Driver Safety Blog

Friday, 04 May 2012 : Decision Points

It’s a sad fact that 1 out of 25 accidents on America’s highways today is due to unsafe lane changes and merges(1). That’s approximately 630,000 collisions every year, causing more than 700 deaths per year(2) and maiming and injuring many more. Stick-on “blind spot” mirrors are one way to reduce your risk. On my personal vehicles [...] Read More...

Wednesday, 04 Apr 2012 : Decision Points

Guest Blogger: Howard Redwood, Head of Road Safety & Programme Development at Driving Instructors Association (DIA) The physical act of driving is a complex task, however, we tend to pass it off as a ritual process to get from point A to point B. Recent studies have given cause for concern. Although the driving fatality rates have reduced by [...] Read More...

Monday, 02 Apr 2012 : Decision Points

The new Cadillac XTS and ATS has an interesting way to tell you when you are “danger close”, it shakes your seat. The “Safety Seat Alert” is one of several other safety features in a system called “The Driver Awareness Package“. This sort of tactile feedback is becoming more important for safety systems engineers looking for [...] Read More...

Saturday, 31 Mar 2012 : Decision Points

While I’ve been championing “eco-driving” for the past 5 years as a tested, proven, and effective way to reduce fuel costs, for some reason it’s still a “hard sell” here in the US. While most of the rest of the world already employs some sort of eco-driving component into their driver training and fleet operations, [...] Read More...

Friday, 30 Mar 2012 : Decision Points

The Alliance for Central Florida Safety held their annual Safety Day last Monday in Orlando, Florida. The event focused on a wide range of workplace safety topics including distracted driving,  AEDs, ergonomics, electrical line safety, crane safety, and an OSHA update. The event was well attended by over 300 safety professionals from around Florida – [...] Read More...

Thursday, 29 Mar 2012 : Decision Points

New research on the effectiveness of active speed limiters (SLs) in commercial vehicles was released this week, indicating a “a strong, positive safety benefit” of using speed limiters to reduce vehicle speeds and improve road safety. This study represents the most comprehensive investigation that has ever been conducted on speed limiters. The primary safety analysis was [...] Read More...

Tuesday, 27 Mar 2012 : Decision Points

The Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota has recently released the results of their study on In-Vehicle Signing (IVS). An IVS is a system designed to aid drivers by repeating the current road signage in-vehicle for conditions like speed limits on roads, in school zones, and construction zones. The system was a [...] Read More...

Wednesday, 21 Mar 2012 : Decision Points

Last September I wrote about FedEx Japan adopting an eco-driving program to help them deal with fuel shortages after the tsunami that caused so much damage. Now FedEx Express has launched an Asia-Pacific wide eco-driving program for all fleet drivers, with the goals of reducing fuel consumption and emissions. Eco-driving (or “economic driving”) is a term [...] Read More...

Tuesday, 21 Feb 2012 : Decision Points

From: Science News >> Technology In 2008, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2.3 million automobile crashes occurred at intersections across the United States, resulting in some 7,000 deaths. More than 700 of those fatalities were due to drivers running red lights. But, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, half of [...] Read More...

Monday, 20 Feb 2012 : Decision Points

During a press conference on Feb. 16, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood, and the National Transportation Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Administrator David Strickland, presented new proposed guidelines designed to encourage automakers to limit the risk of driver distraction when using communications, navigation, and entertainment technologies built into vehicles. The first phase of the guidelines [...] Read More...