Front wheel drive cars. I remember when they were a novelty. I had a 1966 Toronado, reputedly the first major front wheel drive. And the common wisdom then was to put the snow tires on the front. My guess is that is still the common wisdom. Actually, it is the common misconception.
All tire manufacturers agree that the tires with the best traction must be on the back. If not when your car begins to fishtail or hydroplane, you won’t be able to steer out of the skid and you will be in a spin.
We have a new web home, http://car-accident-rain.com Odd time of year to focus on rain accidents, but the dynamics are the same. Snow and rain make your car hydroplane. If you begin to skid, you will be able to control it if you have the better traction on the back. If you have the better traction the front, you are in serious trouble.
Any tire installer that put the new tires or the snow tires on the front, has committed a negligent act that could kill or seriously injure. Insist on the better tires in back.
If someone you know got hurt in a skidding accident, call us to see if it was the tire installers fault.
Hydroplaning Wreck In Illinois
With the coming of the rainy weather comes a big uptick in hydroplaning wrecks. The news today fortunately didn’t involve serious injury but it should be a gentle reminder of how dangerous the combination of mismatching your tires can be.
In Abingdon, Illinois a car slid on wet pavement and ended in a ditch. According to the Galesburg Register-Mail Newspaper the car had three occupants and luckily no one suffered major injuries. For more information, click here: http://www.galesburg.com/news/x1699610454/Wet-pavement-lands-car-in-ditch
The Galesburg Register cited “speeding” as being a potential factor that caused the car to hydroplane.
It is important to know that hydroplaning wrecks become more devastating and the risk of such accidents grow exponentially as speed increases. Far too many of these wrecks are ignored because the most injured party is thought to be at fault.
However, failing to properly investigate the tire installation fact in a hydroplaning wreck is a huge mistake. All manufacturers recommendations state that the new tires should go on the back. If new tires are installed on the front (the myth as to what should be done) the sellers or installers of such tires are clearly liable for all injuries.
In Abingdon, Illinois a car slid on wet pavement and ended in a ditch. According to the Galesburg Register-Mail Newspaper the car had three occupants and luckily no one suffered major injuries. For more information, click here: http://www.galesburg.com/news/x1699610454/Wet-pavement-lands-car-in-ditch
The Galesburg Register cited “speeding” as being a potential factor that caused the car to hydroplane.
It is important to know that hydroplaning wrecks become more devastating and the risk of such accidents grow exponentially as speed increases. Far too many of these wrecks are ignored because the most injured party is thought to be at fault.
However, failing to properly investigate the tire installation fact in a hydroplaning wreck is a huge mistake. All manufacturers recommendations state that the new tires should go on the back. If new tires are installed on the front (the myth as to what should be done) the sellers or installers of such tires are clearly liable for all injuries.
Now We Trust our Tires to the Chinese?
Chinese Products and American Public Safety? Where have I heard those two concepts together before? Was it heparin? The deaths of potentially thousands of American because Baxter imported contaminated heparin to the U.S. http://heparin-law.com Then there was the lead in toys, the baby formula scandal, even Chinese drywall. Now we learn that our tires are coming from the Chinese. We learn this because President Obama has decided to slap an import duty on those tires because of unfair trade practices. See the Washington Post Article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/11/AR2009091103973.html
According to the Post, Obama imposed this import duty because of American union complaints:
Here is what we learned about Chinese manufacturing practices, with something as potentially toxic as an IV medicine, from what our own government has labeled the “Heparin Catastrophe.”
First, an American corporation, Baxter, decided to import from China a drug put directly into the veins of our sickest people to make a few extra pennies on the sale of each dose. Second, Baxter knew at the time they made this decision that it could take as much as 30 years for the FDA to get around to inspecting the Chinese plant. Three, they knew at such time that the single biggest problem with importing drugs was contaminants and counterfeiting. Four, they knew or should have known that no one in the plant in China that was producing Heparin had any specialized knowledge of how to make Heparin. Five, they knew that the purity test that they were using for Heparin was not sensitive enough to catch contaminants.
I don’t know all of the details but I would guess that the story is the same for lead in toys, drywall and baby formula. Greed takes precedence over quality control. Buy the cheap stuff from China, make more corporate profits. Well there is a reason it is cheaper – it isn’t the same product. When you sacrifice quality control you not only get crap, you are compromising safety.
If you apply the lessons of Heparin to tires, it could be just as scary. 46 million tire failures could add up to thousands of lives. Tires are one of the single biggest causes of motor vehicle accidents, especially the kind where the accidents don’t involve clear negligence by either driver. See http://fishtail.tv. The problem with manufacturing in China, you don’t know that the Chinese are competent to manufacture to our specifications for safety. You don’t know if someone in the Chinese supply chain is intentionally counterfeiting one of the esssential raw materials or chemicals needed to make the tire safe. You don’t have any meaningful way to ensure safety.
Chinese tires not only could cost American jobs, they could cost American lives.
According to the Post, Obama imposed this import duty because of American union complaints:
The United Steelworkers union, which represents workers at many U.S. tire production plants, filed a petition earlier this year asking for the protection.The jobs are undoubtedly important and it is clearly time for the U.S. to start protecting American jobs. But when I read this story, I can’t help but shudder about Chinese tires. As I said in my last blog: “Everything is riding on those tires.” How can we trust the Chinese to build a tire that you would want to entrust your families safety to? Is that just nationalistic crap, chest beating? I think not.
It said a tripling of tire imports from China to about 46 million in 2008 from about 15 million in 2004 had cost more than 5,000 U.S. tire worker jobs.
An additional 35 percent duty will be placed for a year on Chinese-made passenger vehicle and light truck tires, the White House said in a statement.
Here is what we learned about Chinese manufacturing practices, with something as potentially toxic as an IV medicine, from what our own government has labeled the “Heparin Catastrophe.”
First, an American corporation, Baxter, decided to import from China a drug put directly into the veins of our sickest people to make a few extra pennies on the sale of each dose. Second, Baxter knew at the time they made this decision that it could take as much as 30 years for the FDA to get around to inspecting the Chinese plant. Three, they knew at such time that the single biggest problem with importing drugs was contaminants and counterfeiting. Four, they knew or should have known that no one in the plant in China that was producing Heparin had any specialized knowledge of how to make Heparin. Five, they knew that the purity test that they were using for Heparin was not sensitive enough to catch contaminants.
I don’t know all of the details but I would guess that the story is the same for lead in toys, drywall and baby formula. Greed takes precedence over quality control. Buy the cheap stuff from China, make more corporate profits. Well there is a reason it is cheaper – it isn’t the same product. When you sacrifice quality control you not only get crap, you are compromising safety.
If you apply the lessons of Heparin to tires, it could be just as scary. 46 million tire failures could add up to thousands of lives. Tires are one of the single biggest causes of motor vehicle accidents, especially the kind where the accidents don’t involve clear negligence by either driver. See http://fishtail.tv. The problem with manufacturing in China, you don’t know that the Chinese are competent to manufacture to our specifications for safety. You don’t know if someone in the Chinese supply chain is intentionally counterfeiting one of the esssential raw materials or chemicals needed to make the tire safe. You don’t have any meaningful way to ensure safety.
Chinese tires not only could cost American jobs, they could cost American lives.
Michelin Tires Blamed in $12 million lawsuit
Every trial lawyer has known the frustration of the potential client with catastrophic injuries in a one car accident or an accident where there was no adequate insurance. The driver of the car is either the actual victim or is insufficiently insured to compensate the injured person or persons. But before the lawyer closes that file, he must ask where does the actual fault lie? In thousands of cases, its the tires. In only a few does someone think to look, or look at all of the right issues.
For the victims of Michelin’s negligence in Brownsville, Texas, the lawyer got it right. According to the Brownsville Herald, a jury has ordered Michelin to pay nearly $12 million after finding that faulty tires caused a wreck that killed six people. http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/raymondville-102219-jury-tire.html According to this story:
For the victims of Michelin’s negligence in Brownsville, Texas, the lawyer got it right. According to the Brownsville Herald, a jury has ordered Michelin to pay nearly $12 million after finding that faulty tires caused a wreck that killed six people. http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/raymondville-102219-jury-tire.html According to this story:
A Willacy County jury returned an $11.96 million judgment against the nation’s largest tire maker Thursday, after finding defective tires caused a wreck that killed six people and left a 12-year-old boy paralyzed.Always look at the tires in every severe motor vehicle wreck case. We have written on this many times before including our entire webpage about hydroplaning accidents at http://fishtail.tv The true fault may lie with the tires – “there is a lot riding on those tires”.
The panel found that a manufacturing flaw in a Goodrich tire — made by South Carolina-based Michelin North America — substantially contributed to the New Year’s Eve 2006 crash that occurred just outside Matamoros.
The tire on a 2002 Ford F-250 pickup truck driven by the family of then 10-year-old Jesus Guzman separated from its tread, causing the vehicle to swerve into oncoming traffic, according to court documents. The truck collided with a Chevrolet Suburban killing all six passengers inside the SUV.
Obama auto task force shifts to automaker owner
I applaud the government intervention to save the U.S. auto industry. Compared to the money that was spent on saving Wallstreet, this effort to preserve the heart of the American industrial power and American Union jobs, is the good fight. Yet, one thing that cannot get lost in this shuffle to remake the auto industry is the progress that has been made on auto safety. Cars are safer than they were a generation ago. But just because the government is the principal shareholder in GM, meaning “we” are the principal shareholder in GM, doesn’t mean that the commitment to making cars safer should be a lower priority.
If you make a product, you must make it safe. If you don’t the tort law should hold you accountable for that failure. If the failure is outrageous, then you should also be punished.
I do not believe that the Federal Government being shareholders in a company means it can’t be run as efficiently. But the only way to make any company truly profitable is to makes its products better, which means safer, too.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
http://fishtail.tv
Date: 7/15/2009 4:01 PM
KEN THOMAS,Associated Press Writers
STEPHEN MANNING,Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) — When it brokered the restructuring of Chrysler and General Motors, President Barack Obama’s auto task force repeatedly pledged that it would steer clear of running a car company.
But with both companies exiting bankruptcy with the federal government as a major shareholder, that promise will be put to the test as the task force shifts roles from negotiator to owner.
The government could face a number of pitfalls: It could be tempted to insert itself into the day-to-day operations or sway management if auto sales continue to slide and carmakers’ financial woes continue. Lawmakers may try to use the government’s ownership as a way to push their own interests, such as making more fuel efficient cars. And the administration will need to sell its stake as quickly as possible.
“I take them at their word that they don’t want to run an auto company, the question is whether they will get dragged into it,” said Martin Zimmerman, a University of Michigan business professor who studies the auto industry. “There is a significant chance that will happen.”
Appointed by Obama in February, the task force includes representatives of cabinet members and economic advisers. It is officially headed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, the director of the National Economic Council. But much of the work was overseen by two senior advisers, Steven Rattner and Ron Bloom. Rattner stepped down last week, leaving Bloom as the leader.
Wielding power in public companies once thought unimaginable, the government panel’s efforts laid the groundwork for quick bankruptcies that helped Chrysler and GM emerge with smaller debt loads, reduced work forces and streamlined brands and dealer networks.
In the process, roughly $65 billion in government loans and aid was sunk into the two companies. Under the restructuring plans, the government now owns about 8 percent of Chrysler and 61 percent of GM.
Rattner stressed again last week that the task force plans to take a hands-off approach, saying that it wasn’t interested in “picking colors of cars.” But he noted that with such a large financial interest, the government would take a role similar to a large institutional investor.
“We have fiduciary responsibilities to the taxpayers to ensure that investment is well looked after. We will interact with GM, its management and board,” Rattner said.
Both companies face a brutal car market and numerous competitors seeking buyers in a depleted market. Auto companies are on pace to sell about 9.7 million vehicles in the U.S. this year compared with sales of more than 16 million vehicles in 2007. If the bleak conditions persist, it could increase pressure on the government to play a more active role.
Some supporters of the auto industry expect the task force to maintain its arms-length distance, crediting it with giving the two companies new life without inserting itself too much into the way Chrysler and GM conduct their business.
“They have the job to improve the foundations for restructuring without making decisions that require expertise about how you make a car,” said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich. “That’s the difference. How you manage is different than how you make a car.”
But critics worry that the task force has wielded too much influence and may do so again.
The plight of hundreds of shuttered auto dealers offers a window into the pressures the administration could face. GM and Chrysler are closing nearly 3,000 dealerships, moves supported by the administration. Key lawmakers including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., oppose the action, saying it evades state franchise laws and will lead to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.
“This whole notion is that some brainiac down at the task force came up with the idea that Toyota sells a lot of cars and they have less dealers and therefore we should make GM and Chrysler look like Toyota. It’s stupid,” said Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio.
The White House said Wednesday it opposed the attempts to restore the GM and Chrysler franchise agreements.
Gerald Meyers, former chairman of American Motors Corp., said the temptation to meddle with the type of cars the companies make, where factories are located, and who runs the automakers, may be too great for the Obama administration and Congress to resist.
“It isn’t in the DNA of the government to stay out,” he said.
For example, House Republicans have questioned GM CEO Fritz Henderson about the company’s decision to maintain a parts distribution center in the district of Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Frank had urged Henderson to keep the facility open. And the administration’s firing of GM CEO Rick Wagoner also looms large.
Administration officials said they want to dispose of the government’s ownership interests as soon as practicable. While the U.S. stake is much smaller in Chrysler — the company is now aligned with Italian automaker Fiat — there will be intense scrutiny on the government’s share of GM.
GM is expected to conduct in initial public offering in 2010 and its shares would need to grow in value for the government to break-even or make money.
“We are not trying to be Warren Buffett here. We are not trying to squeeze every last dollar out,” Rattner said before his departure. “We do want to do well for the taxpayers but the most important thing is to get the government out of the car business.”
The Congressional Budget Office has provided a pessimistic outlook for a full refund, estimating last month that only about $15 billion of the initial $55 billion to GM, Chrysler, its financing arms and suppliers would be repaid. The analysis did not include the $30 billion GM received to help it navigate bankruptcy.
Also unclear is how long the task force will continue to exist. Some lawmakers, such as Rep. Gary Peters, D-Mich., want it to tackle lingering problems of other segments of the auto sector, such as extending loans to auto parts suppliers that are struggling as GM and Chrysler cut back.
Rattner said that the task force will “inevitably get smaller” as it shifts to monitoring the federal government’s investment in Chrysler and GM.
Bloom was an adviser for the United Steelworkers union before coming to Washington, helping guide it through a similar restructuring of the steel industry. His former boss, union vice president Tom Conway, said he has a firm grasp of manufacturing issues. But he wondered how long Bloom would stay with the task force, especially n ow that most of the difficult negotiating is over.
“You get this thing done and signed off on, you get a new management team in there and you move on,” he said of restructuring deals.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
If you make a product, you must make it safe. If you don’t the tort law should hold you accountable for that failure. If the failure is outrageous, then you should also be punished.
I do not believe that the Federal Government being shareholders in a company means it can’t be run as efficiently. But the only way to make any company truly profitable is to makes its products better, which means safer, too.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
http://fishtail.tv
Date: 7/15/2009 4:01 PM
KEN THOMAS,Associated Press Writers
STEPHEN MANNING,Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) — When it brokered the restructuring of Chrysler and General Motors, President Barack Obama’s auto task force repeatedly pledged that it would steer clear of running a car company.
But with both companies exiting bankruptcy with the federal government as a major shareholder, that promise will be put to the test as the task force shifts roles from negotiator to owner.
The government could face a number of pitfalls: It could be tempted to insert itself into the day-to-day operations or sway management if auto sales continue to slide and carmakers’ financial woes continue. Lawmakers may try to use the government’s ownership as a way to push their own interests, such as making more fuel efficient cars. And the administration will need to sell its stake as quickly as possible.
“I take them at their word that they don’t want to run an auto company, the question is whether they will get dragged into it,” said Martin Zimmerman, a University of Michigan business professor who studies the auto industry. “There is a significant chance that will happen.”
Appointed by Obama in February, the task force includes representatives of cabinet members and economic advisers. It is officially headed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, the director of the National Economic Council. But much of the work was overseen by two senior advisers, Steven Rattner and Ron Bloom. Rattner stepped down last week, leaving Bloom as the leader.
Wielding power in public companies once thought unimaginable, the government panel’s efforts laid the groundwork for quick bankruptcies that helped Chrysler and GM emerge with smaller debt loads, reduced work forces and streamlined brands and dealer networks.
In the process, roughly $65 billion in government loans and aid was sunk into the two companies. Under the restructuring plans, the government now owns about 8 percent of Chrysler and 61 percent of GM.
Rattner stressed again last week that the task force plans to take a hands-off approach, saying that it wasn’t interested in “picking colors of cars.” But he noted that with such a large financial interest, the government would take a role similar to a large institutional investor.
“We have fiduciary responsibilities to the taxpayers to ensure that investment is well looked after. We will interact with GM, its management and board,” Rattner said.
Both companies face a brutal car market and numerous competitors seeking buyers in a depleted market. Auto companies are on pace to sell about 9.7 million vehicles in the U.S. this year compared with sales of more than 16 million vehicles in 2007. If the bleak conditions persist, it could increase pressure on the government to play a more active role.
Some supporters of the auto industry expect the task force to maintain its arms-length distance, crediting it with giving the two companies new life without inserting itself too much into the way Chrysler and GM conduct their business.
“They have the job to improve the foundations for restructuring without making decisions that require expertise about how you make a car,” said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich. “That’s the difference. How you manage is different than how you make a car.”
But critics worry that the task force has wielded too much influence and may do so again.
The plight of hundreds of shuttered auto dealers offers a window into the pressures the administration could face. GM and Chrysler are closing nearly 3,000 dealerships, moves supported by the administration. Key lawmakers including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., oppose the action, saying it evades state franchise laws and will lead to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.
“This whole notion is that some brainiac down at the task force came up with the idea that Toyota sells a lot of cars and they have less dealers and therefore we should make GM and Chrysler look like Toyota. It’s stupid,” said Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio.
The White House said Wednesday it opposed the attempts to restore the GM and Chrysler franchise agreements.
Gerald Meyers, former chairman of American Motors Corp., said the temptation to meddle with the type of cars the companies make, where factories are located, and who runs the automakers, may be too great for the Obama administration and Congress to resist.
“It isn’t in the DNA of the government to stay out,” he said.
For example, House Republicans have questioned GM CEO Fritz Henderson about the company’s decision to maintain a parts distribution center in the district of Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Frank had urged Henderson to keep the facility open. And the administration’s firing of GM CEO Rick Wagoner also looms large.
Administration officials said they want to dispose of the government’s ownership interests as soon as practicable. While the U.S. stake is much smaller in Chrysler — the company is now aligned with Italian automaker Fiat — there will be intense scrutiny on the government’s share of GM.
GM is expected to conduct in initial public offering in 2010 and its shares would need to grow in value for the government to break-even or make money.
“We are not trying to be Warren Buffett here. We are not trying to squeeze every last dollar out,” Rattner said before his departure. “We do want to do well for the taxpayers but the most important thing is to get the government out of the car business.”
The Congressional Budget Office has provided a pessimistic outlook for a full refund, estimating last month that only about $15 billion of the initial $55 billion to GM, Chrysler, its financing arms and suppliers would be repaid. The analysis did not include the $30 billion GM received to help it navigate bankruptcy.
Also unclear is how long the task force will continue to exist. Some lawmakers, such as Rep. Gary Peters, D-Mich., want it to tackle lingering problems of other segments of the auto sector, such as extending loans to auto parts suppliers that are struggling as GM and Chrysler cut back.
Rattner said that the task force will “inevitably get smaller” as it shifts to monitoring the federal government’s investment in Chrysler and GM.
Bloom was an adviser for the United Steelworkers union before coming to Washington, helping guide it through a similar restructuring of the steel industry. His former boss, union vice president Tom Conway, said he has a firm grasp of manufacturing issues. But he wondered how long Bloom would stay with the task force, especially n ow that most of the difficult negotiating is over.
“You get this thing done and signed off on, you get a new management team in there and you move on,” he said of restructuring deals.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Church bus crash kills 1 in Miss.; 23 injured
It is an old advertising slogan “so much is riding on your tires.” The below story of a Mississippi fatal bus crash proves that point.
We have often blogged on this topic, but buses are not just tragic for the death that flows from them, but also the high probability of brain injury in such wrecks. No seat belts, no airbags, none of the safety engineering that has reduced the risk of brain injury so dramatically in passenger cars. We pray that those attending the injured do more than push pain killers and look for the obvious injury, but also ask probing questions of memory and cognitive function, so that any subtle brain injury is identified.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://fishtail.tv
http://subtlebraininjury.com
Date: 7/12/2009 7:27 PM
MERIDIAN, Miss. (AP) — A bus carrying a church youth group from Louisiana to Georgia flipped Sunday on Interstate 20 in Mississippi, killing one person and injuring 23 others, a coroner said.
The bus, from First Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., rolled three times around 10:20 a.m. near Meridian and trapped at least two people underneath, Lauderdale County Coroner Clayton Cobler III said.
“It had a blowout,” Cobler said.
At least two passengers were trapped underneath the bus. A group of National Guard soldiers was on the highway at the time and helped extricate the injured.
“The National Guardsmen actually picked the bus up off the two people and got them out,” Cobler said.
An 18-year-old male was pronounced dead at a hospital, Cobler said. His name was not released.
Three people were airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, including one with severe head injuries, while the others were being treated at three hospitals in Meridian, the coroner said.
Cobler said injuries ranged from severe pelvic, back, and chest injuries to scrapes and scratches.
An official at Regency Hospital of Meridian said six people were taken there and another official at Rush Foundation Hospital said 13 people were being treated there, but neither would release the conditions of the crash victims.
Church officials told The Shreveport Times newspaper that the bus was headed to a weeklong youth event near Atlanta called “Passport.”
Phone messages left with the Mississippi Highway Patrol and Birmingham, Ala.-based Passport Inc. were not immediately returned.
The congregation learned of the accident shortly before Sunday morning worship and used the occasion to rally together in prayer.
“Our congregation is leaning on our faith and confidence in God,” First Baptist senior pastor Greg Hunt said.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
We have often blogged on this topic, but buses are not just tragic for the death that flows from them, but also the high probability of brain injury in such wrecks. No seat belts, no airbags, none of the safety engineering that has reduced the risk of brain injury so dramatically in passenger cars. We pray that those attending the injured do more than push pain killers and look for the obvious injury, but also ask probing questions of memory and cognitive function, so that any subtle brain injury is identified.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://fishtail.tv
http://subtlebraininjury.com
Date: 7/12/2009 7:27 PM
MERIDIAN, Miss. (AP) — A bus carrying a church youth group from Louisiana to Georgia flipped Sunday on Interstate 20 in Mississippi, killing one person and injuring 23 others, a coroner said.
The bus, from First Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., rolled three times around 10:20 a.m. near Meridian and trapped at least two people underneath, Lauderdale County Coroner Clayton Cobler III said.
“It had a blowout,” Cobler said.
At least two passengers were trapped underneath the bus. A group of National Guard soldiers was on the highway at the time and helped extricate the injured.
“The National Guardsmen actually picked the bus up off the two people and got them out,” Cobler said.
An 18-year-old male was pronounced dead at a hospital, Cobler said. His name was not released.
Three people were airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, including one with severe head injuries, while the others were being treated at three hospitals in Meridian, the coroner said.
Cobler said injuries ranged from severe pelvic, back, and chest injuries to scrapes and scratches.
An official at Regency Hospital of Meridian said six people were taken there and another official at Rush Foundation Hospital said 13 people were being treated there, but neither would release the conditions of the crash victims.
Church officials told The Shreveport Times newspaper that the bus was headed to a weeklong youth event near Atlanta called “Passport.”
Phone messages left with the Mississippi Highway Patrol and Birmingham, Ala.-based Passport Inc. were not immediately returned.
The congregation learned of the accident shortly before Sunday morning worship and used the occasion to rally together in prayer.
“Our congregation is leaning on our faith and confidence in God,” First Baptist senior pastor Greg Hunt said.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Researchers study ‘personality traits’ of cars
Just a reminder, if you replace only two of the tires on your car, the new tires go on the back.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://fishtail.tv
BILL KACZOR,Associated Press Writer
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://fishtail.tv
BILL KACZOR,Associated Press Writer
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The butterfly decals on the front bumper, flowers in the dashboard vase and lime-green paint job only confirmed Dennis Slice’s perception of a Volkswagen Beetle parked in a lot at Florida State University.
Slice, a shape analysis researcher, said the narrow body, wide-eyed circular headlights, tall windshield and curve of the bug’s hood match the facial features of a smiling woman or child.
“This is the classic cute car — not dominant, not aggressive,” said Slice, an associate professor of scientific computing at FSU. “I don’t think anyone could be mean to someone else in a Volkswagen Beetle.”
Slice and fellow researchers at Austria’s Vienna University, where he’s a guest professor, are exploring the widely held belief that cars project personalities because they look like human faces when viewed head-on.
Cartoonists, for instance, long have drawn anthropomorphic cars with toothy grills that grinned or frowned and headlights that winked or blinked. The creators of the recent animated film “Cars,” though, used windshields for eyes. They were afraid headlight peepers would have given racer Lightning McQueen and other denizens of Radiator Springs a snakelike appearance.
Three cars parked near the Beetle offer examples of the opposite end of the personality spectrum. A Mitsubishi Eclipse, Ford Mustang and Dodge Charger each practically ooze testosterone.
Their low, wide stances, long hoods, gaping grills and relatively narrow headlights give each of these sporty models a look that’s consistent with the facial features of an adult male, Slice said. Each projects a mature, dominant, aggressive and powerful personality.
“This is a car that’s ready to take care of business,” he said standing in front of the Eclipse. “You don’t want to mess with this car.”
Slice and his Vienna colleagues hope their work one day may help designers determine what parts of a car, such as the headlights, grill or windshield, they can change — and how — to project traits that make cars more appealing to different kinds of customers.
They’re taking the emerging field of shape analysis, or morphometrics, in a new direction. Most other applications have been biological or medical. For example, researchers are trying to determine if bone shapes can be used to help identify the age, gender and race of unknown human remains and how variations in facial features affect the fit and function of respirators.
The idea of seeing faces in inanimate objects is part of a survival instinct that goes back to prehistoric times, Slice said.
Facial features offering clues about a person’s sex, age, emotions and intentions helped early humans “know whether the guy that just stepped out of the bushes is going to take your head back for a trophy or invite you to lunch,” Slice said.
Those identifications are so important that people also tend to see faces even where they don’t exist.
“If you get it wrong and you see a face in a cloud or a stone or a mountain or some burnt toast then you might be frightened a little bit, but it’s no real cost to you,” Slice said. “But if you should ever miss a face and that person wants your head, then that’s a serious omission.”
Slice said future research may look at whether cars’ personalities relate to drivers’ habits and interactions.
“Possibilities are if you see an aggressive car in your rear view mirror you may be more like to pull over and yield to it,” he said. “By the same token, if you see a submissive or more immature car trying to get into traffic you may be more likely to yield to it and help the innocent little car get into traffic.”
Another question is whether drivers have the same personalities as their cars.
Slice got a bit of anecdotal evidence in the parking lot from Gwen Oliver, a custodial supervisor at Florida State, after telling her that her black Eclipse is dominant, aggressive, powerful and “ready to take care of business.”
“I am. Everything you said, I’m like that,” Oliver told him after she briskly walked over to see why he was interested in her car. “I’m aggressive, I’m straightforward and I’m outgoing and I believe in getting the job done.”
___
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
GM to build compact cars in US; UAW OKs contract
Date: 5/29/2009
TOM KRISHER
AP Auto Writer
DETROIT (AP) — The reformation of General Motors Corp. is in high gear.
The automaker said Friday that it plans to reopen a shuttered U.S. factory to build subcompact cars that will be the smallest vehicles GM has ever produced here. An element of the company’s shift from hulking SUVs to more gas-sipping microcars, the move comes as GM’s prepares to announce the fate of the poster child for gas guzzlers, the Hummer brand.
Meanwhile, as expected, the United Auto Workers ratified a package of concessions designed to reduce the automaker’s labor costs.
In Germany, the government and GM agreed on the framework of a deal for Magna International Inc. to take a majority stake in GM’s Opel unit, a person briefed on the negotiations said.
With an expected Chapter 11 filing looming, GM’s shares sunk below $1. The stock is expected to become worthless when GM reorganizes in bankruptcy court. GM’s filing for bankruptcy protection is expected Monday, when GM also plans to announce it will close 14 more factories, including four assembly plants.
A person briefed on GM’s plans said the small cars would be built at one of those plants. The person, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the plans, said GM has not determined which plant will get the new cars.
The retooled factory will be able to build 160,000 cars per year, GM said. It would create 1,200 jobs, the person said, offsetting some of the 21,000 that will be lost when GM closes the 14 factories by the end of next year.
The move to build the subcompact in the U.S. follows a firestorm caused by GM’s plans to produce up to 51,000 subcompacts per year in China and ship them to the U.S. starting in 2011, disclosed in documents submitted to Congress.
GM already builds the compact Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 at a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and it plans to retool that plant to start making a new small car, the Chevrolet Cruze, next year. It also jointly manufactures the Pontiac Vibe, a rebadged Toyota Matrix, at a factory in Fremont, Calif.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said GM will not import the cars from China and had agreed as part of a concession deal to build them in the U.S.
On Friday, Gettelfinger said at a news conference that 74 percent of GM’s 54,000 U.S. production and skilled-trade workers voted in favor of the deal. Reaching a deal with the union was one of the conditions imposed on GM by the Obama administration’s auto task force. Originally meant to help keep the automaker out of bankruptcy court, bankruptcy experts say having the labor agreement in place will help move the process through court more quickly.
The UAW says the cuts will save GM $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion a year.
GM has received $19.4 billion in federal loans and likely will get another $30 billion from the U.S. government as it makes its way through the bankruptcy court process.
In Berlin, negotiators were working out the final details of the Opel deal and an announcement could come within hours, said the person familiar with the negotiations, who did not want to be identified because talks had not yet finished.
Magna would provide short-term financing to become the preferred negotiating partner for Opel. The German government would put up a euro1.5 billion ($2.1 billion) bridge loan that would be repaid when the deal is closed.
Germany is looking for an agreement that will shield Opel — which employs 25,000 people in Germany, nearly half GM Europe’s work force — from a looming GM bankruptcy court filing in the U.S. and extensive restructuring.
The government wants to make it legally independent under a trustee so that any taxpayer assistance does not go to the U.S., then would provide bridge financing while Opel looks for a new, permanent owner.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
TOM KRISHER
AP Auto Writer
DETROIT (AP) — The reformation of General Motors Corp. is in high gear.
The automaker said Friday that it plans to reopen a shuttered U.S. factory to build subcompact cars that will be the smallest vehicles GM has ever produced here. An element of the company’s shift from hulking SUVs to more gas-sipping microcars, the move comes as GM’s prepares to announce the fate of the poster child for gas guzzlers, the Hummer brand.
Meanwhile, as expected, the United Auto Workers ratified a package of concessions designed to reduce the automaker’s labor costs.
In Germany, the government and GM agreed on the framework of a deal for Magna International Inc. to take a majority stake in GM’s Opel unit, a person briefed on the negotiations said.
With an expected Chapter 11 filing looming, GM’s shares sunk below $1. The stock is expected to become worthless when GM reorganizes in bankruptcy court. GM’s filing for bankruptcy protection is expected Monday, when GM also plans to announce it will close 14 more factories, including four assembly plants.
A person briefed on GM’s plans said the small cars would be built at one of those plants. The person, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the plans, said GM has not determined which plant will get the new cars.
The retooled factory will be able to build 160,000 cars per year, GM said. It would create 1,200 jobs, the person said, offsetting some of the 21,000 that will be lost when GM closes the 14 factories by the end of next year.
The move to build the subcompact in the U.S. follows a firestorm caused by GM’s plans to produce up to 51,000 subcompacts per year in China and ship them to the U.S. starting in 2011, disclosed in documents submitted to Congress.
GM already builds the compact Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 at a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and it plans to retool that plant to start making a new small car, the Chevrolet Cruze, next year. It also jointly manufactures the Pontiac Vibe, a rebadged Toyota Matrix, at a factory in Fremont, Calif.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said GM will not import the cars from China and had agreed as part of a concession deal to build them in the U.S.
On Friday, Gettelfinger said at a news conference that 74 percent of GM’s 54,000 U.S. production and skilled-trade workers voted in favor of the deal. Reaching a deal with the union was one of the conditions imposed on GM by the Obama administration’s auto task force. Originally meant to help keep the automaker out of bankruptcy court, bankruptcy experts say having the labor agreement in place will help move the process through court more quickly.
The UAW says the cuts will save GM $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion a year.
GM has received $19.4 billion in federal loans and likely will get another $30 billion from the U.S. government as it makes its way through the bankruptcy court process.
In Berlin, negotiators were working out the final details of the Opel deal and an announcement could come within hours, said the person familiar with the negotiations, who did not want to be identified because talks had not yet finished.
Magna would provide short-term financing to become the preferred negotiating partner for Opel. The German government would put up a euro1.5 billion ($2.1 billion) bridge loan that would be repaid when the deal is closed.
Germany is looking for an agreement that will shield Opel — which employs 25,000 people in Germany, nearly half GM Europe’s work force — from a looming GM bankruptcy court filing in the U.S. and extensive restructuring.
The government wants to make it legally independent under a trustee so that any taxpayer assistance does not go to the U.S., then would provide bridge financing while Opel looks for a new, permanent owner.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Red-Light Cameras Increase Rear-End Crashes
Date: 3/13/2009
CLIVE, Iowa (AP) — Minutes after Neel Manglik illegally turned right on a red light in the Des Moines suburb of Clive, a video popped up on a computer at an office park outside Scottsdale, Ariz.
The $75 citation arrived in the mail weeks later, making Manglik one of the millions of Americans ticketed as part of a growing industry that is making handsome profits for companies that operate video cameras at busy intersections throughout the nation.
As more cities sign up and others invest their profits into more cameras, those companies expect increased revenue for years to come.
What’s less clear is whether the cameras improve safety. While studies show fewer T-bone crashes at lights with cameras and fewer drivers running red lights, the number of rear-end crashes increases.
Aaron Quinn, spokesman for the Wisconsin-based National Motorists Association, said there are cheaper safety alternatives to red-light cameras, including lengthening yellow-light times.
“We say, the red-light camera wouldn’t have stopped anyone from getting hit,” Quinn said. “Once (a city) sees one city getting it miles away, and that first city makes a bunch of money, they want to do it, too. It’s like a virus.”
Albany, Ore., population 48,000, issued 1,119 traffic camera tickets for $77,200 in 2008. By comparison, in 2006 only 4,000 tickets were issued for all traffic infractions.
In St. Peters, Mo., a city of 55,000, red-light cameras resulted in 3,203 tickets issued from January 2007 to September 2008, and drew a total of $235,973. The city issued 14,836 traffic tickets in fiscal year 2006, but that jumped to 21,745 in 2008, the first full fiscal year with the cameras.
Clive Police Chief Robert Cox said there’s no doubt the cameras are a cheaper option than having an officer on the street.
“With the number of calls for service our city generates, we can’t devote that much time to red-light enforcement,” Cox said. “We were missing a lot of violations.”
But not all cities make money off of the tickets. Contracts between companies and cities can affect how much money the cities get.
In Clive, for instance, the red-light camera program generated $39,548.65 between July 2006 and March 2007, but all of that money went to the camera company because Clive didn’t ticket enough drivers in any single month to make money. Clive has since changed its contract and now gets a percentage of each ticket.
The largest red-light camera company, Redflex Traffic Systems of Scottsdale, operates red-light or speed cameras in 22 states, and added 79 cities last year. It signed a $32 million maintenance contract with Chicago last fall, and in just the last three weeks of last year, Redflex added five new cities.
Redflex saw net, after-tax profits of $10.6 million in fiscal year 2008, up from $7.3 million the year before.
That ticket in Clive shows why: More than half of the $75 fine went to Redflex.
“That’s ridiculous,” said Ashok Manglik, a physician who paid his wife’s ticket. “Why should it go to the camera company? At least 90 percent should go to the city.”
Some cities, such as Orlando and Atlanta, put all the money back into the program so they don’t profit from issuing tickets.
“It was a concern,” said Mike Rhodes, manager of the Orlando’s Code Enforcement Division. “Without casting aspersions on vendors, we didn’t want to be seen as having any incentive to issue these tickets.”
Plenty of people have been getting tickets in Orlando.
The city issued 785 “failure to obey a traffic signal” tickets — their equivalent of a red-light violation — between Sept. 1, 2007, and Dec. 31, 2007. But after the cameras were installed in September 2008, Orlando issued 8,250 tickets through its red-light camera program during that four-month period.
The Clive ticket demonstrates how the system works:
A Redflex camera spotted the violation by Manglik, then sent a video to an employee in Arizona who trained for a week to recognize violations. The employee checked municipal laws and approved the initial violation, and the video was then passed to another Redflex worker, who checked the vehicle against a motor-vehicle database to see if the car and tags match. A third employee approved the final evaluation and alerted an officer in Clive, who made the ticket official.
Clive police approve more than 90 percent of violations passed on by Redflex, excluding obvious mistakes such as ambulances and funeral processions. Redflex encourages cities to use signs and provides them to its customers.
“There’s very few rejected because it’s reviewed three or four times by Redflex,” Clive police Lt. Gary Walker said.
The camera companies, participating cities and nonprofit Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, a group funded by auto insurers, argue that the cameras save lives and ultimately cut costs. They estimate the cameras save about $14 billion annually, largely by reducing emergency-room trips, lowering insurance rates and cutting medical bills.
“I say if you sell fire extinguishers or smoke detectors or bulletproof vests that save police officers’ lives and you can make a buck off this, God bless you,” said Richard A. Retting, a former senior transportation engineer and lead researcher who left the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety in September. “How communities work out the details of those finances is up to them.”
A 2005 study by the Federal Highway Safety Administration found that after installation of red-light cameras, right-angle or T-bone crashes dropped 28 percent, while rear-end crashes climbed 8 percent.
The researchers found that with property damage included, each site saw a $40,000 per year drop in damage.
Retting said there’s no debate that the cameras cut down on red-light running but that their effect on crash severity is less certain.
In Clive, one of the cameras was responsible for giving Richard Tarlton his first ticket in more than 60 years of driving. But the 76-year-old said that as long as the cameras help police become more efficient, he’s all for it.
“If the policemen use their time and do police work, that’s great,” Tarlton said. “If it’s giving them an extra doughnut and coffee break, then I’m not for it.”
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
CLIVE, Iowa (AP) — Minutes after Neel Manglik illegally turned right on a red light in the Des Moines suburb of Clive, a video popped up on a computer at an office park outside Scottsdale, Ariz.
The $75 citation arrived in the mail weeks later, making Manglik one of the millions of Americans ticketed as part of a growing industry that is making handsome profits for companies that operate video cameras at busy intersections throughout the nation.
As more cities sign up and others invest their profits into more cameras, those companies expect increased revenue for years to come.
What’s less clear is whether the cameras improve safety. While studies show fewer T-bone crashes at lights with cameras and fewer drivers running red lights, the number of rear-end crashes increases.
Aaron Quinn, spokesman for the Wisconsin-based National Motorists Association, said there are cheaper safety alternatives to red-light cameras, including lengthening yellow-light times.
“We say, the red-light camera wouldn’t have stopped anyone from getting hit,” Quinn said. “Once (a city) sees one city getting it miles away, and that first city makes a bunch of money, they want to do it, too. It’s like a virus.”
Albany, Ore., population 48,000, issued 1,119 traffic camera tickets for $77,200 in 2008. By comparison, in 2006 only 4,000 tickets were issued for all traffic infractions.
In St. Peters, Mo., a city of 55,000, red-light cameras resulted in 3,203 tickets issued from January 2007 to September 2008, and drew a total of $235,973. The city issued 14,836 traffic tickets in fiscal year 2006, but that jumped to 21,745 in 2008, the first full fiscal year with the cameras.
Clive Police Chief Robert Cox said there’s no doubt the cameras are a cheaper option than having an officer on the street.
“With the number of calls for service our city generates, we can’t devote that much time to red-light enforcement,” Cox said. “We were missing a lot of violations.”
But not all cities make money off of the tickets. Contracts between companies and cities can affect how much money the cities get.
In Clive, for instance, the red-light camera program generated $39,548.65 between July 2006 and March 2007, but all of that money went to the camera company because Clive didn’t ticket enough drivers in any single month to make money. Clive has since changed its contract and now gets a percentage of each ticket.
The largest red-light camera company, Redflex Traffic Systems of Scottsdale, operates red-light or speed cameras in 22 states, and added 79 cities last year. It signed a $32 million maintenance contract with Chicago last fall, and in just the last three weeks of last year, Redflex added five new cities.
Redflex saw net, after-tax profits of $10.6 million in fiscal year 2008, up from $7.3 million the year before.
That ticket in Clive shows why: More than half of the $75 fine went to Redflex.
“That’s ridiculous,” said Ashok Manglik, a physician who paid his wife’s ticket. “Why should it go to the camera company? At least 90 percent should go to the city.”
Some cities, such as Orlando and Atlanta, put all the money back into the program so they don’t profit from issuing tickets.
“It was a concern,” said Mike Rhodes, manager of the Orlando’s Code Enforcement Division. “Without casting aspersions on vendors, we didn’t want to be seen as having any incentive to issue these tickets.”
Plenty of people have been getting tickets in Orlando.
The city issued 785 “failure to obey a traffic signal” tickets — their equivalent of a red-light violation — between Sept. 1, 2007, and Dec. 31, 2007. But after the cameras were installed in September 2008, Orlando issued 8,250 tickets through its red-light camera program during that four-month period.
The Clive ticket demonstrates how the system works:
A Redflex camera spotted the violation by Manglik, then sent a video to an employee in Arizona who trained for a week to recognize violations. The employee checked municipal laws and approved the initial violation, and the video was then passed to another Redflex worker, who checked the vehicle against a motor-vehicle database to see if the car and tags match. A third employee approved the final evaluation and alerted an officer in Clive, who made the ticket official.
Clive police approve more than 90 percent of violations passed on by Redflex, excluding obvious mistakes such as ambulances and funeral processions. Redflex encourages cities to use signs and provides them to its customers.
“There’s very few rejected because it’s reviewed three or four times by Redflex,” Clive police Lt. Gary Walker said.
The camera companies, participating cities and nonprofit Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, a group funded by auto insurers, argue that the cameras save lives and ultimately cut costs. They estimate the cameras save about $14 billion annually, largely by reducing emergency-room trips, lowering insurance rates and cutting medical bills.
“I say if you sell fire extinguishers or smoke detectors or bulletproof vests that save police officers’ lives and you can make a buck off this, God bless you,” said Richard A. Retting, a former senior transportation engineer and lead researcher who left the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety in September. “How communities work out the details of those finances is up to them.”
A 2005 study by the Federal Highway Safety Administration found that after installation of red-light cameras, right-angle or T-bone crashes dropped 28 percent, while rear-end crashes climbed 8 percent.
The researchers found that with property damage included, each site saw a $40,000 per year drop in damage.
Retting said there’s no debate that the cameras cut down on red-light running but that their effect on crash severity is less certain.
In Clive, one of the cameras was responsible for giving Richard Tarlton his first ticket in more than 60 years of driving. But the 76-year-old said that as long as the cameras help police become more efficient, he’s all for it.
“If the policemen use their time and do police work, that’s great,” Tarlton said. “If it’s giving them an extra doughnut and coffee break, then I’m not for it.”
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Survey: Auto deaths drop in 40 states in 2008
Date: 2/4/2009
By KEN THOMAS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Automobile fatalities declined in 40 states in 2008, according to a survey of state highway safety agencies, an early sign that traffic deaths could dip to their lowest levels in four decades.
The Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety departments, said Wednesday that vehicle deaths dropped in 40 states and the District of Columbia out of 44 states they surveyed. The average decline was 10.7 percent, the safety group said.
“Clearly, the high gas prices in the first part of the year and the difficult economy in the second half caused people to drive less, thus reducing fatalities. However, there’s more occurring here than just economic factors,” said Barbara Harsha, the organization’s executive director.
Harsha said the declines could also be attributed to seat belt use reaching a record high of 83 percent in 2008 and an increased enforcement of traffic laws. Many states also reported drivers reducing their speed to boost their fuel efficiency, she said.
Among large states, Florida’s highway fatalities dropped 6.8 percent, Illinois’ fell by 16 percent, Ohio’s declined by 4 percent and Michigan’s were down by 7.7 percent. Georgia saw decreases of 12 percent and New Jersey’s fatalities dropped 18 percent, according to the survey.
Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia all saw declines of 20 percent or more.
Fatalities increased in Vermont, Wyoming, Delaware and New Hampshire. Several large states, including California, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania, did not participate in the survey.
The safety association cautioned that the surveys, which were conducted during the week of January 26, were estimates and the final figures could vary.
But the results were consistent with a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in December that found auto fatalities dropped 10 percent in 2008 from the months of January though October.
The government said in December there were 31,110 auto fatalities during the first 10 months of 2008, a 9.8 percent decline over the same period in 2007, when there were 34,502 fatalities.
If the trend held up during the year’s last two months, highway deaths could reach their lowest level in the 42 years since NHTSA began keeping record. Final numbers for 2008 are expected later this year.
The Federal Highway Administration, which counts the numbers of cars on the road, has reported steep declines in the number of miles Americans are driving each month beginning in late 2007 and continuing through the first three quarters of 2008.
___
On the Net:
Governors Highway Safety Association: http://www.ghsa.org/
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
By KEN THOMAS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Automobile fatalities declined in 40 states in 2008, according to a survey of state highway safety agencies, an early sign that traffic deaths could dip to their lowest levels in four decades.
The Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety departments, said Wednesday that vehicle deaths dropped in 40 states and the District of Columbia out of 44 states they surveyed. The average decline was 10.7 percent, the safety group said.
“Clearly, the high gas prices in the first part of the year and the difficult economy in the second half caused people to drive less, thus reducing fatalities. However, there’s more occurring here than just economic factors,” said Barbara Harsha, the organization’s executive director.
Harsha said the declines could also be attributed to seat belt use reaching a record high of 83 percent in 2008 and an increased enforcement of traffic laws. Many states also reported drivers reducing their speed to boost their fuel efficiency, she said.
Among large states, Florida’s highway fatalities dropped 6.8 percent, Illinois’ fell by 16 percent, Ohio’s declined by 4 percent and Michigan’s were down by 7.7 percent. Georgia saw decreases of 12 percent and New Jersey’s fatalities dropped 18 percent, according to the survey.
Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia all saw declines of 20 percent or more.
Fatalities increased in Vermont, Wyoming, Delaware and New Hampshire. Several large states, including California, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania, did not participate in the survey.
The safety association cautioned that the surveys, which were conducted during the week of January 26, were estimates and the final figures could vary.
But the results were consistent with a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in December that found auto fatalities dropped 10 percent in 2008 from the months of January though October.
The government said in December there were 31,110 auto fatalities during the first 10 months of 2008, a 9.8 percent decline over the same period in 2007, when there were 34,502 fatalities.
If the trend held up during the year’s last two months, highway deaths could reach their lowest level in the 42 years since NHTSA began keeping record. Final numbers for 2008 are expected later this year.
The Federal Highway Administration, which counts the numbers of cars on the road, has reported steep declines in the number of miles Americans are driving each month beginning in late 2007 and continuing through the first three quarters of 2008.
___
On the Net:
Governors Highway Safety Association: http://www.ghsa.org/
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.