By Patrick Corcoran on September 8, 2010
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has found that car booster seats are being designed better to protect children.
The Associated Press reports that the institute, in rankings released Wednesday on its website, gave top grades to 21, or 29 percent, of 72 newly evaluated car seat models. Last year only nine models, or 15 percent, ... Read more »
Posted in Auto Safety, News & Notes
By Jessica Roberts on September 8, 2010
Tractor rollovers long have been the leading cause of workplace deaths on U.S. farms. In recent years, though, those fatalities have declined as farmers buy new machines, or reequip their old models, with roll bars, reinforced cabs and seatbelts.
Fatalities from tractor rollovers have dropped from a rate of 5.5 deaths per 100,000 agriculture workers in ... Read more »
Posted in News & Notes, Rollovers
By Patrick Corcoran on September 2, 2010
A Mississippi jury on Thursday ordered Ford Motor Co. to pay $131 million in compensatory damages to the family of minor league outfielder Brian Cole, who was killed in the rollover of his Ford Explorer Sport. The automaker quickly settled with the family for a confidential sum before the punitive damages phase of the case, ESPN reports.
Brian Cole, tabbed as a future star for the New ... Read more »
Posted in Auto Safety, News & Notes, Rollovers
By Patrick Corcoran on September 2, 2010
A wave of deaths of children left inside hot cars –at least 41 so far this year, a record pace — is sparking pressure from safety advocates for new auto regulations, USA Today reports.
The deaths have coincided with broiling temperatures across many parts of the country. And the heat is intensified inside of a car ... Read more »
Posted in Auto Safety, News & Notes
By Lea Yu on September 1, 2010
The high-profile death of a highway patrolman in a crash with a drunk driver has prompted officials in Montana to rethink the state’s Old West drinking and driving culture, The Associated Press reports.
Montana, based on the gauge authorities use to compare states, often leads the nation in drunk driving deaths. In 2008, the last year ... Read more »
Posted in Auto Safety, News & Notes
By Lea Yu on August 30, 2010
Motor vehicle crashes cost the American public $99 billion a year in medical expenses and productivity losses, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC, in evaluating crash data and Americans’ average earnings for 2005, found that the economic toll of traffic injuries amounts to $500 for each licensed ... Read more »
Posted in Auto Safety, News & Notes
