Archive: November 2011

November 8, 2011

SLOW DOWN—-SPEEDING KILLS!!

Nationally, more than 13,000 lives were lost in speeding-related traffic crashes during 2005 making speed a contributing factor in 30 percent of all fatal crashes. In Maryland, speed was a contributing factor to more than 200 deaths and 11,000 injuries.

The goal is to save lives. Drivers need to remember that there is a reason for posted speed limits.  Speed limits are designed to protect everyone – drivers, passengers, pedestrians and cyclists. The next time you get behind the wheel, please remember to Stop Speeding Before It Stops You. Maintaining a safe speed at all times is a serious responsibility shared by all motorists.

Reduce Your Speed

The faster you drive …

… the less reaction time you have to brake,

… the more distance you need to stop,

… the harder it is to control your vehicle,

… the harder your impact in an accident, and

… the greater the chance of serious bodily injury or being killed in an accident.

Driving Tips:

  • #1 – Don’t speed! – Driving at a higher than reasonable speed increases your risk in two ways: it cuts your reaction time and results in more “stored” energy that must be dissipated in any collision.
  • #2 – Leave early, plan to arrive 10 minutes before the appointed time. Speeding does not increase your ability to arrive on time, rather it only increases your chances of not arriving at all.
  • Maintain a safe distance (at least 2 or 3 seconds) from the vehicle in front of you – when it passes some point, count “1001″, “1002″,”1003″, etc. If you pass that same point before you get to 1003, you’re following too closely!
  • At highway speeds, a two second following distance will NOT give you enough time to stop if the road ahead is suddenly blocked by a collision or a vehicle stopped in your lane.
  • As your speed increases, so does the time and distance required to brake to a stop.  At 55 mph, you need nearly 4-5 seconds to stop.
  • It isn’t always safe to drive the speed limit – sometimes you may have to go slower.
    Speed limits typically are set for ideal conditions. Therefore, drivers must recognize and appropriately respond to adverse conditions. Maryland vehicle law requires that motorists drive at a reasonable and prudent speed and with a regard for existing and potential dangers. Motorists must adjust their speed according to the existing vehicle and pedestrian traffic, road surface, lighting, and weather conditions.

Statistics

  • A crash on a road with a speed limit of 65 mph or greater is more than twice as likely to result in a fatality than a crash on a road with a speed limit of 45 or 50 mph and nearly five times as likely as a crash on a road with a speed limit of 40 mph or below.
  • Only 14 percent of the nation’s speeding-related fatalities occurred on Interstate highways that year.
  • Speed is often a factor in incidents involving pedestrians. If a pedestrian is hit at 40 mph, there’s an 80% chance they will die. If hit at 20 mph, there’s a 95% they will live.

November 3, 2011

Airbags may enhance injuries for the tall and the short.

In a crash, automobile air bags may raise the odds of serious injury for short or tall front-seat passengers, a new study shows.

The study comes from Craig Newgard, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University. He’s due to present his findings Friday in Chicago at the annual meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Newgard analyzed injury statistics for 1995-2005 from a motor vehicle crash database.

The database shows that during the years studied, 52,552 drivers and 14,732 passengers were involved in crashes.

Most of those people weren’t seriously injured, but 2.5% of the drivers and 2.6% of the passengers sustained serious injuries to any part of the body.

Newgard reviewed data on the drivers’ and passengers’ height and weight, air bags, and 10 factors about the crash.

He found that air bags were “modestly protective” for front-seat passengers of medium height, which he defined as being between 5 foot 3 inches tall to 5 foot 11 inches tall.

However, Newgard writes that “air bags appear to increase the risk of injury for large- and small-stature adults.”

Newgard calculates that for drivers taller than 6 foot 3 inches, air bags were associated with a 5% greater risk of serious injury. He also estimates that for drivers shorter than 4 foot 11 inches, air bags were associated with a 4% increase in the risk of serious injury.

Weight didn’t affect the results, Newgard notes.

Distance From Air Bag

Newgard’s study doesn’t provide information on how far the drivers and passengers were seated from the air bags in the crashes.

Distance from the air bag is the most important factor in preventing air bag injuries, according to background information on the web site of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).

“There is no precise height and weight at which an individual is considered to be at risk” from air bags, says the NHTSA. “The primary determinant as to whether an individual will be injured by a deploying air bag is the distance from which the individual is seated from the air bag.”

The NHTSA notes that there is no precise distance guaranteed to avoid air bag injury since all air bags are unique and deploy with different forces.

The NHTSA’s advice:

  • Wear your seatbelt.
  • Sit as far from the air bag as possible to allow the air bag to deploy.
  • Short drivers should move the driver’s seat back and tilt the seat back slightly to allow space between the driver’s chest and the steering wheel.
  • Drivers should refrain from leaning forward.
  • To the extent possible, drivers should hold steering wheels from the side, so that their arms aren’t in the way of the air bag.