11 passenger safety

8/3/2019 11 Passenger Safety

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Passenger Safety

We have come a long way in the last 60years.


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Four traditional accident prevention programs have beenused for the last 100 years in an attempt to prevent traffic

accidents and resulting injuries.

A. Driver licensing. The purpose of driver licensing is only allow competentdrivers on the highways. This includes getting the worst drivers off the road.

B. Engineering. Engineering ofboth vehicles and highways to reduce the

probability of an accident.

C. Enforcement of traffic laws. Compliance with traffic laws is in directproportion to the perceived level of enforcement. Without enforcement oftraffic laws, we would have chaos.

D. Education. Driver and traffic safety education attempts to reduce the

number of accidents by education of beginning drivers, education ofproblem drivers as well as public service ads designed toward the generalpopulation. i.e. "friends don't let friends drive drunk"


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Loss Reduction

Loss reduction is an acceptance that wecan not prevent all accidents from

occurring. Therefore we must do what wecan to reduce losses when accidents dotake place specifically loss of life, injuriesand property damage.


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The Costs

There are about 34,000 deaths, 2,000,000serious injuries and $200 billion lost in

traffic accidents each yearin the US.

These numbers are on the safest roadsystem in the world!


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Highway Engineering

There are numerous roadway designs to reducelosses when a vehicle leaves the roadway.Divided highways, guard rails, bridge design,

bridge supports, removal of light poles, signsand trees next to the road, just to name a few.

All of these lessen the chance of crashing whenleaving the roadway.


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Vehicle Design

There are many design features on vehicles over thepast 40 years. Some of them are: seat belts for allpassengers; shoulder harnesses; windshield design;head restraints; airbags; padded dash boards; door locks

and recessed handles; seat anchors; side impactreinforcement; side air bags; adjustable gas and brakepedals; roof crush reinforcement; tempered sidewindows; fuel tank integrity; seat back locks for twodoor cars; collapsible steering columns; crush zone; and

flame retardant seat materials.

The vehicle today is the safest to crash ever built.


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Where to look

www.highwaysafety.org

This website has vehicle safety ratings if youare interested.


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Baby with the bathwater?

Accident prevention is also a continuing design feature.These features include: high mounted brake lights; anti-lock brakes; dual brake systems; standard operationalcontrols; ergonomic seats/controls; daytime running

lights; even seat belts help the driver maintains control ofthe vehicle in an emergency. SCS. Stability Control Systems actually take over control of

your vehicle if you over react to any situation. You nolonger have a cable to your accelerator, and yourbraking and steering are also computer controlled, hope

is does not short out! 1996 and newer cars have a computer that can tell

officers what you were doing prior to the collision. On-Board Diagnostic.


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At Least Six Reasons to Wear Your

Belt. A. Prevent ejection from the vehicle. A driver/passenger is 25 times more likely to dieoutside the vehicle in a crash.

B. Lessen the collision with the interior of the vehicle. What you hit, where youhit it, and how hard you hit it.

C. Provide better protection in fire or water. Belts keep your head from hittingthe wheel or dash and being knocked unconscious. Awake you can getyourself out of water or a burning car.

D. Better control of the vehicle in an emergency. If you are not behind thewheel, you cannot drive. If you are struggling to stay behind the wheel, youcannot drive well.

E.Air bags present a threat to life if you are too close to them. Seat belts helpkeep you in position to allow the air bags to work as designed, not kill you.

F. It's the law. About 80% of North Carolina drivers now wear the seat belts.That number is about 70% in the US.


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Why seat belt laws?

Seat belt usage at 70% nationally (up from14% twenty years ago) is estimated tosave 12,000 lives a year, and save about$17 billion.


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Thrown out?

Your chances of being killed are 25 timesgreater outside the vehicle.

We have spent forty years designing safervehicles. Stay in them.


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Child Restraints

Thirty-five years ago, only 4% of children wereproperly restrained. With lawsrequiring child restraint use in all US

jurisdictions, the percent of children restrained is85%+.

A major problem with child restraints continuesto be the improper use of them. Improper use

can compromise safety. Remember, traffic is the most dangerous placethese children will ever be.


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NC Child Restraint Law

In NC all children under 16 must be restrained.

Those under 5 years old (or 40 lbs) must be in a DOTapproved child restraint.

Those under 8 years and 80 must be in a booster seat.The penalty is $25 plus court costs (about $136).

There are two driver license points assigned for violation.

The child restraint law is primary enforcement. Thismeans an officer can stop someone for a violation of this

law without any other traffic violation necessary.


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Click it or Ticket

The belt use rate in NC is 80%+. In the USit is closer to 70%.

NC is among the highest use rates of the50 states. "Click it or ticket" is one reason.


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Front Seat Law

This law states that all front seatoccupants must be properly restrained.

This is regardless of age. The fine is $25and now $50 in court costs are added.

There are no points attached to this seatbelt use law in NC.


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New Law, 12/06

As of December of 2006, rear seatoccupants must wear there belts as well.

The problem with this law is it has noteeth. The fine is $10 for the secondoffense.

The good news is that the first step is

done. The penalties will increase overtime, just as the child restraint law hasdeveloped.


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Why all the fuss? I am the only one

affected buy not wearing a belt

The people who are injured because theyrefused to wear a restraint, cost us all inmany ways.

Here are some of the INDIRECT COSTSof people who are injured because the

seat belt was too much trouble.


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Insurance

Insurance rates are determined by costs tothe companies. The more they pay out,the more cost is passed to future policyholders.

Insurance companies do NOT pay claims,policy holders do.


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Court Costs

If you have ever been to district or superior courtand watched the wheels of justice turn, youwould have to agree that the wheels of justice

turn slowly if at all. How many trial lawyers have made their fortune

in court, over an injury that could have andshould have been prevented by a belt?

Remember, you pay for all the court personnel,the building etc. All paid for with your taxes.


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Social Security

How many think you will ever see a checkfrom Social Security? Sorry.

If a person is killed or injured in a crash,(that should not have) how does that affectSS? Instead of paying 15% of his/herpaycheck into the system, now they mayjust get a disability check FROM thesystem.

Who pays that? Right again, YOU DO.


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Education Wasted

In NC, the tax payers fund your education to thetune of about $6,500 per year for 13 years.

When you come to EC, we (tax payers) fund you

again to the tune of about $9,000 per year.

That is well over $120,000 per child invested.You kill yourself because a seat belt is too muchtrouble to put on, and we just wasted ourinvestment.


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EMT

How many hours are wasted byemergency personnel treating personsinjured when they should not have been.

BTW. Ever waited for an ambulance?Why was is delayed? Was is at the atsomeone elses injury accident?

Get the point?


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Medical Availability

If you have ever waited to get into ahospital, PCMH is full. They also have tokeep beds available for trauma victims.Thats car crashes.

Blood supply is another. You will have towait for elective surgery. Got to keep the

blood available too.


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Time off work

How many work days are missed becauseof injuries that should/could have beenprevented.

We loose 500,000 man/years of laborevery year to car accidents.

How many could have been prevented?


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Police Services

How many man hours of police personnelare used to deal with accidents andinjuries that could/should have beenprevented?


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Medical Costs

Did you know that 40% of your hospital billis to pay for the guy next to you that doesnot have insurance?

We must, by law, treat them. Well PCMHis not going to pay for them, you will.

A higher percentage of the uninsured,dont wear belts either.

Again, we all pay.


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Serious Injuries

Each year, in the US, there are 600,000neck/spinal cord injuries, 179,000 braininjuries and 638,000 facial injuries. Seat

belts with air bags can prevent asignificant percentage of these.

A neck/spinal cord injury takes 200 healthcare professionals and a $1Million to treat.


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Lets look at Airbags

First the Bad.

A. Cost about $1,000 per vehicle.B. Cost about $2,000 to reinstall them

C. They only work in front end, front angularcollisions. (about 50% of all collisions).D. Minor burns and injuries.E. Noise and "gas" in vehicle when deployed.

F. Deaths -(Later)


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The Good

A. They work. The mechanics are not asignificant problem.B. They are a passive system. It takes no action

on the part of the passengers to allow it to work.(Remember it always works best with the activerestraint-seatbelt).C. They work best in the most serious type of

accident-head-on and front angular collisions.


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Suggestions for Improvement of

Airbags The suggestions for improving their effectiveness are:A. Slow them down to 160 MPHB. Allow for ignition shut off switches for children whohave to use the front seat.

C. "Smart" airbags to determine the size and location ofpassengersD. Pedal and steering columns adjustments for shortpeople to get away from the air bagE. Education to get children in the back seat away from

the airbag.


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Airbags is Vehicles

Airbags have been required in cars,drivers side, since 1993.

SUVs and trucks, about 1996.

So for over 10 years, all vehicles havefront airbags.

Millions are deployed each year, with 6

million accidents each year. You are looking at 10s of millions of

vehicles with airbags.


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Where to find information

www.highwaysafety.org

Great resource for any traffic safety issue.


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Airbags save lives

1000s of lives are saved every year byairbags.

Misuse by a few is no reason to considerturning them off or removing them.\

Second only to seat belts in saving lives.


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How good?

Airbags add about 25% to seat belts.

Seat belts reduce death or serious injury

by 50-60%. Add 25% to that, we are near 80% of

deaths and/or serious injuries can beprevented.

Buy a car with airbags, wear your belt!


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What about Side Impact Airbags?

The information about side impact airbags isslowly becoming available. They are still in thedevelopment phase.

The fact remains that of the 24,000 vehicleoccupants killed each year in the US, nearly8,000 of them are side impact collisions.

More needs to be done to reinforce and pad the

sides of vehicles to protect occupants. The side curtain airbags is showing promise inpreventing head injuries.


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At no extra charge

Want to know what sells cars today?

Safety and Performance.

A true oxymoron.


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Conclusion

The vehicles we have today are theeasiest to drive, safest to crash we haveever had.

That is why the total deaths is only 34,000.

Slow down. Buckle up. Drive sober.

11 passenger safety

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