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Alabama lawmakers have given final approval to a bill requiring back seat passengers in vehicles to wear seat belts. Alabama’s seat belt law currently applies only to front seat passengers. The House of Representatives this morning approved the bill by Sen. David Burkette, D-Montgomery, requiring all passengers to wear seat belts. The bill says failure […]
Better bike networks need safer intersections. Intersections are the place where the most vehicle-bike conflicts occur. In 2017, 43% of urban bicyclist fatalities occurred at intersections. On many streets, large turn radii and wide lanes encourage drivers to make sweeping, fast turns. These design decisions increase exposure and risk for people walking and biking, reduce […]
New public health fellow joins the Office of EMS team, bringing data expertise as well as social work and public health experience For as long as she could recall, Leslie Carson’s path was close to crystal clear. A medical career awaited her, with a specialization in pediatric neurology. But after graduating with a degree in […]
The 2019 National EMS Scope of Practice Model, developed to identify the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve competence for the four levels of EMS clinicians, is now available on EMS.gov. The result of an expert-led, consensus-driven process managed by the National Association of State EMS Officials and supported by NHTSA’s Office of EMS and the […]
It took two years and contributions from hundreds of EMS professionals and members of the public to craft the bold plan for EMS laid out in EMS Agenda 2050. But the hard work starts now as the EMS community shifts from describing the EMS system of the future to creating it. Officially entitled “EMS Agenda 2050: […]
Most 911 systems across the United States were originally built using analog technologies that have become outdated, unreliable and impractical. That’s why the National 911 Program, housed in NHTSA’s Office of EMS, is supporting efforts to upgrade public safety answering points (PSAPs) throughout the country to a digital or Internet Protocol (IP)-based 911 system – […]
The National EMS Education Standards have helped educators, certifying bodies and regulators ensure that EMS providers receive an education that prepares them to perform their roles to the very best of their abilities. Now a full decade old since their release in 2009, the current education standards require an update to ensure that the education of new […]
A growing number of Americans report that they use marijuana. Most states now allow the use of marijuana for treatment of medical conditions. Ten states and the District of Columbia, representing a quarter of the U.S. population, have decriminalized the recreational use of marijuana, and other states are considering following suit. As the opportunity for […]
Alcohol-impaired driving is the deadliest and costliest danger on the nation’s roads, with approximately one-third of all traffic deaths in the United States caused by drinking and driving. One person dies in an alcohol-impaired driving crash every 49 minutes—that is 29 people each day. In 2016, 10,497 deaths were caused by alcohol-impaired driving—the largest single […]
Current travel patterns and energy usage could be dramatically disrupted by new vehicle technologies, specifically in the case of automated vehicle (AV) technology. AV development is rapidly progressing and some experts anticipate it will be widely available to the public within 10 to 30 years (Litman and Litman 2018; Bansal and Kockelman 2017). This transformation […]