Motor Vehicle Safety
Motor accidents are one of the leading causes of unintentional injuries in the United States. In the year 2000 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that around 41,000 people were killed in traffic accidents within the United States. This mortality rate has since dropped 25% from 2000 to 2009 (Rockett et al., 2012). There are many reasons for motor vehicle injuries, ranging from lack of seat belt use, elderly drivers, alcohol and young children being improperly secured. All of these things factor into motor injuries differently and must be addressed as a separate problem. Highway safety is an important issue in public health and many things have already been implemented to help reduce accidents and injuries. Actions like mandatory seat use, shatter resistant windshields, speed limits, and child restraints.
One of the most avoidable and tragic causes of highway accidents are alcohol related. Driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol greatly increases the risk of an accident. The first studies relating alcohol to motor vehicle crashes were reported in 1938. It was found that of those who were injured were 12.5 times more likely to have been drinking alcohol (Waller, 2002). Not long after this study, blood alcohol content (BAC) was also found to have a correlation with accidents and injuries. According to the study at a BAC of .08% risk of a crash is four times more likely. This increases up to a BAC of .15% making the intoxicated driver 25 times more likely to crash. Many measures have been taken since these early years to prevent DUIs. Beginning in 1969, Alcohol Safety Action Programs (ASAP) were introduced to fight against drunk driving. The programs include “enforcement, judi...
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Rockett I., Regier, M., Kapusta, N., Coben J., Miller, T., Hanzlick, R., Todd, K., Sattin, R., Kennedy, L., Kleinig, J., & Smith, G. (2012). Leading Causes of Unintentional and Intentional Injury Mortality: United States, 2000–2009. American Journal of Public Health, 102(11), 84-92. Retrieved from http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.2012.300960
Waller, P. (2002). Challenges in Motor Vehicle Safety. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/eds/detail?sid=737d4dcd-9ead-47b8-af26-
Wilson F. & Stimpson, J. (2010). Trends in Fatalities from Distracted Driving in the United States, 1999 to 2008. American Journal of Public Health, 100(11), 2213-2219. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=08f66e54-28dc-491d-9333-8c64fbefa207%40sessionmgr113&hid=109
Statistics show 16- to 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger, which is due to distracted driving. Taking your eyes off the road for 2 (two) seconds, at 60 mph, means you have driven blindly for half the length of a football field. The risk of fatality is 3.6 times higher, when they are driving with passengers than when alone. For many years, the correlation between driving behavior and age has interested highway safety researchers and administrators. It is general knowledge that the greatest risk of motor vehicle crash...
It is a tragic truth: About 10,000 lives are lost in the United States because of drunk driving each year. Alcohol is wildly known as one of the main reasons of causing social security issue. Small amount can make people feel relaxed, but bigger amount could make them loss their coordination, get feeling of confusion and disorientation, and significantly slowed their reaction time. On average, one person dies every hour because of alcoholic traffic accident in United State. Therefore, the NTSB put out a recommendation last May that the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) level for drivers should be lowered from the current level of .08% to .05%. But for several reasons, we shouldn’t lower the criterion on blood alcohol content.
of crashes caused by distracted drivers in Utah, the leading cause of death in the teenage
Disk and drum brakes are the two types used in cars. Drum brakes are very good to have on your rear axel but not as effective on the front where better balance and heat dissipation is a must.
"CDC -Injury - Teen Drivers: Fact Sheet." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. .
The facts are plain and simple, that alcohol and driving do not mix. About three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol related crash at some time in their lives. Every single injury and death caused by drunk driving is totally preventable. To curb this national travesty, concerned Americans need to examine the problems, the effects, and the solutions to drunk driving. First of all, America has had a problem with drunk driving since Ford perfected the assembly line. Alcoholism is a problem in and of itself, but combined with driving can have a wide range of effects. The consequences of this reckless behavior can include a first time DUI or licenses suspension; a small fender bender, or worst of all a deadly crash. Most drivers that have only one or two drinks feel fine, and assume they are in control, which is irresponsible and dangerous. Alcohol is a depressant that slows down the body's ability to react and impairs judgment. To drive well, you need to be able to have a quick reaction time to avoid accidents. Unfortunately, people continue to drink and drive. However,...
Drunk driving has been an increasing problem for many years. One issue that contributes to this is that in the United States it is actually legal to drive with a certain alcohol percentage. The blood alcohol limit is 0.8 percent (Drunk Driving). This means that a person may drive legally as long as they have a blood alcohol percentage of 0.8 percent or under. However, even at a percentage of 0.3 there may be some impairment of alertness and concentration (Drunk Driving). Driving requires fast reflexes that may be impaired at a 0.5 percent blood alcohol level but a person with this level of intoxication is not legally drinking and driving. Many people are arrested for drunk driving. In 2009, more than 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving while under the influence (Drunk Driving). In addition, “an average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before their first arrest” (Get Involved). Therefore, there were a minimum of 112 million accounts of drunk driving in 2009 alone. Drunk drivers also cause an increasing number of deaths. Drunk drivers in the United States c...
In today’s world a DUIs can be classified as being under the influence on many different substances. The main and most deadly substance is actually the most legal. With more and more people dying every day this nation needs to open its eyes on the dangers of drunken driving and begin taking major steps to help prevent this awful trend come to a stop. Drunk driving is when a person consumes alcohol and tries to operate their vehicle while ossified. Today the legal limit is 0.08, but many people believed that it should be lowered or unacceptable to consume any alcohol while operating motor vehicles. Studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that 40% of traffic deaths in United States were a result of DUIs. Many suggestions were made to avoid the change of the legal BAC level such as decreasing the amount of underage drinkers, writing more laws to keep heavy drinkers off the road, or adding...
What is as dangerous if not more dangerous than murder and suicide? A car accident is. Being in the seat of a vehicle put’s a driver’s life in jeopardy the instant they are in the seat of a vehicle. Adam Ford explains drivers licenses were issued first in the 1900s and conditions have changed substantially: More powerful cars exist, and more are on the road (Ford). With this notion, Ford explains why cars are more dangerous on the road; however, the types of cars that exist in present times are not the sole reason the road is more dangerous. John Pearson states, car accidents are the leading cause of death from ages three to thirty-five world-wide (Pearson). Mainly, drivers cause these car accidents. Cellphone usage in the US is one of the central contributors to car crashes, because the habits shaped from cellphone usage, such as texting generate danger. According to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 500,000 people were injured and 5,500 were killed by distracted driving in 2009 (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). The road has become a progressively hazardous place with distracted driving on the increase. Additionally, alcohol misuse causes increased danger while in a car. Ralph Hingson, a Sc.D., states that of all alcoholic-related crashes in 2002, 4 percent caused death, and 42 percent caused injury. Hingson further asserts, in dissimilarity of the crashes that did not involve alcohol, 0.6 percent caused deaths, and 31 percent caused injury (Hingson). Deaths and injuries increased this much cannot be taken lightly. Furthermore, age is also a factor in why car crashes have increased in the last decade. Youth drivers are the primary users of cellphones, which means that they text...
Driving is an important part of both the transportation and funeral industries. Unfortunately motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death for teenagers. Driving is a dangerous activity, and many risk factors can make it more deadly. One of the most common is distracted driving. According to the CDC as many as one in five car crashes that involve injury are caused by distracted driving. Luckily the state of vermont has taken prudent legislative action to prevent distracted driving. Although more could always be done, the legal and educational steps taken by the state of vermont are sufficient to deal with the threat of distracted driving.
Each day in the United States, over 8 people are killed and 1,161 injured in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver (Distracted Driving). There are a few different
Drunk driving has been a serious issue in the United States ever since the 1900’s. Driving during or after drinking alcohol is not only threatening for the driver themselves, but also threatening for the people around them. ”In 1980, 28,000 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes,” (Koch) “Drunken-driving deaths dropped to a record low in 1999, when “only” 15,786 people died,” (Koch). According to NHTSA, “10,497 deaths from alcohol-impaired-driving crashes in 2016,” ("Drunk Driving"). “Of the
Richard Petty once said “You’ll got home safe, so drive safe, and stay safe.” Being a racing legend, he is an advocate for safe driving to minimise the cases of road crushes that have been on the rise. He double up as the chairman of the Veterans’ Safe Driving Initiative, the initiative is aimed at guiding the veterans returning from deployment on safe driving tips. It is necessarily important since the infrastructure has changed over time. Another initiative is being run in Minnesota where the teens are guided on the important safe driving tips. Study shows that more crushes are likely to occur in teen driving than veteran driving. It is also evident that young drivers are more likely to cause a crush within six months of passing the driving test and young male are worse than the females in the field.
If you drink and drive, you are not only a danger to yourself but also to your passenger, other road users and pedestrians. In fact, every 30 minutes, someone in this country dies in alcohol-related crash. Every 30 minutes! And last year alone more than one million people are injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes. Alcohol is a depressant that slows down body reactions and the working of the brain. Each year drunk driving is responsible for about 25% of these deaths. The risks of drinking are alcohol-related accidents and violence. The effects of alcohol are poor coordination and slurred speech, double vision, decrease of self-control loss of consciousness and death.
One of the main causes of death and injury affecting young people today is dangerous driving. Dangerous driving is the cause of many accidents on the road. These accidents are a result of many dangerous behaviours including speeding, drink driving, fatigue, mobile phone use & not wearing a seatbelt. Road injury is the main cause of unintentional death and hospitalisation among young people and about three quarters of all preventable deaths among 15-19 year olds are due to these injuries. On average, four to five people are killed every day in vehicle accidents on Australian roads.