On March 1, 2017, the Safety Institute released its quarterly Vehicle Safety Watch List to identify those vehicles with a higher-than-average risk of dangerous defects. The report uses statistics from Early Warning Reports, including injury and death claims. Although the list does not include automobile defects that have already been…
A 45-year old Dennisport woman was struck and killed earlier this week when she stopped to check on a flat tire. The woman was traveling westbound on Route 6 when she pulled onto the shoulder of the Cape Cod highway. According to police, this area of the highway does not…
Today we have wearable fitness trackers, sensors that detect a drop in blood sugar for people with diabetes, and sweat patches to monitor drug use in people on probation. It seems logical to assume that we could also detect the amount of alcohol in our bloodstream without the need for…
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 3,179 Americans died as the result of distracted driving in 2014. The total number of traffic deaths have risen more than 10 percent from the first half of 2015 to the first half of 2016. According to AAA, 58 percent of…
The dangers of distracted driving are well known. In fact, 46 states currently have laws against texting while driving. Most major highways are now equipped with “text stops”, designated pull-offs where drivers can safely, and easily, exit the road and read or send text messages. But despite the risks, millions…
Last month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report emphasizing the importance of properly maintaining guardrails and other hardware to road safety. Roadside safety “hardware” most often refers to guardrails and median barriers, but the GAO report also includes several other groups of road safety hardware, such as:…
An underride crash occurs when a passenger vehicle goes under a truck, trailer, or other large vehicle. Unfortunately, these crashes often result in serious injuries and are significantly more likely to be fatal. The same is true of ‘side underride crashes’, which often involve bicyclists or pedestrians and are particularly…
With winter over, the risk of driving on icy and snowy roads is coming to an end. But it’s easy to underestimate the dangers of driving in heavy rain and fog. Not to mention, early spring in New England still has its fair share of snow flurries and black ice,…
According to Carfax, an online service providing information on vehicle history, about 47 million vehicles on American roadways have one or more outstanding safety recalls. Many of the outstanding recalls are for vehicles that have been bought, sold, and traded multiple times. In these cases, it may be difficult to…
In Boston and Cambridge, taxi drivers must purchase a permit in order to legally operate as a taxi. These “medallions,” as they’re called, used to fetch a hefty price. In fact, as recently as 2014, some taxi drivers were paying nearly $700,000 for the privilege to pick up and transport…