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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that despite the recent trend towards higher national seat belt use rates, 10% of drivers still only use seat belts occasionally. The current study examined occasional seat belt use among participants in the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2) Naturalistic Driving Study. The study was exploratory research with […]
There are many situations where tacit communication between drivers and pedestrians governs and enhances safety. The goal of this study was to formalize this communication and apply it to the driving strategy of an autonomous vehicle. Toward this, a field study of the interaction between drivers and pedestrians was performed. Vehicles were instrumented to capture […]
In 2008, 292 people were killed and another 18,000 injured when motorists attempted the most dangerous driving stunt permitted outside of a closed-course test track: backing up. Children under age five, who comprise 44% of all backup fatalities, were most likely to pay the price when things went wrong. From the perspective of the engineer, […]
Bad assumptions make data from Weeks 1-14 insufficient. Please see accurate data from Week 15 forward. It is Week 11 of the coronavirus pandemic, and total crash data is still showing a decline in Alabama. Overall, crashes have declined to less than 40% of their pre-COVID levels, INCLUDING speed-involved and fatal crashes, but are now […]
U.S. highways have been emptier during the coronavirus pandemic, but they have also been more deadly, according to statistics released Wednesday. According to the latest Alabama crash reports, our deaths this year as of May 21, 2020, are 10% lower than this day in 2019. However, the fatality rate per mile had increased significantly, as it has […]
Synthetic drugs, also referred to as designer or club drugs, are chemically-created in a lab to mimic another drug such as marijuana, cocaine, or morphine. The resulting designer drugs typically have a new different effect on the brain or behavior. Because these drugs are created in illegal labs, their ingredients and strength are almost impossible […]
In response to the coronavirus, and the unique needs surrounding the pandemic, the federal government is easing some of its regulations on truckers in order to meet those needs. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued a nation-wide emergency declaration allowing truckers to stretch some of the guidelines they normally work under. Specifically the […]
NHTSA recognizes that States and our law enforcement and first responder partners are working tirelessly to respond to the current public health emergency. In order for States to prioritize public health, NHTSA is postponing its currently scheduled traffic safety campaigns, including the Distracted Driving, Heatstroke Awareness, and Click It or Ticket campaigns. NHTSA recognizes that […]
Driverless cars aren’t here yet. More vehicles are incorporating a degree of automation with technologies such as adaptive cruise control and lane centering, but the driver will continue to share driving responsibilities for the foreseeable future. In theory, fully automated driving could eliminate the vast majority of crashes, but that level of automation won’t be parked […]
Many young urbanites don’t want to own a car, and unlike earlier generations, they don’t have to rely on mass transit. Instead they treat mobility as a service: when they need to travel significant distances, say, more than 5 miles (8 kilometers), they use their phones to summon an Uber (or a car from a […]
