Seaman Garson Blog

Young drivers engage in a wide range of risky practices when behind the wheel. Inexperience alone would account for the increase in car accidents, particularly fatal car accidents, that has always plagued teen drivers. In addition to that lack of experience, teens may exacerbate the situation by texting, drinking, speeding, tailgating or taking other unsafe chances while driving. Recent studies from State Farm Insurance and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have helped to identify another factor that increases the risk of accidents in teen drivers: the presence of teen passengers.

Parents and guardians who are concerned about the safety of their teen when behind the wheel should set rules about the people who can ride along. A teen driver with other teens in the car is more likely to be distracted before a crash than a teen driver who is alone. Further, teenage males are significantly more likely to perform an illegal driving maneuver and drive aggressively if they have other teens in the car. While female teen drivers did show an increased tendency to be distracted, they did not drive more aggressively with teen passengers.

The Dublin Division of Police hoped to reduce the number of traffic accidents this year. Their plan called for improved placement of law enforcement officers, as well as an educational campaign designed to teach people about the behaviors that cause serious car crashes. So far, the plan is working. The number of accidents reported has dropped 13 percent from 2010. Their efforts might serve as a model for other Ohio communities.

Dublin officials are working with the Ohio Department of Public Safety, which has agreed to reimburse some of the expense of the program. They are targeting several of the issues that have drawn headlines all over the country. Distracted driving, speeding and drunk driving are all elements that make the roads unsafe and cause car and truck crashes. By focusing on these areas, Dublin officials are working to make their community safer.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs are concerned about the high incidence of serious car accidents suffered by veterans. Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are 75% more likely to die in a fatal car accident than non-veterans. The problem is not a new one, but government officials are hoping to increase awareness and address the issues that cause soldiers to get into accidents.

Perhaps the most common cause of car accidents among returning soldiers is risky and aggressive driving. Young men are a high risk demographic in terms of dangerous driving. The lessons veterans learn in Iraq and Afghanistan only compound the problems. Veterans may feel invincible on the roads, having survived so much already. In some situations, the soldiers feel anxious or distracted by approaching vehicles. They are trained to consider other vehicles a potential threat in a war zone and it is not easy to let that go once they are home.

As cities across the nation begin to question - and legislatures and municipal authorities reject - red-light ticket cameras at intersections, the Dayton Police Department in Ohio says that the cameras are working.

Data suggests that Dayton's red-light ticket cameras are reducing the number-one cause of death for people under the age of 35 in Ohio: car accidents.

"We may never know why it happened," Captain Dave Bertini says, referring to a vicious dog bite attack that ended in the deaths of a woman and her unborn baby, as Dan Whitcomb reports for Reuters.

Darla Napora's husband got home and found her lying on the floor with the male pit bull hovering and "bloodied." The female pit bull was on its haunches in the corner of the room, "cowering."

George Maschke is on trial this week in Ohio for a drunk-driving accident that killed a 39-year-old woman named Michelle Golden. Golden had pulled over and gotten out of her car to take a picture of the sunset when Maschke hit her. It's not clear whether she died at the scene or at the hospital, but what is clear is she left behind two children.

As Mark Caudill reports for the Mansfield News Journal, Maschke testified, "I didn't feel I was under the influence."

Yet Maschke had consumed nine beers that day.

"I was sleeping," Vernon Helton says, as Firehouse.com reports. "Next thing I know a bunch of debris is coming down on me pinning my leg." Helton, who lives on the ground floor of his apartment building, was pulled out by other residents and firefighters and came away with nothing but a scratch.

The man, Frank Billings, who appears to have caused the car wreck, was not as lucky. Billings was taken by helicopter to the University of Toledo Medical Center with serious injuries.

In 2009, after drivers reported "sudden acceleration" problems with gas petals in various Toyota vehicles, the auto manufacturer began recalling millions of vehicles. Since then, the company has been proactive in its mitigation efforts; the company paid out almost $50 million in civil penalties and in 2010 reported that efforts were being made to reinforce the pedal assembly and fix the accelerator pedals.

But, not until recently, has a judge or jury come to a decision regarding the company's civil liability with these problems.