W O R D S
traffic safety
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"Reliable, hard-working and a pleasure to work with, Lawrence Herzog continues to be our number one choice for investigative traffic safety articles." |
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– Sheila Hansen, Editor, Westworld Saskatchewan |
[2] On the Road in the Twilight Years: Helping Aging Motorists Drive Safely
[6] On Guard for 65 Years: The AMA School Safety Patrol Keeps Kids Safe – One Step at a Time
[9] Dying to Get There: We know we shouldn't speed, so why do we?
Excerpt from 1,500 word feature in the Winter 2003 issue of Going Places magazine
Over the last three years, even as collisions have decreased, whiplash-related claims in Manitoba jumped more than 20 per cent – from 7,300 in 2000 to 9,400 in 2002. Last year, they topped $20 million – two-thirds of the province’s total collision claims. Nationally, the Insurance Bureau of Canada says whiplash accounts for 80 per cent of the $4 billion in annual collision claims and the Bureau believes that much of that cost could be avoided if more drivers would take the simple step of properly adjusting their head restraints.
Correct positioning brings the middle of the restraint in line with the middle or top of the ears and close to the back of the head to prevent rearward travel of the neck and spinal motion. “Studies indicate that a properly adjusted head restraint can reduce the severity of whiplash injuries by as much as 40 per cent," says Stanley Griffin, head of the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). “Head restraints aren’t in cars for comfort, they’re there for safety. Fewer whiplash injuries would lead to lower insurance premiums.”
Yet a recent study by the Bureau revealed more than 85 per cent of drivers fail to position their head restraints correctly. Researchers videotaped 7,500 drivers and 1,100 passengers as they approached stop signs and found that 53 per cent of drivers had such poor positioning, their head restraints would have provided virtually no protection in a rear-end collision. The study also found that women were three times more likely than men to have their head restraints properly positioned.
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On the Road in the Twilight Years: Helping Aging Motorists Drive Safely
Excerpt from 1,500 word feature in the Fall 2003 issue of Westworld Saskatchewan magazine
Ray Scisson is 75 and knows the day may come he has to give up his driver’s license. He and his wife Vera, 74, decided to take the 55 Alive course to “jar our memories and refresh ourselves on ways to be better drivers.” Back when Ray got his license at 16, there was no road exam. “I was amazed at how much I learned during the six-hour 55 Alive session. We like to think we know it all, but we don’t.”
Roy and Vera are part of an increasing number of older drivers. Over the next quarter century, with the aging of the baby boom population, the number of older drivers will increase dramatically. Statistics Canada projects that, by 2026, nearly five million Canadians or more than 20 per cent of all drivers will be 65 or older. Already, drivers over 80 years old are the fastest-growing segment of the driving population and older driver fatalities and injuries are forecast to at least triple over the next 35 years.
The demographic shift demands that systems be implemented to make automobiles and the driving environment safer for older drivers and their particular needs. Although studies of crash rates indicate that persons age 65 and older are relatively safe drivers, other research indicates that it is the oldest drivers (over 80 years) who pose a greater risk to themselves and the public.
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Excerpt from 1,500 word feature in the Summer 2003 issue of Westworld Saskatchewan magazine
Five seconds can mean the difference between life and death or injury. That’s all the time it takes to buckle up a seat belt, yet every year too many Saskatchewan motorists die in crashes because they didn’t take five. In 2001 (the latest year for which statistics are available), 69 of the province’s 140 motor-vehicle deaths (49.3 per cent) were directly attributed to not wearing a seat belt. From 1991 to 2000, SGI reports an average of 157 people died each year in car crashes on Saskatchewan roads – and there is clear evidence that, over that time, 60 per cent of them were not wearing a seat belt.
Sgt. Murray Klatt, the RCMP’s Regina-based traffic collision analyst, has heard dozens of excuses over the years for not wearing a seat belt. “I like to call them myths,” he says, citing: “ ‘I cannot wear my seat belt because, if the car catches fire, I won’t be able to get out in time.’ ‘I cannot wear my seat belt because, if the car goes into the ditch, I might drown before I can get out.’ The reality is that you stand a much greater chance – at least five times greater – of dying by being thrown from the vehicle than you ever would by being trapped. Those aren’t good betting odds.”
Being thrown from your car, along with hitting something and something hitting you, are the three primary ways people die in car crashes. In 2001, 46 of the 69 people who were not wearing seat belts were ejected or partially ejected from their vehicle. Sgt. Klatt says the question begs to be asked: “Why would you want to leave what is called the engineered life space for an environment of concrete, rocks, posts and a vehicle that could roll over you? Everything about vehicle design is done with safety in mind, and the least we can do is hold up our responsibility . . . beginning with pulling the seat belt into place. Five seconds.”
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Excerpt from 1,200 word feature in the Spring 2003 issue of Westworld Saskatchewan magazine
Touted as breakthrough technology in the 1990s, anti-lock braking systems (ABS) are now showing discrepancies during performance testing. According to RCMP and Transport Canada research, some ABS work exceptionally well, but others, particularly in some domestic cars, trucks and SUVs, take longer to stop the vehicle – longer, in fact, than conventional brakes under identical conditions.
“We were a little surprised at the findings,” reports Cpl. Eric Brewer, an RCMP collision reconstructionist based in Kamloops, B.C., where much of the police force’s ABS testing has been conducted and analyzed. “We know that ABS aren’t always entirely effective in all conditions and on all roads. But what the research is telling us is that motorists must be aware of the limitations of their vehicles.”
Brewer’s Saskatchewan colleague, Sgt. Murray Klatt, a traffic collision analyst based in Regina, agrees the biggest drawback to anti-lock brakes is driver perception: that vehicles so equipped can stop on a dime. “Whether you’ve got them or you don’t, stopping distances still increase with speed and, with traction issues, stopping distances become much longer,” says Klatt. “Generally speaking, anti-lock brakes work better than conventional braking systems on wet or dry pavement free of debris, but that’s not always the case on icy or rough roads.”
In order for an ABS to work effectively, tires must remain in contact with the road surface. That doesn’t always occur on rough roads or with vehicles that have poor shock absorbers. As Klatt points out, “Once you hit the brakes, physics takes over and dictates how quickly you come to a complete stop. If you’ve been driving too fast for the conditions, you won’t be able to stop in time. It’s that simple.”
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Excerpt from 1,200 word feature in the Fall 2002 issue of Going Places magazine
Every year, more than 89,000 vehicles with tampered odometers reach the Canadian marketplace – at a cost to Canadians of more than $3.56 million according to estimates by a U.S.-based company called CarFax. South of the border, a 2002 U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study shows that each year more than 450,000 Americans will inadvertently buy a used vehicle with the mileage gauges rolled back. That makes tampering with odometers a $1.1-billion-a-year industry in the U.S. alone.
What’s perhaps even more surprising is that odometer fraud is most common with newer vehicles – those that have accumulated significant mileage over a short period of time, such as leased, rental and company cars. Most odometer fraud, in fact, is committed by wholesalers who buy fleets of used vehicles to sell to dealers. U.S. officials estimate that more than half the late model cars sold by leasing companies annually end up on car lots with reset odometers. The Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council (OMVIC) reports that vehicles with tampered odometers are often sold across Canada by “curbsiders,” unregistered car dealers who sell vehicles from parking lots and other public locations while masquerading as private sellers.
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Excerpt from 2,000 word feature in the September 2002 issue of Westworld Alberta magazine
When Jack O’Neill became a school patroller, horse-drawn vehicles and streetcars trundled down Calgary’s busy 1st Street West and the “STOP” signs he and the other children held out were fashioned from cardboard with black and white lettering. It was 1940 and, more than 60 years later, O’Neill hasn’t forgotten the experience nor the lessons it taught him. “Accountability, responsibility, dedication and life saving skills,” he says. “There’s no way we can say how many kids have been saved, but it’s safe to say there have been tragedies prevented because of the school safety patrol.”
Like many great ideas, the school safety patrol was daring its in simplicity and plain old common sense. R.L. “Reg” Harvey, principal of Calgary’s Haultain school, was concerned about smaller children crossing 1st Street West on their way to and from school. So he decided to teach some of the older children to help the younger ones across the street safely. That’s how he started Alberta’s first School Safety Patrol in 1937. Now, 65 years on, the Alberta School Safety Patrol has achieved a remarkable record of safety and protection: There has never been a serious or fatal collision at a school patrolled crosswalk.
Right from the beginning, the idea found favour with schools, parents, the community and the children themselves. Just one year after principal Harvey implemented his plan, 16 other Calgary schools started their own programs and Alex Taylor School launched Edmonton’s first patrol. AMA became patrol sponsor for both cities -- the organization’s first-ever traffic safety promotion. In its early days, the initiative was called the “Schoolboy Patrol,” but during World War II girls were admitted to the ranks and the name was changed to “Safety Patrol.”
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Excerpt from 1,000 word feature in the February 2002 issue of Going Places magazine
Side-impact air bags, designed to cushion the heads and chests of driver and occupants during a severe vehicle intrusion from the side, are now finding their way into new cars, trucks and SUVs. This year, more than 100 car and truck models come with side-impact air bags as standard or optional equipment. Designs include curtain type and tube-type bags, which deploy from the roof, door mounted models and those mounted in the seats, which inflate forward and upward.
Such protection is vitally important because, as crash testing has shown, the most life-threatening injuries occur from side impacts. “That’s the part of the vehicle that is most vulnerable,” observes Dainius Dalmotas, the chief of crash worthiness research for the road safety division of Transport Canada. “There are no crumple zones in the event of an impact from the side and trees and poles crashing through the side of a vehicle, even at moderately low speeds, can result in very serious head injuries.”
However, despite their considerable potential to save lives, side-impact bags are not without potential hazard. Transport Canada has conducted extensive tests on side-impact air bags with child crash test dummies and has determined the inflation of side impact air bags in the back seat of vehicles may present risk of serious injury for small children. It recommends that children be kept away from the path of the side air bag and seated in the middle of the back seat, if possible.
In the summer of 2001, vehicle manufactures agreed to design future air bags to meet the requirements of side impact air bag test protocols. Millions of vehicles in Canada are now equipped with frontal air bags and there is abundant evidence that when used in conjunction with seat belts, air bags prevent serious injury and death. Transport Canada estimates that, in 1998 alone, air bags saved 100 lives. Air bags are credited with saving more than 2,500 lives in Canada and the U.S. over the past 13 years and, as air bags become more common, that number is increasing.
Despite media-driven paranoia that air bags are killers, fewer than ten people, including one child, have been killed in Canada by incidents involving air bags. But none of those victims appear to have been properly restrained. “The issue is proper use,” explains Raynald Marchand, manager of traffic safety and training for the Canada Safety Council. “We have not seen any credible, relevant data that air bag deployment poses a serious risk for properly restrained persons. People need to be educated about the hazards and respond to them accordingly.”
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Excerpt from 2,200 word feature in the February 2002 issue of Westworld Alberta magazine
One minute Danny Milette and his buddies Chris Thompson and Craig Hlady were driving down a gravel road near Slave Lake. The next, Danny was airborne, strapped aboard an air ambulance, hearing voices and begging to sit up, wondering why he hurt so much. After crumpling in a pain-studded haze, he would awake a few minutes – or was it hours? – later to hear voices connected to white smocks drifting by: “Seriously hurt … two cracked ribs … swelling of the brain … bruised heart.”
Danny would soon learn that his friend Chris was in equally bad shape, with a fractured skull, dislocated shoulder and broken thighbone. But Craig’s injuries were life-threatening: his brain stem severed, the 18-year-old was in a coma. Doctors predicted the personable, funny teenager would never recover. A day later, Craig would be disconnected from life support and declared dead.
Just a second or two. That’s all it took for Milette and his friends to be catapulted from their pickup after it flipped wildly off the road and into a boulder-strewn ditch. None of them was wearing a seat belt. “Stupid,” says Milette, now 22, shaking his head at the memory of that fateful August day in 1999. “We never thought anything bad would happen to us. But it just takes a second or two, and everything changes. Everything.”
Unbelievably, it’s a reality too many of us will have forced upon us. Every year in Alberta, some 400 families like the Hladys are plunged into despair by the sudden loss of a loved one. And like the waves that radiate outward when a stone is dropped into a pond, the impact of a traffic crash ripples through that family and their community.
“When you talk to people, you realize motor vehicle crashes have and will affect each and every one of us. Beyond those who are killed or injured, there are the families and friends, any other drivers involved, the emergency response personnel … the list goes on and on,” says Deborah Johnston, communications coordinator for the Alberta Motor Association's Traffic Safety Initiative. With one motorist killed and another 65 injured every day, Johnston calls it “an epidemic. One that carries an enormous amount of grief, because these are lives that are literally ripped away or changed with little or no warning.”
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Excerpt from 1,800 word feature in the June 2001 issue of Westworld Alberta magazine
“There is more to life than increasing its speed,” Indian spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi once said. But you wouldn't know it judging by Alberta's roads. Perpetually rushed, perpetually late, perpetually distracted, we are driven to speed. Or perhaps we speed because we are addicted to the thrill of risk: we crave the stimuli and believe our automobiles are so safe they'll protect us. Or because, after speeding for so long without consequence, it's become a habit a nasty, dangerous one.
In an Alberta Speed Management Group study in 2000, 81 per cent of drivers admitted they had “driven 10 kilometres over the speed limits” in the previous 12 months. Drivers tend to view speed limits as guides and expect few consequences if they ignore them, says Scott Wilson, the Alberta Motor Association's manager of advocacy and community services. “With police often looking the other way for infractions slightly above the limit, it sometimes sends the message to motorists that the speed limit isn't really a hard and fast limit.”
Limits posted below the safe speed for which roads are designed (sometimes done for traffic flow or to reduce noise through neighbourhoods) and the reluctance of the courts and government to adequately penalize offenders also reinforce the perception that speeding isn't really a serious offence. In addition, the improved handling, shock performance and sound reduction of modern vehicles reduce the sensation of speed. Advertising then reinforces the benefits: the notion that getting there quickly is not only imperative, but acceptable. Taken together, however, these factors are turning our roads into racetracks.
And it's killing us in alarming numbers; research across North America shows that at least 30 per cent of all fatal collisions involve speeding drivers, though these statistics may not reflect the whole picture. In France and Finland, for example, where fatal collisions are studied and reported in greater detail, speed has been identified as a contributing factor in 50 per cent and 61 per cent of all such collisions, respectively. The actual numbers might be even higher still, given that police reporting doesn't take into account that virtually every collision involves a speed component.
Top 10 Excuses Motorists Give the Police for Speeding
1. I'm late for work.
2. My house is on fire.
3. My wife is having a baby
4. My car is built to drive fast.
5. I've got to get home in time for my favourite TV show.
6. I'm not from here.
7. I still can't get the hang of metric.
8. I've got to catch my plane.
9. I'm drying my hair.
10. I'm on my way to the emergency room.
Source: Edmonton Police Service
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