By Eddie Farah on October 18, 2008
NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, issued new rules this week that will improve the nation’s 474,000 school buses. Seat and shoulder belts will be required on small school buses. The requirement will also change seat backs making them four inches higher to 24 inches in all new buses.
Seats must also come equipped with safety latches that can be flipped up or removed without resorting to special tools. That’s the good news.
But there is a huge gap here. What about the large school buses that most children ride in? NHTSA has not resolved that question, despite the fact that all of the research shows that children would be made safer.
Instead NHTSA sets standards for seat belts on large school buses. Five major studies over the past decade have shown seat belts are needed on large school buses. But the Secretary of Transportation, Mary E. Peters said that putting seat belts on larger buses can limit capacity and force more students to walk or ride in cars.
“The last thing we want to do is force parents to choose other, less safe ways of getting their children to school,” she said.
Putting seat belts where people sit will make them less safe? NHTSA says more kids are actually hurt around school buses than inside them, but seat belts on school buses would impact about 1,900 crash injuries each year.
Public Citizen doesn’t like the omission of seat belts from large buses and Joan Claybrook, who was the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 1977-81, says Public Citizen objects to NHTSAs plans to immunize manufacturers from personal injury liability. Read the rest »
By Eddie Farah on July 11, 2008
It is just a fact.
As the price of gasoline continues to rise, more people are going to try and get around on a bicycle. That means people behind the wheel of a car better keep their eyes opened for those on the road on two wheels.
Unfortunately that didn’t happen on Thursday afternoon.
A bicyclist died when a tow-truck backed over him. The cyclist was cutting through a Shell station on the Westside of Jacksonville. That’s when the tow-truck, obviously blinded, backed out of a diesel fueling area. He struck the cyclist even though bystanders were yelling at the driver to stop. When he did, he pulled forward and then ran over the cyclist for a second time.
A cyclist just trying to do the right thing. His name has not been immediately released. Charges could be pending against the driver of the tow truck.
According to national statistics, the most serious injuries, resulting when a bicycle and car collide, are traumatic brain injury to the cyclist.
A helmet helps reduce head injury risk by 85 percent, but unfortunately in 2006, the vast majority of bicyclists killed were not wearing helmets.
Even a skilled rider is facing danger on the roads as motorists fail to see the cyclist or refuse to share the road responsibly.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety - 770 bicyclists were killed in crashes with motor vehicles in 2006.
A bicyclist may have right to recover fair compensation if a motorist was negligent or failed to exercise a reasonable amount of caution on the road.
Talk to our experienced accident attorneys and we will be able to advise you of your rights and help you to maneuver sometimes difficult insurance companies. #
By Eddie Farah on March 8, 2008
No one can figure out why a 42-year-old St. Augustine man was riding his bicycle in the dark and in the rain on U.S. 17 in Putnam County, Florida Friday night.
Thomas Mattox did not have a helmet on and his bike did not have any lights. And he was wearing dark clothing on a night with poor visibility.
Read the rest »
