Smart Motorist

A variety of high priority problems in highway and auto safety were probed. Some questions extended trend lines from previously asked questions while others explored new areas concerning older and younger drivers, intersection safety and the priority the federal government places on auto safety standards.

Each year more than 800 people die and an estimated 200,000-plus are injured in crashes that involve red light running. Total deaths in such crashes numbered almost 6,000 during 1992-98. More than half of these deaths were pedestrians and occupants in other vehicles who were hit by the red light runners.

“Caravan CB”, AM (CB) 18 and UHF 18 is now widely recognised and though unofficial (but within Australian Communication Authority Guidelines) with your van signed front and back, it provides on road communication between vanners and truckies when needed, and if used during overtaking, takes away the guess work of what each party is going to do.

"Conversion vans" are passenger vans made in part by major automobile manufacturers, but modified or completed by a van conversion company. Typically, these vehicles have been equipped with trim "upgrades," such as captains chairs, paneling, raised roofs, sofa chairs, and even television sets, fold-out beds, kitchens and bathrooms. 

Sun Glare - Many suits have been brought in United States courts as a result of sun glare obliterating traffic control devices or oncoming vehicles or pedestrians from view. Multiple terms have been used to describe this situation, including disability glare, veiling glare, sun blindness, and sun dazzle. 

By a wide margin, more 18 year-olds died in traffic crashes than any other specific age (1,395), in 1998. The next most fatal ages were 19, 21, 17 and 20, respectively. No other single ages but these five recorded over 1,000 fatalities.

The overall driver death rate declined during 1975-96 from 15 to 12 per 100,000 licensed drivers. But among 16 year-olds, the death rate was trending upward, and this trend was more extreme.

The youth population has been rising since 1993, but has declined overall since 1982. The fatality rate (young people killed per 100,000 of the youth population) provides another perspective on trends that is not dependent on population size. In the last ten years, the alcohol-related fatality rate has steadily declined and is now the lowest since record-keeping began in 1982.

Alcohol Related Youth Fatal Crash Analysis

Driving Under the Influence (DUI) continues to be a major public health problem in the U.S. Although the number of deaths attributed to DUI have fallen slightly in recent years, still as many as forty percent of those killed on our nation's highways die in crashes where alcohol is involved. 

Thirty-one states have laws that set 0.10 percent blood alcohol concentration (BAC) as the per se limit, making it illegal to drive with a BAC at or above that level. An illegal per se law makes it illegal in and of itself to drive with a BAC at or above the established limit. The probability of having a crash rises dramatically when a driver reaches and exceeds 0.08 percent BAC.

"Monitoring the Future," a yearly survey of approximately 14,000 high school seniors conducted by the University of Michigan and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has tracked alcohol and other drug use by seniors since 1975. Since 1982, all categories of alcohol use have declined according to the self-report of students.

The percentage of youth fatalities that were alcohol-related in 1998 was 35.8. By comparison, the percentage of adult fatalities that were alcohol-related was 40.3. 

The Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and The Advertising Council’s Innocent Victims public service campaign emphasizes the need to intervene and Get the Keys away from someone about to drive drunk.