Driver Safety

November 24, 2012

Women Surpass Men in Holding Licenses, Impacting Car Accident and Safety Statistics

For the first time in American history, women drivers now exceed the amount of licensed drivers in the United States over men. The news came after a study by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, which viewed gender trends in drivers licenses between 1995 and 2010, released its results. This reverses a long time gap between male and female drivers, dating all the way back to Henry Ford’s first Model T.

During the early twentieth century, women drivers were a minority and were ridiculed by men for driving. The trend continued in the Eisenhower era when only half of women eligible for drivers licenses held them; they were mostly expected to play the role of “homemakers” and raise families. As women started to enter the workforce and the idea of “women’s liberation” began to gain popularity, women started to drive more. By 1995, the number of women who obtained driver’s licenses were only slightly behind men, and in 2010, the trend finally reversed itself.
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November 9, 2012

Fall Nor’easter Endangers Roadways

by Altman & Altman

Drivers in the Bay State, still recovered from last week’s hurricane, endured a strong Nor’easter that wreaked havoc on the roads, resulting in flooded and icy conditions. The storm left a total of nine inches of snow in Massachusetts, although many places received a mixture of rain and snow. It also produced strong wind gusts up to 75 miles per hour on the Cape and Islands and up to 50 miles per hour in Boston. The extreme weather amounted to a perfect storm of dangerous road conditions.

State police reported a number of spinouts and accidents on major roadways, which were compounded by heavy traffic delays. An accident that occurred Wednesday on Route 28 in Bourne resulted in the fatality of a Rhode Island man after his car hydroplaned and struck a utility pole. Bourne and State police responded to the crash, and it remains under investigation.
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November 7, 2012

Commonwealth Votes Yes on ‘Right to Repair’

by Altman & Altman

In Tuesday’s election, voters in the Commonwealth overwhelmingly voted to pass question number one, the “Right to Repair” ballot question. Boston.com reports that 85 percent of voters approved the question with 98 percent of the votes counted at 2pm on Wednesday. Question number one passed with the highest margins of the three 2012 Massachusetts election ballot questions.

The new law requires that, by 2015, automakers must provide dealers and repair shops access to software codes and information which make the diagnosis and car repair easier for them.

According to the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, William Francis Galvin, the law will not force any manufacturer to reveal trade secrets and also will not interfere with any agreements made by the manufacturer, dealer or authorized repair facility. Any violation of the law will be treated as a violation of state consumer protection and unfair trade practices.
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October 24, 2012

Enforcing the Anti-Text Law in Massachusetts

by Altman & Altman

Everyone knows that it is illegal to text and drive. We hop in our car, we are pressed for time, and we pick up that phone anyway. There are people, however, who have found a loophole in the law that bans texting and driving. When one of these people get pulled over, the police officer may say, “Do you know why I pulled you over? You were texting on your phone.” The driver, well aware of the law against texting while operating a motor vehicle, quickly responds “No, officer, you must be mistaken. I was using the Maps application on my phone.” Unbeknownst to some drivers in Massachusetts, using your smartphone while driving is not illegal entirely but it is illegal to text. The specificity of this law has irked law enforcement as it is difficult for police officers to enforce this law.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) announced this week their approval of a grant of $550,000 for police departments in Connecticut and Massachusetts to test other another of enforcing the anti-texting laws – by spying on drivers. NHTSA chief, David Strickland, claims that the purpose of this grant is to find “real-world protocols and practices to better detect if a person is texting while driving.” This grant will fund “spotters on overpasses” as well as other roadways to find out if drivers are typing while they are operating their vehicle. Spying on motorists has already shown to work in North Dakota, where 31 tickets were issued in a matter of 2 days after police spied on drivers from unmarked vehicles.
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September 19, 2012

Elderly driver crashes into home

by Altman & Altman

This past Saturday, on September 15, a car accident in Charlton, Massachusetts landed an elderly driver and her car inside a home on Sturbridge Road. The 82-year-old motorist, who has not been identified, was involved in a 2-car collision at about 5:40pm, according to local authorities. The second driver, identified only as a woman, 32, was injured and taken to Harrington Memorial Hospital. The older driver was transported to Umass Medical Center. The cause of the accident is presently under investigation.

I’ve written several blogs about various forms of car collisions. Cars landing in pools. Wrong-way drivers. Single-car accidents. The carnage of a collision when seatbelts aren’t used. I’m actually a little surprised that this is my first “Car crashes into building” blog. And I immediately became curious about how often something like this happens. Apparently, quite often. There was a rash of cars crashing into building late last year in western New York. Thirteen incidents in a matter of months. But nobody could ascertain why. There’s still no concrete data available to explain this kind of occurrence.

But there was also another personal aspect of this story that appealed to me because my father is officially an “elderly driver” now. His safety is a concern of mine. And I take comfort in knowing that, statistically speaking, as drivers become older, they become more conservative. Driving habits become adjusted through avoiding busy highways or abstaining from driving late at night. And yet, older drivers are still more likely to be involved in a multi-car collision than younger drivers. Research has also shown that not only do the chances of being in a car collision spike after the age of 65, but the risk of a collision becoming fatal rise at 75 as older drivers are more vulnerable to crash-related injuries and death.
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September 10, 2012

Second wrong-way driver of the weekend causes another collision

by Altman & Altman

This past Sunday morning, September 9, 2012, at approximately 5:35am, a Roxbury resident was killed in a car accident at the entrance of the O’Neill tunnel in Boston. What makes this incident more unusual than a typical vehicular tragedy is that the deceased man, Idefonos Barros, was driving down the wrong way of Interstate 95, and that this was the second incident of wrong-way driving on a Massachusetts highway just this weekend.

State Police are continuing their investigation as to what caused the three-way collision. Barros was driving a 1999 Dodge Dakota south on 93 North toward the O’Neill tunnel’s entrance when he collided into a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder, according to Renee Nadeau Algarin, the deputy press secretary for the Suffolk County’s District Attorney’s office. Algarin also stated that after the initial collision, the Nissan spun out of control and struck the left side barrier. Before the collision occurred, State Police received at least one phone call about a wrong-way driver and immediately launched a search for the vehicle.

Sadly, the police were too late to catch up with Barros. And during the time when reports of the incident were first surfacing, it was unknown whether Barros was ejected from his car because of the crash or if passing drivers helped him out of his vehicle. He was eventually taken to Tufts Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Firefighters removed a 45-year old woman from the Nissan Pathfinder. She was also taken to Tufts Medical Center though her injuries were not a threat to her life. Both drivers appeared to be wearing their seatbelts. There was no indication of drugs or alcohol playing a role in the crash. And the third driver whose Ford Eagle collided with the pile-up was fortunate enough to walk away without any injuries.
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September 8, 2012

Eastbound driver on Westbound lane causes car collision and pile-up

by Altman & Altman

As of late Friday night, reports were appearing on the internet about a head-on collision on the westbound lane of Interstate 90. The crash happened at around 8:30 pm on September 7, 2012, near exit 6 of the turnpike, close to mile marker 54. As authorities responded to the incident, traffic was diverted off the highway at exit 7, near Ludlow, Massachusetts, according to Trooper Kenneth Gaetz.

It had been assumed early on that the cause of the accident was a driver heading east on the westbound lane. Two other cars slammed into the first accident causing a pile up that snarled the weekend traffic. At least two people were taken by ambulance to Bay State Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts and the highway was shut down for roughly three hours. Area police and fire departments, state police crime scene and accident reconstruction units, and the State Department of Highways were all present on the scene. Authorities had gathered, but not yet confirmed, that a 2001 Honda from Connecticut was driving the wrong way down the westbound lane on the turnpike and crashed into a 1993 Subaru registered to an address in West Brookfield.

Tragically, new reports arose this morning saying that both men in the original pile up succumbed to their injuries and were pronounced at the hospital. David Procopio, spokesman for the State Police, asserted that there were other injured but he would not specify. The names of the deceased have been withheld. All that is presently known is that the man who was driving the wrong way down the westbound lane was 84 years old. The driver of the 1993 Subaru was 29. The investigation is now being overseen by Troop E of the Massachusetts State police along with the aforementioned organizations.
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September 5, 2012

Automobile collision begins with fences, ends with pool

by Altman & Altman

Tom Cheffro, a resident of Malden, was watching television on Tuesday afternoon, September 5, 2012, when he heard a loud bang from his backyard. Upon rushing outside, Cheffro yells for his neighbor to call the police as he dives into his in-ground pool, in which a Chevy Impala was sinking. The scene came about so quickly that Cheffro wasn’t sure if the driver realized what was happening.

After trying but finding himself unable to open the door, Cheffro pushed the car’s window down, unbuckled the driver’s seatbelt and pulled him out of the water before he could suffer any serious injuries. Amazingly, the two then sat and joked with each other, wondering how many hits the video on YouTube would receive, as they awaited the paramedics and police.

The pool didn’t sustain any damage. The motorist was conscious and communicative as he was taken to the ambulance on a stretcher by paramedics. He’s presently in the hospital with minor injuries. Cheffro assumed that while backing into his driveway, the motorist, who is reported to be in his eighties, mistakenly stepped on the gas instead of the brake. Amazingly, nobody else had been injured as the car sped through two fences before crashing into the pool. A crane was brought in to remove the automobile.
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September 4, 2012

Hit and run between car and motorcycle leaves Everett man seriously injured

by Altman & Altman

As early as 8:15am this past Sunday morning, September 2, 2012, Melrose police received alerts from civilians and fire fighters alike concerning a collision at a four-way intersection where Green and Franklin Street meet Main Street. At a red light, a sixty-one year old man from Everett on a yellow Harley motorcycle waited for the light to change with a Hyundai sedan idling behind him. When the light turned green, the Hyundai proceeded forward. But the motorcycle hadn’t yet moved.

According to witnesses and resulting police reports, the sedan struck the motorcyclist, knocking him off his vehicle. The car then backed up, rolling over the man and drove forward again, repeating this action several times. Police reports say that the motorist, Eugene Ledonne, 76, of Stoneham then got out of the car while witnesses helped the victim, walked over to the man he had just hit, said “I’m sorry,” and returned to his vehicle. Police say the driver then reversed his car several hundred yards and fled the scene.

Recordings from witness camera phones were credited with helping the police make an expeditious identification of the driver. Although it is presently unclear as to how much of the collision was caught on video. Ledonne informed the police that he was heading to work when travelling on the northbound road. He also explained that after initially striking the motorcyclist he blacked out and wasn’t able to recall anything that happened afterwards. Police however described Ledonne as being physically capable and mentally alert in their report.
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July 25, 2012

Traffic Fatalities Increase Significantly in First Quarter of 2012

by Altman & Altman

A recent report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that included an early estimate of motor vehicle traffic fatalities for the first quarter of 2012 has indicated a sharp increase in this figure compared with last year’s statistics. The projection estimates that 7,630 people died in motor vehicle accidents between January and March of this year. It comes amid reports from automakers that they are intensifying efforts to build cars that are safer and better-able to reduce the threats of distracted driving.

The NHTSA reports that the rise in fatalities translates to a roughly 13.5% increase from the number reported for the first quarter of 2011, which was 6,720. The NHTSA declined to include in the report any mention of contributing factors or implications of the data. However, a spokesman for the agency said, “It’s too soon to speculate…on any increase in deaths on our roadways.”

Perhaps the most puzzling part of this increase is that previous years all demonstrated a downward trend in roadway fatalities. In addition, many transportation safety officials commented that the figure is generally lowest for the first quarter of any given year, which is in large part due to the winter weather that usually accompanies those months. According to officials, the fact that this year’s winter was much warmer than usual, which meant that there were more drivers on the road than in other past years, could be a factor in the increase in fatalities.
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