Smart Motorist

Air bags are standard equipment in almost all new cars and are designed to supplement the protection provided by safety belts in frontal crashes. Federal safety standards require that all new passenger cars and light trucks be equipped with both driver- and passenger-side air bags by 1999. While air bags have a good overall safety record and have saved an estimated 1200 lives as of the end of 1995, they pose several risks for children.

As of December 1999, more than 95 million, or 47 percent of all cars and light trucks on Americas' roads have driver-side air bags. Almost 68 million of these also have passenger-side air bags. As of December 1998, air bags inflated in more than 3.3 million vehicles in crashes.

Airbags are supposed to be fully inflated before the passenger falls into it during a crash. Serious injuries occur when airbags, which can travel at speeds up to 200 mph, hit occupants prior to full inflation. An example is the 1994 Nissan Altima, which has blinded or significantly visually impaired at least 30 passengers:

"Side impact air bags can provide significant supplemental safety benefits to adults in side impact crashes. However, children who are seated in close proximity to a side air bag may be at risk of serious or fatal injury, especially if the child's head, neck, or chest is in close proximity to the air bag at the time of deployment.

Among drivers who use safety belts, the possibility of a serious airbag inflation injury is cause for concern if there's less than 10 inches between the belted driver and the steering wheel. Most drivers, even short ones, normally sit with at least this much distance to the wheel. 

As a direct result of weak and defective designs of automobile seats and their components, such as seatbacks, recliner mechanisms and seat tracks, thousands of otherwise preventable injuries occur each year in rear-impact collisions. The problems with seats stem from an inadequate Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard, caused in part by the resistance of some manufacturers to reasonable and safer proposed standards. 

Speed reduces the amount of available time needed to avoid a crash, increases the likelihood of crashing and increases the severity of a crash once it occurs. The public needs to be made more aware of the dangers of speeding. If we are to combat this dangerous, life-threatening behavior, we must devote increased resources to better enforcement, including more law enforcement officers to patrol the highways, and we must support technological advances, such as video cameras, to target aggressive, speeding drivers.

For every aggressive driving incident serious enough to result in a police report there are hundreds or thousands more which never got reported to the authorities.

Aggressive driving can refer to any display of aggression by a driver. It is often used to describe more extreme acts of physical assault that result from disagreements between drivers. "Road Rage" is a term believed to be coined by the American media, originally to describe the most violent events. 

Reports of violent traffic incidents have increased nearly 7 percent per year since 1990. "Yet this is only the small tip of a very large iceberg," says David K. Willis, President of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. "For every aggressive driving incident serious enough to result in a police report or newspaper article, there are hundreds or thousands more which never got reported to the authorities." 

Teen drivers are far more likely than other drivers to be involved in fatal crashes because they lack driving experience and tend to take greater risks due to their immaturity. Graduated driver licensing (GDL) is a system that is effective in reducing young driver crash fatalities. It is designed to introduce young drivers to the driving experience gradually, by phasing in full driving privileges over time and in lower-risk settings. 

Most of the roads in use today were built at a time when traffic volumes were lower and vehicles traveled at slower speeds. America's population growth has overwhelmed the existing road network. Over the last thirty years, the vehicle miles we drive every year have increased by 130%. But our road mileage has only increased by 5%. 

Good driving is about being prepared for every eventuality. A clear road ahead is rarely empty! In order to respond to a problem, we have to see it. "I just didn't see you" is the most common explanation at the scene of an accident, testifying to the dangerousness of inattentive or distracted driving. 

Safety belt use is significantly higher in states with standard enforcement laws compared to those with secondary enforcement laws. Research shows that when adults buckle up, children get buckled up too. Standard enforcement is important not only for raising adult safety belt use, but also for increasing the number of children who are protected by occupant restraints.