Category: Vehicle Accidents
May 15, 2015 / Vehicle Accidents
Binge Drinking: A Serious Problem Going from Bad to Worse
Binge drinking is on the rise in this country. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington reports that, since 2005, heavy drinking in the U.S. has gone up by 17.2%, and binge drinking has risen by 8.9%. And Indiana is no exception to this general rule. A Ball State report found that more than one-third of Indiana adults who drink admit to binging regularly on alcohol. Despite the way some comedians characterize drunken behavior as amusing, binge drinking is no laughing matter. It contributes to vehicular injuries and deaths, especially those of teens and young adults; it damages the health of drinkers; and it can harm families. It’s a sad situation all around. Defining Binge Drinking and DU[...]
April 28, 2015 / Vehicle Accidents
Megaproblems with Megabus
Driving through work zones can be perilous (you'll find lots of information about work zone accidents on our website) -- but for some passengers traveling recently through an I-65 work zone on a double-decker Megabus, it was both scary and painful. On April 13, 2015, the Megabus was headed from Chicago to Atlanta when it approached a construction area. Although a state police car was present, with lights flashing, the bus driver ran into the rear of a semi, pushing it into an SUV and another car. Out of the 63 passengers on board, 19 were taken to one of three hospitals. Reports immediately following the incident said it was unknown whether mechanical problems with the bus contributed to the bus crash. Pattern of Double-Deck Bus Accide[...]
February 13, 2015 / Vehicle Accidents
The Latest Traffic Statistics: Good News And Bad News
For most of us, the word "statistics" just brings up visions of digits -- numbers, percentages, rates, ranks -- that, like beauty, are their own excuse for being. But the American Statistical Association (ASA) says, "Statistics is the science of learning from data, and of measuring, controlling, and communicating uncertainty; and it thereby provides the navigation essential for controlling the course of scientific and societal advances." It's this last phrase that makes the collection and study of data critical to our everyday lives -- for example, improving transportation safety. Jump To: The Good News or The Bad News One source of important highway data is NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. To be included in the FARS census, a[...]
February 2, 2015 / Vehicle Accidents
Indiana in the Top 10
You can assign rankings to just about anything -- top ten places to retire, top ten basketball teams, top ten beaches, top ten polluted cities. Sometimes being in the Top Ten is a coveted position; other times it's something one would wish to avoid. Here's a Top Ten ranking that we're pleased to see: A new report from Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety includes Indiana as one of the top ten states which have passed laws to decrease the number of injuries and fatalities on the road. This is the twelfth year the group has issued an annual report, and the focus of this one is "lethal loopholes" -- that is, examining what laws have been passed and what laws haven't been but should be in order to reduce the number of preventable deaths an[...]
December 9, 2014 / Vehicle Accidents
12 Warning Signs Of Driving Deterioration
Alzheimer’s disease is a tragic eventuality for an ever-growing portion of our population. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, by the year 2060, the number of Americans with this disease or a related disorder could range from 11.3 million to 16 million. Caring for a loved one with cognitive impairments is difficult, and one of the most problematic situations that must ultimately be addressed is the inability of the person to continue to drive. Indeed, this determination must often be made for elderly people who don’t have mental disabilities; visual and auditory problems also contribute to unsafe driving. When dementia is present, who typically calls a halt to the individual’s ability to drive? Family members? Doctors? The [...]
December 5, 2014 / Vehicle Accidents
It’s True – Bridges Do Freeze Faster
If you ever doubted the veracity of those cautionary signs warning that bridges freeze before the roadway, just ask some of the folks on the roads around Indianapolis on December 2. Between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m., 243 accidents were reported, 42 of those being injury accidents, and officials noted that bridges and overpasses were particularly icy. Just 10 days earlier, ice on the I-275 bridge between Kentucky and Indiana caused the highway to be shut down in both directions after six cars and two trucks were involved in a crash there. Wintery weather is going to be with us for a while, and the nearly 19,000 bridges in Indiana are going to be treacherous. Here are things we all need to keep in mind as we travel across them. There are several r[...]
November 20, 2014 / Vehicle Accidents
Digging Out Safely
Last winter was a record-breaker for Indianapolis, when we received 55.4 inches of snow, only the second time in history that Old Man Winter delivered more than 50 inches of the white stuff to our city. I don’t have any facts or figures, but I’m guessing sales of snow blowers and snow throwers were also at record highs. And with winter once again blowing into town, it’s time to talk about snow blower safety. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates 5,740 emergency room visits a year involve snow blower injuries, including broken bones, cuts, bruises and sprains. About 10 percent of these injuries involve amputation of the hand or fingers. These tips for safer snow blowing were gathered from Consumer Reports, American Family I[...]
October 20, 2014 / Vehicle Accidents
Dangerous Tires – How Old Is Too Old?
The automotive industry, including tire manufacturers, have known for years that tires more than six (6) years old, regardless of tread depth or outward appearance, pose a substantial safety hazard to consumers. Tires, like other rubber products, have a limited service life, regardless of whether the tire appears to be worn out or appears to be brand new. Over time, a tire's internal structure degrades, reducing the ability of a tire's belts to stick together which, in turn, can result in tread belt separation which can then cause a disastrous crash. This internal degradation occurs regardless of the tread use or wear of the tire. It is invisible and cannot be identified even by tire experts without destructive testing. A simple example of[...]
September 9, 2014 / Vehicle Accidents
Indiana Scores 4.5 In Dui Countermeasures
About 20% of Indiana’s traffic fatalities are caused by an alcohol-impaired driver, according to Indiana State Police statistics, and nationally that number is about 31%. Whether the stats are based on local, state or national accident rates, drinking and driving is a serious safety issue. So we are glad that at the Governors Highway Safety Association annual meeting, taking place right now in Grand Rapids, Michigan, one of the topics being discussed is DUI enforcement approaches which have been successfully implemented across the U.S. Last year the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published “Countermeasures That Work: A Highway Safety Countermeasure Guide for State Highway Safety Offices.” Let’s see how I[...]
August 12, 2014 / Vehicle Accidents
Car Vs. Tractor: What Are The Odds?
One of the seemingly continuous tasks of summer is keeping the grass mowed. Busy homeowners have to factor in time for weekly mowing, or even more frequent grass cutting some weeks. If you just have a small patch of green, you may get by with a push mower; but many people have turned to riding mowers or tractors to do the job more efficiently. Tractors mowing the edge near a highway are targets for negligent drivers. And guess who is usually more seriously injured? Just last Thursday, August 7, 2014, one of Shelby County’s commissioners was hit while mowing on the south side of Michigan Road. A Jeep Cherokee crossed the road and struck the tractor head-on. Commissioner David Mohr, 73, was uninjured, but the 32-year-old driver of th[...]