Texting and driving is quickly increasing in the cause for automobile crashes and now automotive dealers are putting their efforts into telling drivers not to text while driving. Here is a cool video that BMW has released.
The next time you step into your vehicle, please remember this commercial from BMW, a world recognized automobile manufacturer.
On Sunday, July 19, 2010, Russell W. Welsh and Emelda Welsh, of Finleyville, Pennsylvania were tragically killed when, according to news reports, a driver of a semi-truck traveling northbound at a high rate of speed failed to see that the traffic had slowed and swerved into the Southbound lane, killing Russell and Emelda Welsh.
This tragic accident happened on I-15, in Southern Utah, near Pentura in Washington County. Our heartfelt condolences go to the Russell and Emelda Welsh family.
According to one news report, officials believe that the driver of the semi-truck was not paying attention to existing traffic conditions. Because this accident involved a semi-truck, a post-accident drug test should be performed pursuant to the provisions of 49 CFR 382.303, which provides, in relevant part:
“(a) As soon as practicable following an occurrence involving a commercial motor vehicle operating on a public road in commerce, each employer shall test for alcohol for each of its surviving drivers: . . . (2) Who receives a citation within 8 hours of the occurrence under State or local law for a moving traffic violation arising from the accident, if the accident involved: (i) Bodily injury to any person who, as a result of the injury, immediately receives medical treatment away from the scene of the accident; or (ii) One or more motor vehicles incurring disabling damage as a result of the accident, requiring the motor vehicle to be transported away from the scene by a tow truck or other motor vehicle. (b) As soon as practicable following an occurrence involving a commercial motor vehicle operating on a public road in commerce, each employer shall test for controlled substances for each of its surviving drivers: . . . (2) Who receives a citation within thirty-two hours of the occurrence under State or local law for a moving traffic violation arising from the accident, if the accident involved: (i) Bodily injury to any person who, as a result of the injury, immediately receives medical treatment away from the scene of the accident; or (ii) One or more motor vehicles incurring disabling damage as a result of the accident, requiring the motor vehicle to be transported away from the scene by a tow truck or other motor vehicle.”
In any accident involving a semi-truck, immediate action should be taken to prevent destruction or loss of the following important information:
1. The truck driver’s complete employment file, including but not limited to his or her qualification file and all incident reports involving the driver.
2. The truck driver’s logs and other driving records.
3. Any and all pre and post-accident drug tests administered to the driver – DOT regulations require mandatory drug testing under certain circumstances.
4. Any and all compliance audits involving the driver and the trucking company.
5. Any satellite tracking information relating to the truck and its whereabouts.
6. Any and all information contained in or from on-board data recorders, such as ECM units, also called black boxes, inclinometers, etc.
7. Records of any and all communications between the truck driver and his employer or any other person at time periods relevant to the collision.
8. Maintenance records, pre-trip inspection reports, post-trip inspection reports and annual inspection reports for the truck involved in the collision.
9. Any and all incident reports relating to the truck driver.
10. Any and all incident reports relating to the trucking company.
11. Any and all trip receipts, weight tickets, bills of waiting and other operational documents relating to the trip the driver was on when the collision occurred.
12. The truck driver’s cellular phone records for several days before the collision.
Teen Drivers make a lot of mistakes and are in the realm of being one of the highest demographics that are involved in car accidents. There are several reasons that you could think of why teen drivers are involved in more accidents, but here are the top 10 teen driving mistakes from AAA. Continue Reading »
Winter weather in the neighboring states of Utah and Nevada can bring harsh and ever-changing road conditions. The Department of Transportation works hard and effectively to clear roads for safe winter travel, with maintenance experts plowing and applying anti-icing and deicing chemicals and sand to keep winter roads safe for winter driving. Whether you are traveling to Las Vegas, St. George or further north, here are some winter driving tips from the Nevada Department of Transportation:
For more winter driving tips, visit the state Department of Transportation website.
In the past two months, 10 troopers have been hit on Utah’s roads, said UHP Col. Danny Fuhr, and eight patrol vehicles have been totaled. The financial cost of the crashes and the strain they put on the agency’s limited manpower are staggering, Fuhr said. But those aren’t the primary reasons the agency is asking drivers to slow down and move over. Continue Reading »
Texting and driving are two things that cannot be done at the same time, at least not psychologically.
Those are the findings of new research from the University of Utah that will be published this week. The research is the first peer-reviewed study that details the psychological effects of texting while driving.
“When we look at dual-tasking — doing two things at once — there is a limited amount of attention that we can dedicate to each of those tasks,” said Frank Drews, associate professor of psychology at the U. “With text messaging and driving, it’s not one or the other; it’s either, or.”
Our brains, he said, can’t maintain control of one while doing the other.
“During the time people are text messaging, they are driving blind,” Drews said, adding that when performing both those tasks, attention and efforts are switched between the two and not shared, as in other tasks.
The hazards of texting while driving continue to receive broad national and international attention as accident rates attributed to this practice increase. Utah law already bans texting while driving, and most people already know it isn’t safe, but new U. research actually quantifies the risk.
“People who text message while driving are six times more likely to get into a crash than people who are not text messaging while driving,” Drews said. Not only are they more likely to have or cause an accident, but texting while driving decreases response times to traffic signals and brake lights by about 20 to 30 percent, according to Drews’ study, which used 40 participants in simulated driving situations. Talking on the phone while driving slows reflexes by about 9 to 10 percent, much less than that of text messaging, which requires more attention to execute.
The study also found that drivers who text have difficulty maintaining lateral control of their vehicle, which causes them to swerve within and often out of their lane of travel, having two times as many lane crosses as usual, Drews said.
“It’s the first peer-reviewed research that has said why texting while driving is unsafe and how it is unsafe,” he said. “It leads to a degradation of driving ability.”
Drews has been researching the effects of dual-tasking for more than a decade and is specifically focused on how people sacrifice performance on one task to do another. In addition to texting and talking on the phone while driving, he has looked at the behavior of multi-tasking intensive-care nurses. Like some things in life, he said, traffic is not forgiving.
It is estimated that more than 6,000 people die every year as a consequence of multi-tasking while driving, and many more are injured by another. However, those figures cannot be proven because some circumstances are unknown and not all people who cause road deaths admit what they were doing before an accident occurs, Drews said.
Unfortunately, drivers have to look out for themselves and be aware of any distracted drivers around them.
“They are putting a significant burden on everyone else to keep themselves safe,” Drews said. Distracted drivers often increase their following distance from other cars, move more slowly than other traffic and move more within their lanes, among other signs…
“You want to get away from those drivers,” Drews said. Drivers who are text messaging, he said, aren’t prepared to react to unpredictable situations and therefore won’t in the case of a potential accident.
“People who are using a cell phones while driving have an impaired ability to self-monitor what they are doing,” he said. “Their ability to criticize their own performance is impaired.”
Drews’ research, performed with several other psychologists and researchers at the U., is available online and will be published in the upcoming issue of Human Factors, from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
The possibility of being injured by another in an accident is exponentially higher in a city like Las Vegas. With the combination of alcohol and driving, Las Vegas tops the charts for accidents. Clark County has over 8,000 DUI arrests every year, in conjunction with its share of automobile accidents and fatalities. In addition, Las Vegas has gridlock streets with stoplights posted every mile, as well as the heavy use of cell phones in automobiles. Consequently, this all equates to negligent driving and reckless car crashes. To avoid traffic due to these accidents, check out http://www.nvdpspub.gov/nhp/roadhazard.aspx before your commute.
Remain as calm as possible.
Call the police, even if the accident is minor. File a complete report with the police.
Get the names, contact information and insurance information of the other drivers. A car description and license plate number are also helpful.
If a camera is handy, photograph the scene. Limit your discussion of the accident to the police and insurance agents. Be truthful. Only sign documents for them.
Notify your insurance agent immediately after the accident, even at the scene with police present if possible.
Seek medical attention. Naturally, your health and safety should be your first concern and your top priority. If you are injured, get immediate medical help from a qualified doctor. Don’t delay. It is a good idea to have a card with relevant medical information for you and your family in your car.
Seek legal counsel. It is a good idea to talk to an attorney shortly after your accident. An attorney can help you deal with the difficult insurance issues and help you obtain and preserve valuable evidence that will increase the value of your claim. Your initial consultation with an attorney will be free of charge if someone else caused your injury. You have absolutely nothing to lose, but much to gain.
Schools all across the country are starting back up. Now more than ever its important to keep your eyes on the road and watch out for children. Paula F. Downey, President of Via Magazine wrote an article in the September-October 2009 issue about The importance of safety patrol and a hero from right here in St. George.
Paula writes:
Lulu Beltra thought the driver of the oncoming car would notice her yellow green safety patrol uniform as she helped a first grader cross the parking lot at Dixie Downs Elementary School in St. George, Utah last December. Then Lulu, who was 10, saw that the driver was talking on his cell phone and she sensed that he might not even slow down. She yanked the first grader back by the hood of her sweatshirt just as the car passed them. Lulu’s first action saved the other girl’s life.
In 1935 when such records were first kept, children had the 2nd highest pedestrian death rate of any age group in the US; today, they have the lowest. Experts credit the AAA School Safety Patrol with helping to bring about this change. And with schools facing budget cuts, the safety patrol is needed now more that ever, education officials tell us. Teachers say that it provides a cost effective way to keep children safe around congested drop-off areas at the same time that it teaches leadership and responsibility. In northern California, Nevada and Utah, the AAA safety patrol program has grown by more than 20% over the past two years. 555 elementary schools now participate. If you are interested in starting a patrol at your child’s school, please visit AAA.com/safetypatrol.
The count down to the 2009-2010 school year has begun for residents of Washington County and we want to remind you of a few safety tips. Each year, more than 200,000 kids are treated in hospital ERs for playground-related injuries, many of these could have been prevented with the proper supervision. Remind your children about playground/recess safety, if they know the rules prior to playing, they are less likely to get hurt. Talk to your school to make sure your child is properly supervised during outdoor activities. It’s ok to ask questions like, What is your schools policy on recess? What’s the student to child ratio outdoors? What polices are in place if there is an emergency? If you don’t like the answers you receive, get involved, join the PTA ,School Safety Council or other groups and help make positive changes. Remember it will still be hot outside when school resumes, sunscreen might be in order, have your child drink plenty of water, remind them to test the temperature of the playground with a finger, prior to placing their body on a hot surface. Recess and outdoor play is meant to be enjoyed, let’s make sure our children our supervised and safe.
June 24, 2009
By nature, accidents are unintentional. That’s not to say that accidents are always unavoidable.
Regardless of our precautions and preparations, there will always be true accidents — things that happen that are not preventable. So what do you do when an accident occurs?
“Examine the injury. If it is isolated and not too critical, you may be able to treat it at home, or immobilize it and transport the victim to help,” said Dixie Regional Medical Center emergency department physician Dr. Gordon Larsen. “Remember though, some serious problems can be present but not visible.”
Sometimes it is best to call for an ambulance.
Read more tips about preventing accidents in the Living Well column in Thursday’s Southern Utah Life, a section of The Spectrum & Daily News. Story from The Spectrum.com
In a white-knuckle pitcher’s duel, the Dixon, Truman, Fisher & Clifford-sponsored Red Sox defeated the Rays 1-0 in extra innings to claim the Lone Mountain Little League Championship in Las Vegas. Both the Rays and the Red Sox played spectacular baseball, but the Red Sox finally broke through to score the game’s only run with two outs in the bottom of the 8th inning. Congratulations to Coach Jon Gallagher, his assistants, and the kids that played more like men than boys throughout an unforgettable championship game.
The Utah Department of Motor Vehicles (Utah DMV / UT DMV) website has all of the manuals and study guides you may need available online. All you need to do is locate the form you are looking for and print it right on your computer. Once you have been brought to the Utah government website of that state DMV, you will be able to find all of the information you are looking for. Select a different state below if you are looking for a different DMV office other than the Utah DMV.
Don’t blindly go take your driver’s license test! When there are DMV Manuals and study guides available and easily accessible here at 4DMV.com. No need to stand online at the DMV just go online and find the DMV information you are looking for.
Get ready for your driving test using our online driver’s education resources, or connect to your local 4DMV.com user guide to find specific manuals and study guides for your DMV driving or commercial certification tests.
You can easily find what manuals and study guides are available online. Some of the manuals and study guides can be downloaded, some can be picked up from your local motor vehicles office and others can be ordered online.
Everything you need including DMV forms, online title and registration, license plates, car insurance, driving records, and other vehicle related reports and information is available right here on 4DMV.com.
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