NHTSA’s Campaign Against Drunk Driving Starts Anew

Drunk driving in the United States is nothing new. These accidents always result in deaths of not only drunk drivers, but of innocent road users who are always in the receiving end of such mishaps, from drivers, passengers, bicyclists to pedestrians. Despite these, safety advocates and officials from law enforcement agencies are not stopping on their tracks in cracking down drunk drivers.

In what seems to be an annual tradition, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), along with several entities in-charge of implementing traffic safety, are once again joining hands in fighting drunk driving in U.S. roadways by launching its “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign. The objective of the campaign is crystal clear: a driver found drunk will be “stopped, arrested, and prosecuted.”

Aside from the said objective, this year’s campaign pays special attention on the victims of drunk driving. Statistical data from the NHTSA showed that in nearly 10,000 drunk driving-related crashes being recorded every year, more than a third of them were not the drunk driver. In fact, in 2011, there were at least 3,371 of them. In comparison, some 6,507 who died that year were the drunk drivers themselves.

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies have been playing a huge role in this nationwide campaign; elements of more than 10,000 police departments and law enforcement agencies all over the country have been out on the streets in full force since August 16 to implement the above mentioned objective.

Enjoying Your Favorite Sporting Event Minus the Hassles

Almost every individual has a sport that they follow and play. Other than very popular ones like basketball, tennis, soccer, and football, softball is also one of those that Americans love. It is one of the leading sporting events that are being followed. This is also one of the more popular events played in schools.

Athletes playing softball use safety gears to help prevent injuries while playing the sport. First, a player should wear a helmet. These helmets have ear flaps on each side. Batters and runners are usually the ones that wear these. This will prevent the ball from hitting your face or head. There are also optional throat protectors, shin guards, and body protectors that help keep players from getting hurt while playing the sport.

Avoiding the Truck’s Blind Spots While Driving

Truck accidents in the United States are nothing uncommon. In fact, in 2011, there were some 635 fatalities recorded in which large trucks were involved. Said figure was a 20-percent increase from the previous year. Incidentally, a large drop in large truck accident deaths happened from 2008 to 2009. Nearly 23,000 more were injured, which was a 15-percent increase from the previous year.

Such road occurrences happen mostly because of fatigue, especially on the part of truck drivers. With truck drivers feeling lethargic behind the wheel, it increases the risk of other motorists of getting entangled with those large vehicles, therefore resulting in serious injuries and untimely death.

However, there are other reasons why truck accidents happen, and one of them is the occurrence of so-called “blind spots.” Basically, every vehicle has its own blind spots. But where are they located? Imagine you are seated on the driver’s side of a sedan and your friend is standing behind it. You can see him on the rear-view mirror, but you will not see him anymore as he moves towards the side-view mirror. The vehicle’s blind spot is where you cannot see a moving object with your peripheral vision glued straight ahead on the road.

Large trucks have the same blind spot as the one example above, only it is much larger. Not only does it apply on the left side of the truck, but also on the right side. Since trucks are huge, drivers are unable to see if there are smaller vehicles passing through that blind spot. When that happens, any maneuver going to the left or to the right may catch the smaller vehicle off guard, therefore causing an accident.