Driving at Home: car safety awareness
On May 1 at Lynnwood High school, Driving at Home, an organization whose goal is to educate young adults and their parents on how they can be safe and responsible drivers, had a pedestrian safety demonstration and a work shop on how to be as safe as possible behind the wheel of a vehicle.
The pedestrian demonstration involved an 80 pound dummy and a car. The dummy was suspended about 5-6 inches off the , a white car driven by a police force volunteer drove at about 32 miles per hour towards the “pedestrian”. The “pedestrian” was thrown about 3 feet in the air and landed on its stomach about 7 feet away from its original location.
The damage that the collision would have caused an actual human being would be immense involving head and spine trauma along with broken bones and the potential of internal bleeding the car received a few minor dents and a crack in the bottom left hand corner of the windshield. An interesting fact about pedestrian collisions is that jeans, popular denim articles of clothing, leave a residue on a car if a person who is wearing them is hit. This residue can help investigators find out where on the car they were hit and can help them in hit and run situations.
According to Detective Al Baker, a speaker at the Driving at Home workshop, “Responsibility is the most important word in the dictionary pertaining to this” He believes the reason for many teen automobile collisions is, other than drugs and alcohol, is speed. Baker believes teens have too much horsepower and doesn’t understand why teens need the ability to go 120 miles per hour when police enforcement isn’t even able to reach the previously stated speed.
“What if I kill someone? A friend, relative, or an innocent person.” Someone in the United States dies in a car crash every 15 minutes. A topic that was greatly stressed was the fact that out of 6 million car crashes that occur every year in the United States alone less than 1 percent are accidents, caused by a factor that is completely out of the driver’s control.
There are things that can prevent deaths and injuries in accidents; car seats, and seat belts. On average it takes a person 3 ½ to 5 seconds to fasten a seatbelt which can be the most important factor in a car crash. In June 2010 there is going to be a tax of all Washington State residents that will be gathering money to pay back what is used each year in medical care for car related injuries.
In 2000 the total cost of automobile crashes in the US was $230.6 billion dollars which roughly equals $820 dollars per person living in the US. The general public pays at least ¾ of all car collision costs. Car crashes can happen to anyone so be aware of the situation and be responsible.
For more information on automobile crashes and how you can prevent car collisions visit.
http://www.aaafoundation.org/resources/index.cfm?button=links
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