Category: Highway Safety
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9085 SEEN/
Amid rush to deploy driverless cars, federal regulators urged to keep hands on the wheel
By Paul Feldman
FairWarning
The era of driverless vehicles appears to be rapidly approaching, raising a bevy of urgent questions about how to prevent the emergence of new hazards on the nation’s roads. -
Don’t drive distracted, wireless industry says, but safety advocates want more than talk
By Myron Levin
FairWarning
In recent years thousands have died on the nation’s highways, mostly in ones and twos, as a result of drivers fiddling with their phones. Despite more crashworthy vehicles, 2016 U.S. traffic deaths reached 40,000, the highest number in years, according to an estimate by the National Safety Council. -
Red light ticket? Enforcement depends on where you got it and how you try to resolve it
By Susannah Nesmith
FloridaBulldog.org
Miami-Dade Traffic Magistrate Christopher Benjamin played a series of dramatic videos of crashes caught on tape by red-light cameras. The people in the audience gasped each time someone t-boned a car, flipped over a railing, struck a motorcyclist or nearly plowed through a line of kids crossing the street. “Ladies and gentlemen, please rise,” Benjamin told the audience after playing the videos. And then he surprised everyone. “Be safe out there. Case dismissed. Thank you.” -
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4955 SEEN/
Headlight recall turns high beams on GM’s safety vow
By Christopher Jensen
FairWarning
Three years ago, General Motors chief executive Mary Barra vowed a new pro-safety attitude after admitting that for years the automaker had concealed an ignition-switch defect now linked to at least 124 deaths. But today federal safety regulators are investigating whether GM has been adequately handling a 429,000 vehicle recall for the sudden failure of low-beam headlights. -
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5233 SEEN/
Gridlock on Anti-Lock Brakes Baffles Motorcycle Safety Advocates
By Rick Schmitt and Paul Feldman
FairWarning
After a long downward trend, U.S. traffic deaths are on the rise again, and a key factor is the stubbornly high fatality toll among some of the most exposed people on the road: motorcyclists. Nevertheless, federal regulators have balked at requiring a safety measure that, many experts say, could save hundreds of bikers’ lives every year. -
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6306 SEEN/
Growing momentum for self-driving cars worries safety advocates
By Brian Joseph
FairWarning
On Valentine’s Day in Silicon Valley, one of Google’s experimental, self-driving cars sideswiped a city bus at 2 miles an hour. The incident marked the first time an autonomous car contributed to an accident on a public road, but did nothing to diminish the Obama administration’s enthusiasm for driverless vehicles.
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