A Call to Action

2bucksplus — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:32:29 -0800

After investigating a tragic crash involving two school buses and a third passenger vehicle in Missouri last year the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended this week that state and local governments ban all forms of cellphone communication while driving, including texting and talking using handsfree devices. In reviewing the accident the NTSB discovered that the 19-year-old driver of the pickup truck causing the crash sent or received 11 texts in the 11 minutes immediately prior to impact. The ensuing crash killed the driver of the pickup and a 15-year-old student, 38 others were injured. The students were members of the highschool band on a school trip to Six Flags amusement park in St. Louis, Missouri. This comes just a week after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration unveiled a new measure for "distraction-affected" fatalities, showing an estimated 3,092 fatalities in distraction-affected crashes in 2010. This measure is now distinct from alcohol- or drug-impaired driving crashes. The NTSB cannot directly institute a federal ban, but it's recommendations are highly influential:

The independent NTSB has neither the legislative muscle of Congress nor the regulatory power of the White House, but as the nation’s leading federal safety advocate its recommendations carry weight in both places. Its recommendations also provide political cover if Congress or the administration wants to take on the powerful cellphone industry lobby and an American public addicted to cellphones and other forms of electronic communication. It would be up to state legislatures, which already have banned text messaging while driving in 35 states and the District, to decide whether cellphone use should be illegal. But in the past, Congress has not been shy about leveraging its control of the federal purse strings to bring states in line on issues such as seat belts and the legal drinking age. “The NTSB recommendation may be a game-changer,” said Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association. “States aren’t ready to support a total ban yet, but this may start the discussion.”

Streetsblog notes that Missouri already had a state ban on texting while driving at the time of the deadly crash, and that despite state bans and awareness campaigns reports of texting while driving are up 50% over the past year. A recent Washington Post survey found that 88 percent of drivers recognized the dangers of using electronic devices while driving, but a third did so anyway.

He says every patient is a golden trout. We need to go get those trout.

parudox — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:53:57 -0800

The Deadly Cost of Swooping In to Save a Life (single-page version): Deregulation and America's health care system combine to make medical helicopters increasingly dangerous.

410 Club?

R. Mutt — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 13:45:36 -0800

"We're going to hit houses, dude," (NYT Reg. ), Alone in their 50-seat commercial jet, the two young pilots decided to see what it could do...A few minutes later, though, both engines were dead, and the pilots were struggling to glide to an emergency landing at an airport in Jefferson City, Mo. (or the non-registration Jefferson City NewsTribune version, or the NTSB site)

The pilot did it.

owillis — Wed, 18 Apr 2001 23:11:40 -0800

The pilot did it. Remember the EgyptAir crash? NTSB says it was a "deliberate act", but EgyptAir won't accept that explanation instead insisting there was a problem with the plane.

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A Call to Action

He says every patient is a golden trout. We need to go get those trout.

410 Club?

The pilot did it.