There was a time when seat belts were not automatically installed in vehicles. Over time, as the public began to understand that seat belts save lives, seat belts became more common. Eventually, installation of these safety devices became mandatory for auto manufacturers. As the seat belt example illustrates, the auto industry does not always embrace safety technology of its own accord. Oftentimes, public awareness and regulatory pressure serve as necessary catalysts in order to inspire the auto industry to keep motorists and passengers safe. It seems that this trend is set to continue regarding the matter of collision avoidance technology. […]

We frequently write about the actions of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. As the federal agency most directly tasked with ensuring the safety of the nation’s roadway travelers, the priorities, values, actions and inactions of the NHTSA affect nearly every American at one time or another. It is ultimately important to keep abreast of this agency’s evolution because the NHTSA directly influences the safety or lack of safety that the nation’s motorists, cyclists and pedestrians are subject to on a regular basis. Over the past few years, the NHTSA has become the subject of criticism from lawmakers, safety organizations and the public. Although the agency [...]

Since the beginning of the year, a specific kind of crash has been plaguing California’s busy freeways. These crashes are almost always preventable and are almost often tragic catastrophes. When drivers are intentionally or unintentionally forced to navigate wrong-way traffic in high-speed action movies, the event tends to be thrilling. When drivers are intentionally or unintentionally forced to navigate wrong-way traffic in real life, fatal collisions tend to result. In one single community, four wrong-way freeway crashes have occurred in 2015 alone. This number may seem relatively small when compared to the number of crashes which occur on California freeways annually, but when one stops to [...]

Earlier this week, we began a discussion about DUI recidivism. We observed that while it is surprisingly easy for responsible adults to be arrested for a single, unintentional and ultimately accidental drunk driving incident due to the ways alcohol metabolizes in the body, repeat drunk driving offenders pose a significant threat to public safety. We also noted that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is directly tasked with ensuring the relative safety of the nation’s roadway travelers and that this agency has a particular interest in the matter of repeat drunk driving offenders. Recently, the NHTSA released valuable research related to this issue that will hopefully [...]

When individuals drive while intoxicated, their behavior endangers their own lives and the lives of everyone within range of their vehicles at any given moment. Oftentimes, sincerely responsible adults drive while illegally drunk based on a misperception that they are actually sober. Because alcohol metabolizes differently in the body based on a host of factors, one can feel sober and still be illegally “drunk” for the purposes of legally operating a motor vehicle. When adults are unintentionally driving drunk and they are pulled over, they tend to be much, much more careful about letting an accidental DUI occur ever again. However, there are those individuals who [...]