Automobile Safety - Slaughter on the Highways

Massacre on highway If one thing in our society is almost ignored, it is a pure massacre on our roads and highways every day. The number of traffic fatalities is far beyond these two categories, but it has not attracted the same media and political attention as crime and drugs. When politicians want to raise their awareness they almost always talk about a drastic increase in drug-like deaths and what measures they take to reduce these deaths.

Car accidents are the leading cause of death in the United States, the most common cause of death among children and young people. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), according to the police report in 2001, more than 6 million car accidents occur every 5 seconds, and such accidents occur every 10 seconds on average. Every 12 minutes of injury, someone was killed. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the annual cost of a car accident is $ 230 billion.

With the support of the American Automobile Association (AAA) Traffic Safety Foundation, the North Carolina University Highway Safety Research Center conducted a five-year survey on driver's distraction type. A professional collision investigator collects data at the accident site. They inspected the car, interviewed the victims and witnesses of the car accident and evaluated the relevant medical records. They discovered that the following percentage of drivers are cited for distraction reasons.

Federal law was always an important strategy to reduce car injuries (IOM, 1998). From 1966 to 1970, the Road Safety Act provided the federal government with the establishment of safety standards for new cars and equipment (eg standard seatbelts for all drivers) and coordinated national traffic established as a national road in 1970 Approved the formulation of a safety plan. Traffic Safety Management Many earlier studies have found that seat belts are cost-effective (Warner, 1982). Recent reports outline the advantages of seatbelts based on collision result data to evaluate medical information and financial information of the system. According to reports submitted to Congress in 1996, it was shown that seat belts are very effective in reducing morbidity and mortality and reducing the severity of injuries (eg, at the cost of dangerous accidents The hospitalization cost of a person is 55% higher than the hospitalization cost of a seatbelt) (NHTSA), 1996)

In 1959, Norus Bohlin, a safety engineer at Volvo Cars in Sweden, announced a three-point shoulder / knee harness. Today, a seat belt (eventually called) is attached to every car. . Seat belts have been proven to reduce the risk of accidental death of drivers and passengers. This is why 49 states out of 50 states in the United States have enacted laws to enforce them. "But this is the law," many highway signs tell the driver. Though these laws may not be easy to carry out, many lives of American citizens will be prolonged