – 1 for every 5 county residents – and more than $13 million is expected in the year 2010. However, although the purpose of the cameras is to reduce motor vehicle accidents by placing them at high-accident intersections, questions are being raised whether the cameras have been placed at high-traffic intersections instead. (more…)

The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the Chair of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee (GTSC) announced that preliminary crash data from 2009 indicates a more than six percent decrease in overall traffic fatalities, a more than seventeen percent decrease in motorcycle fatalities and a more than twenty-nine percent decrease in bicycle fatalities. Alcohol, however, was a contributing factor in 30 percent of all fatal crashes. (more…)

Hyperthermia (heat-stroke) is the leading cause of non-crash vehicle deaths for children under the age of fourteen. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has found at least 27 documented deaths per year. NHTSA research shows the risk of a serious injury or death during hot weather is heightened for children left alone in vehicles. The hot summer we’ve been having makes more pertinent the Consumer Advisory the NHTSA issued to remind parents and caregivers that summer heat can make it especially dangerous to leave children in cars. (more…)

New legislation that will immediately permit the introduction into evidence blood drawn by certified nurse practioners and advance emergency medical technicians without direct physician supervision from motorists who are suspected of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol was signed earlier this week by Governor David A. Paterson. Police officers will not be permitted to draw the blood themselves. Under the prior law, if a police officer asked medical personnel to draw blood from a suspected drunk or impaired driver following a collision, and a physician did not directly supervise the procedure, the evidence was inadmissible. The prior law enabled some suspected drunk drivers to avoid punishment for causing accidents, even fatal ones. (more…)

In the early days of our blog, one of our earliest posts concerned a man who (unsuccessfully) sued his dry cleaners for $54 million for supposed consumer abuse for losing his suit pants and attempting to replace them with a different, cheaper pair that did not belong to him. Now a woman is suing Google because, after using her Blackberry to Google walking directions for a trip in Park City, Utah, she claims she was led onto a busy highway, where she was struck by a vehicle. She is suing the driver of the vehicle and Google for damages “in excess of $100,000.” (more…)