Category: Safety Topics

  • September 1st, 2023

In 2022 seat belt use in the United States ranged from 67 percent in the U.S. Virgin Islands to 96.5 percent in Oregon. Twenty-six States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands achieved seat belt use rates of 90 percent or higher. These results are from probability-based observational surveys conducted […]

  • August 31st, 2023

According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), state departments of transportation (state DOT) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPO) play a key role in implementing activities to reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, including on-road emissions from vehicles. GAO found examples of state DOTs and MPOs engaging in these activities, including estimating emissions, analyzing the effects of […]

  • August 29th, 2023

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a proposed rule which requires automobile manufacturers to equip vehicles with seat belt use warning systems for the right front passenger and rear seats to increase seat belt use. The new requirements would apply to passenger cars, trucks, most buses, and multipurpose passenger vehicles with […]

  • August 29th, 2023

On average, over 700 fatalities occur in work zones each year. Commercial motor vehicle (CMV) and passenger vehicle drivers both need to be particularly careful while traveling through work zones. Trucks and buses have limited maneuverability and large blind spots, both of which make operating in these areas more challenging for them. In fact, large […]

  • August 28th, 2023

Road safety is everyone’s responsibility – passenger vehicle drivers, truck drivers, bus drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) developed Our Roads, Our SafetyⓇ, a national safety campaign to encourage road users to share the road safely with large trucks and buses. Nearly every possession we own and almost all the food […]

  • August 22nd, 2023

Every state in the U.S. has enacted alcohol-impaired driving laws, which prohibit driving with a blood alcohol content (BAC) at or above a .08%. In 2017, the Utah Legislature passed HB155 “Driving Under the Influence and Public Safety Revisions” that changed the state’s illegal limit from .08 to .05 on December 30, 2018. Although alcohol-impaired […]

  • August 21st, 2023

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are designed to increase driving comfort by automating parts of the driving task under certain conditions, as well as increase safety by warning drivers of dangerous situations and momentarily braking or steering automatically to attempt to avoid crashing. These technologies have become common on new vehicles, and they are expected […]

  • August 18th, 2023

This study reviewed ground ambulance crashes that occurred from 2012 to 2018 in the United States. The study queried several national crash databases and reviewed NHTSA’s Special Crash Investigation reports for ambulance-involved crashes. The objective of the study was to review ambulance crashes that occurred from 2012 to 2018 to identify factors contributing to ambulance-involved […]