Free Republic

In the weeks after the attacks of September 11, 2001, many thousands of Americans took to the roads and highways in lieu of flight. Some opted to drive because their vacation or business air travel was cancelled; others because they were understandably afraid of subsequent hijackings. Some years later, a group of Cornell University economists determined that after the terror attacks, in the last three months of [2001] fear of flying revved up car use and caused a second toll of lives in US roads. In addition, the inconvenience of tighter airport security after 9/11 may have further encouraged substitution...

The chances of dying in a crash in a late-model vehicle have fallen by more than a third in three years, the latest IIHS calculations of driver death rates show. Among 2011 models, a record nine vehicles have driver death rates of zero. However, the gap between the safest and riskiest models remains wide, and three cars have death rates exceeding 100 per million registered vehicle years... ...The list of models with the lowest death rates illustrates just how much vehicles have improved. Eight years ago, there were no models with driver death rates of zero (see Status Report special...

Suicide. It remains a topic few health professionals want to discuss openly with their patients. It remains a topic avoided even by many mental health professionals. Policy makers see it as a black hole without an obvious solution. And now grim new statistics confirm a disturbing trend — more people are taking their own lives than ever before in the U.S. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released statistics yesterday showing that 33,687 people died in motor vehicle accidents, while nearly 5,000 more — 38,364 — died by suicide. Middle-aged Americans are making up the biggest leap in...

Researchers trying to protect pregnant drivers

Pressure is building on state lawmakers to monitor elderly drivers more closely, renewing the heated, politically sensitive debate over whether seniors should have to prove their continued fitness to drive. Massachusetts, like many states, does not have testing for older drivers, other than universally administered eye tests. Advocates for the elderly have sharply opposed age-based oversight as discriminatory, and noted that the state prohibits age discrimination in licensing.

Study finds accidents doubled at Houston, Texas red light camera intersections undermining the conclusions of a statewide report. Accidents more than doubled at the Houston, Texas intersections where red light cameras are installed, according to a study released Monday by Rice University and the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI). This result posed a dilemma for TTI and the city of Houston which had requested the study. Houston Mayor Bill White was furious when he saw the report's draft text in August. He banned the document from publication and ordered a re-writing of the text that would reflect a more positive result....

The non-story of 2006 was also the non-story of 2005. It is a non-story every year going back decades. Yet the number of people who die in car crashes in the United States is staggering, even if it is absent from the agenda of most public officials and largely ignored by the public. When all is said and done and the ball begins to drop on New Year's Eve, 44,000 people, give or take several hundred, will have died in auto accidents this year. To put that number in perspective, consider that: At the 2006 casualty rate of 800 soldiers...

Hours After Visit, Crash Kills 2 Sisters; Cancer Kills 3rd WANTAGE, N.J. -- Just hours after visiting their sister who was dying of cancer, two women were killed in a car crash. Shortly after that, the sister they had visited died from her illness. "It's a tragedy beyond belief, three sisters in less than 12 hours," Lorraine Bierstine, an aunt of the man who was driving the sisters home, told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Friday's newspapers. Alexandria Labonowski, 83, and Theresa Sobiech, 72, both of Goshen, N.Y., were headed home on Route 23 at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday after...

FINDINGS Fourteen percent of American mothers exclusively breast-feed their babies for the recommended minimum of six months, according to government data released yesterday. New state-by-state statistics show that Oregon has the highest rate of mothers meeting the minimum standard, but even there just 25 percent are able to give their babies breast milk and nothing else for six months, the report shows. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization and most other experts recommend that mothers give their babies breast milk only -- no formula, juice or solid food -- until they are 6 months old. Studies have...

Bill would exempt bicycle riders from stopping at stop signs (Salem-AP) - A bill that has passed the House would exempt bicycle riders from coming to a full stop at stop signs and flashing red lights. They would still have to ride at a safe speed and give the right of way to vehicles or pedestrians approaching an intersection. Cyclists had complained of the inconvenience of getting in and out of toe clips at the signs and lights. The bill goes to the Senate.