Seatbelts Work Only If You Use Them
Seatbelts Work Only If You Use Them

In every seat in every vehicle sold in Texas and across the U.S. there are seat belts. They’re not optional, and there’s no extra charge for them. Whether you purchased your vehicle, are leasing it or are driving a rental, you paid for that seat belt. Why not use it? If you’re involved in an accident, using a seat belt could mean the difference between life or death, or between a serious or a minor injury, or maybe no injury at all.

Nearly 3,000 people not using seat belts were killed or seriously injured in vehicle accidents in Texas in 2017, reports the Texarkana Gazette. Using a seat belt improves your chances of surviving a vehicle accident by 45% to 60%. The Texas Department of Transportation Austin District is trying to increase seat belt use through a public safety …

Texas Road Safety Makes Progress - but There’s Still a Long Road Ahead
Texas Road Safety Makes Progress – but There’s Still a Long Road Ahead

The bad news is that Texas is still No. 1. With 3,722 deaths on Texas roads last year, the state once again had the most traffic fatalities in 2017, according to statistics released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Texas also held this spot in 2016.

The good news is that the numbers show improvement. The 2017 figure is down slightly from the 3,797 who died on the road in 2016. This 2 percent drop narrowly beat the national average in a year when overall road deaths decreased across the country. California—the only other state with more than 3,500 deaths—saw a 6 percent drop, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Also, Texas falls in the middle of the field in deaths per capita, behind much smaller states in the West and Midwest, the Chronicle says.

Alcohol-related driving fatalities made …

Cmv Inspections Reveal Hours-Of-Service Struggles in Trucking
CMV Inspections Reveal Hours-Of-Service Struggles in Trucking

A fatigued driver is an unsafe driver. That’s the rationale behind the Hours of Service (HOS) rules that apply to the trucking industry. These rules, set in place by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (a division of the federal Department of Transportation), dictate how many consecutive hours a driver is allowed to drive his vehicle, as well as how long and how frequent his breaks must be. The goal, stated by the FMCSA, is “to keep fatigued drivers off the public roadways” and make sure that drivers stay awake and alert while driving.

However, Hours of Service violations continue to be common among commercial truck drivers, and some in the industry are pushing for change.

“Today’s truckers have never faced more regulations or greater enforcement and compliance with those regulations. Yet, crash numbers are going in the wrong direction,” …

How to Have a Safe Thanksgiving in 2018
How to Have a Safe Thanksgiving in 2018

Summer is over and fall is in full swing, which means that the holiday travel season is right around the corner. For many families, Thanksgiving is the first major travel occasion of the fall, as drivers hit the road to reunite with friends and family. In fact, it is usually the most-traveled holiday for American travelers. Whether you’re going across the country or around the corner, staying for a week or just dropping in for supper, all travelers need to keep basic safety in mind to avoid accidents that can be costly—and even deadly.

Here are some tips to make sure you and your family get there—and back—safely and happily.

Get your vehicle checked. Especially if you’re going to be traveling a long distance, you want to make sure your car is ready for the trip. Have your mechanic check …

What Every Limousine Renter in Texas Should Know
What Every Limousine Renter in Texas Should Know

The limousine that crashed in New York state in early October, killing 20 people, should not even have been on the road. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stated days after the Oct. 6 accident that the vehicle had failed its latest safety inspection—and the driver did not even have the proper license.

The limousine itself was what some have called a “Frankenstein vehicle”—basically an SUV that has been cut in half and stretched out.

“When we look at limousines and stretch limos, we see a really Frankenstein system of cars that potentially are cut up and put back together with parts and pieces that were not original to them,” Deborah Hersman, president, and CEO of the nonprofit National Safety Council and former chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, told Texas Public Radio. “And additionally, some things may be …

Some Minivans May Be More Dangerous for Passengers Than for Drivers
Some Minivans May Be More Dangerous for Passengers Than for Drivers

How badly can you be hurt in a minivan crash? The answer, according to a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), depends not only on what kind of minivan you’re in, but also whether you’re the driver or the passenger.

The IIHS recently conducted tests on three popular minivans and discovered that some are better than others at protecting passengers, according to a Consumer Reports article.

The institute rated the Honda Odyssey tops of the three, giving it a “good” rating for passenger safety. The Chrysler Pacifica was deemed “acceptable.” At the bottom of the pack, the Toyota Sienna’s “marginal” rating was attributed to the risk of potential leg injuries. (There are four possible IIHS ratings: “good,” “acceptable,” “marginal,” and “poor.”)

The IIHS ran all three minivans through its latest test, called the passenger-side small-overlap …

Austin Drivers Get Ranked in National Study - Find out How We Stack Up
Austin Drivers Get Ranked in National Study – Find out How We Stack Up

When it comes to safe driving, Austin doesn’t fare as badly as other cities, but there’s certainly room to improve.

Insurance company Allstate recently unveiled its 2018 America’s Safest Drivers report, which ranks the 200 largest cities in the United States based on collision frequency. Austin comes in at 159th in the nation.

The average driver in America will experience a collision once every 10 years, according to Allstate claims data. In Austin, that average shrinks to 7.1 years between claims, Allstate said.

Austin has dropped one place on the list since last year, when the Bat City ranked 158th.

The country’s safest drivers are found in Brownsville, TX, where drivers go an average of 13.6 years between claims, according to the report. Collisions in Brownsville are 26.3 percent less likely compared to the national average, …

Hit-And-Run Drivers: What Are They Thinking?
Hit-And-Run Drivers: What Are They Thinking?

More than one hit-and-run crash occurs every minute on U.S. roads, according to 2018 research by the American Automobile Association. These accidents resulted in a record number of deaths in 2016: 2,049, a 60 percent increase since 2009. Hit-and-run fatalities occur nearly six times a day in the U.S., reports the Washington Post.

With so many accidents causing so much destruction, the obvious question is: Why do so many drivers flee the scene of an accident? What goes through the mind of a hit-and-run driver?

Now, some recent research has provided some insight.

“The brain can do really extreme things,” Emanuel Robinson, a psychologist at Westat’s Center for Transportation, Technology and Safety Research, told the Washington Post. “Anytime we get into an accident we get emotional.”

Although most drivers will stay at the scene of an accident, “the …

Duck Boat Incidents in Other Cities Raise Concern in Austin
Duck Boat Incidents in Other Cities Raise Concern in Austin

You’re riding in a vehicle with dozens of other people, when it suddenly veers off the road and into a body of water. It sounds alarming, but it’s an experience tourists pay for all the time when they board a “duck tour.”

Duck boats—vehicles that can operate on land and in water—have been operated as tourist attractions in harbor, river, or lake cities in the U.S. since 1946, many using surplus military amphibious landing vehicles from World War II. And while the majority of duck tours go off without a hitch, there have been exceptions with sometimes deadly results.

Since 1999, there have been 12 incidents in the U.S. involving duck boats, resulting in 44 deaths. The most recent of these has also been the deadliest: the July sinking of a duck boat on Table Rock Lake near Branson, …

School Bus Driver Shortage Could Have Safety Implications
School Bus Driver Shortage Could Have Safety Implications

When any organization or industry has a labor shortage, they may have to take extraordinary measures to fill a role. When that role is driving children, what are the implications for child safety?

This is not a hypothetical situation in Texas, where the transportation director for the Round Rock Independent School District faced the beginning of the school year needing to fill more than 20 bus driver positions.

“When my day starts off, the first thing I do — me and my supervisors — we look at who we can hire out there. Who’s applied for jobs,” Scott Copeland told KXAN-TV. “We hire people in as quick as we can.”

And candidates aren’t easy to find, Copeland says—at a recent job fair, “we put banners out and we only had three people show up.”

In Dallas, officials were considering …