M a k i n g I m p a c tan

November 2017 - Volume 5, Issue 1

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5 TIPS TO REMEMBER FOR DRIVING SAFELY IN THE RAINDriving in the rain can be anxiety-producing. Here are 5 tips to remember from State Farm for driving safely in the rain.

Singing in the rain is fun. But driving? For some people, it’s anxiety-producing. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there are on average more than 950,000 automobile crashes each year due to wet pavement, resulting in approximately 4,700 deaths and 384,000 injuries.

But being behind the wheel and a rain-splattered windshield doesn’t have to be a white-knuckled, nerve-racking experience. Brent Praeter, a supervising instructor at D&D Driving School, Inc. and a member of the Driving School Association of the Americas, both in Kettering, Ohio, offers these tips for driving in a downpour:

1. Think. “Many people drive subconsciously, out of habit,” says Praeter. “And when it rains, they often don’t adjust their thinking.” When conditions are less than ideal, drivers need to stay alert and focused on what’s going on around them.

2. Turn on those headlights. It’s the law in all states to turn on headlights when visibility is low, and many states also require having the headlights on when the windshield wipers are in use. Praeter says that well-working wipers and relatively new (not threadbare) tires also are must-haves when driving in rain.

3. Beware of hydroplaning. That’s the technical term for what occurs when your tires are getting more traction on the layer of water on the road than on the road itself—the result is that your car begins to slide uncontrollably. It’s easy enough to hydroplane: All you need is one-twelfth of an inch of rain on the road and a speed of more than 35 miles per hour. If you start to hydroplane, let off the accelerator slowly and steer straight until you regain control.

4. Turn off cruise control. Ironically, on rain- or snow- slick surfaces, cruise control may cause you to lose control. You might think it’ll help you stay at one steady speed, but if you hydroplane while you’re in cruise control, your car will actually go faster.

5. Slow down. Speed limit signs are designed for ideal conditions, says Praeter, ‘and that means driving when you have little traffic and good visibility.” That’s hardly the environment you’re driving in when it’s raining, so let up on the accelerator and allow more time to get to your destination.

SAVE THE DATE: March 2-4, 2018PacNW Driver & Traffic Safety Conference

Portland Hilton Downtown 921 SW 6th Ave Portland, OR 97204

The upcoming conference will be held March 2-4, 2018 at the Portland Downtown Hilton.

More information will be coming later this year with registration opening in January 2018.

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Crashes in Rural vs. Urban Environments

Jennifer Smith doesn’t like the term “accident.” It implies too much chance and too little culpability.

A “crash” killed her mother in 2008, she insists, when her car was broadsided by another vehicle while on her way to pick up cat food. The other driver, a 20-year-old college student, ran a red light while talking on his mobile phone, a distraction that he immediately admitted and cited as the catalyst of the fatal event.

“He was remorseful,” Smith, now 43, said. “He never changed his story.”

Yet in federal records, the death isn’t attributed to distraction or mobile-phone use. It’s just another line item on the grim annual toll taken by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration [NHTSA]—one of 37,262 that year. Three months later, Smith quit her job as a realtor and formed Stopdistractions.org, a nonprofit lobbying and support group. Her intent was to make the tragic loss of her mother an anomaly.

“Honestly, I think the real number of fatalities tied to cell phones is at least three times the federal figure.”

To that end, she has been wildly unsuccessful. Nine years later, the problem of death-by-distraction has gotten much worse.

Over the past two years, after decades of declining deaths on the road, U.S. traffic fatalities surged by 14.4 percent. In 2016 alone, more than 100 people died every day in or near vehicles in America, the first time the country has passed that grim toll in a decade. Regulators, meanwhile, still have no good idea why crash-related deaths are spiking: People are driving longer distances but not tremendously so; total miles were up just 2.2 percent last year. Collectively, we seemed to be speeding and drinking a little more, but not much more than usual. Together, experts say these upticks don’t explain the surge in road deaths.

Three Big Clues There are however three big clues, and they don’t rest along the highway. One, as you may have guessed, is the substantial increase in smartphone use by U.S. drivers as they drive. From 2014 to 2016, the share of Americans who owned an iPhone, Android phone, or something comparable rose from 75 percent to 81 percent.

The second is the changing way in which Americans use their phones while they drive. These days, we’re pretty much done talking. Texting, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the order of the day—all activities that require far more attention

than simply holding a gadget to your ear or responding to a disembodied voice. By 2015, almost 70 percent of Americans were using their phones to share photos and follow news events via social media. In just two additional years, that figure has jumped to 80 percent.

Finally, the increase in fatalities has been largely among bicyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians—all of whom are easier to miss from the driver’s seat than, say, a 4,000-pound SUV—especially if you’re glancing up from your phone rather than concentrating on the road. Last year, 5,987 pedestrians were killed by cars in the U.S., almost 1,100 more than in 2014—that’s a 22 percent increase in just two years.

Safety regulators and law enforcement officials certainly understand the danger of taking—or making—a phone call while operating a piece of heavy machinery. They still, however, have no idea just how dangerous it is, because the data just isn’t easily obtained. And as mobile phone traffic continues to shift away from simple voice calls and texts to encrypted social networks, officials increasingly have less of a clue than ever before.

Traffic Crash Deaths Still Increasing as Distracted Driving Reports Decline: NHTSA

Out of NHTSA’s full 2015 dataset, only 448 deaths were linked to mobile phones—that’s just 1.4 percent of all traffic fatalities. By that measure, drunk driving is 23 times more deadly than using a phone while driving, though studies have shown that both activities behind the wheel constitute (on average) a similar level of impairment. NHTSA has yet to fully crunch its 2016 data, but the agency said deaths tied to distraction actually declined last year.

Deadlier Than Data Shows There are many reasons to believe mobile phones are far deadlier than NHTSA spreadsheets suggest. Some of the biggest indicators are within the data itself. In more than half of 2015 fatal crashes, motorists were simply going straight down the road—no crossing traffic, rainstorms, or blowouts. Meanwhile, drivers involved in crashes increasingly mowed down things smaller than a Honda Accord, such as pedestrians or cyclists, many of whom occupy the side of the road or the sidewalk next to it. Fatalities increased inordinately among motorcyclists (up 6.2 percent in 2016) and pedestrians (up 9 percent).

“Honestly, I think the real number of fatalities tied to cell phones is at least three times the federal figure,” Jennifer Smith said. “We’re all addicted and the scale of this is unheard of.”

Continued on page 3.

DISTRACTED DRIVING IS MORE DEADLY THAN DATA SHOWS: SPECIAL REPORT

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Janelle LawrenceExecutive Director

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“Distracted Driving” continued from page 2

In a recent study, the nonprofit National Safety Council found only about half of fatal crashes tied to known mobile phone use were coded as such in NHTSA databases. In other words, according to the NSC, NHTSA’s figures for distraction-related death are too low.

Perhaps more telling are the findings of Zendrive Inc., a San Francisco startup that analyzes smartphone data to help insurers of commercial fleets assess safety risks. In a study of 3 million people, it found drivers using their mobile phone during 88 percent of trips. The true number is probably even higher because Zendrive didn’t capture instances when phones were mounted in a fixed position—so-called hands free technology, which is also considered dangerous.

“It’s definitely frightening,” said Jonathan Matus, Zendrive’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “Pretty much everybody is using their phone while driving.”

There are, by now, myriad technological nannies that freeze smartphone activity. Most notably, a recent version of Apple’s iOS operating system can be configured to keep a phone asleep when its owner is driving and to send an automated text response to incoming messages. However, the “Do Not Disturb” function can be overridden by the person trying to get in touch. More critically, safety advocates note that such systems require an opt-in from the same users who have difficulty ignoring their phones in the first place.

Oregon Drivers Tops in West When it comes to Deer Collisions

According to State Farm’s study, the likelihood of colliding with a deer more than doubles during October, November and December - deer mating season.

It’s almost deer season for hunters, but Oregon’s drivers are No. 1 in the West when it comes to run-ins with deer.

Insurance company State Farm reported Wednesday, Oct. 4, that drivers in the Beaver State routinely collide with more deer each year than in neighboring states to the north and south. The company’s 15th annual deer claim study found that one of every 254 Oregon drivers will likely collide with a deer.

Oregon ranks low (No. 37) on a national scale of states where a deer collision is likely to occur. Its West Coast neighbors are a bit safer, according to the study. Washington ranks No. 42 (one in 356), and California is No. 50 (one in 1,117).

According to the study, the likelihood of colliding with a deer more than doubles during October, November and December — deer mating season. The cost to repair the large animal collisions average nearly $4,179 per claim, compared to $3,995 in 2016.

West Virginia took top honors in the State Farm survey, where chances of colliding with a deer are one in 43. Montana (one in 57), Pennsylvania (one in 63), Iowa (one in 69) and Wisconsin (one in 72) round out the top five.

The State Farm survey used insurance claims data and state licensed driver counts from the Federal Highway Administration to calculate the chances of a driver striking a deer, elk, moose or caribou between July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017.

State Farm’s tips for avoiding deer collisions: drive slower at dusk and dawn (when deer are most active); brake if you can to avoid a collision, but don’t swerve, which can cause a more severe crash; and don’t rely on things like deer whistles, which aren’t effective.

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Topic Date Time Registration TREC Workshop: Ann Niles Active Transportation featuring Tamika Butler 11/8 5:30 pm More InfoTREC Workshop: Webinar - Location Affordability in US Shrinking Cities 11/9 10 am More InfoTREC Workshop: California’s Paradigm Shift from LOS to VMT 11/17 12 pm More InfoTREC Workshop: New Probe Data to Measure Cycling Behavior & Safety 12/1 12 pm More InfoTREC Workshop: Webinar - Case Studies in the FTA 12/4 11 am More InfoTREC Workshop: Webinar - Bike-Ped Portal 12/19 10 am More InfoTREC Workshop: Factors Influencing Freight Mode Choice 1/12 12 pm More Info

Transportation Safety Workshops TREC Events UP Highway Safety Workshops OSU Kiewit Center

TREC Workshops are typically held at PSU.

OSU Workshop: Traffic Engineering Fundamentals 12/5-12/7 More Info

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today released fatal traffic crash data for calendar year 2016. According to NHTSA data, which was collected from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, 37,461 lives were lost on U.S. roads in 2016, an increase of 5.6 percent from calendar year 2015.

The number of vehicle miles traveled on U.S. roads in 2016 increased by 2.2 percent, and resulted in a fatality rate of 1.18 deaths per 100 million VMT – a 2.6-percent increase from the previous year.

NHTSA found that distracted driving and drowsy driving fatalities declined, while deaths related to other reckless behaviors – including speeding, alcohol impairment, and not wearing seat belts – continued to increase. Motorcyclist and pedestrian deaths accounted for more than a third of the year-to-year increase.

The 2016 national data shows that:• Distraction-related deaths (3,450 fatalities) decreased by 2.2 percent;• Drowsy-driving deaths (803 fatalities) decreased by 3.5 percent;• Drunk-driving deaths (10,497 fatalities) increased by 1.7 per cent;• Speeding-related deaths (10,111 fatalities) increased by 4.0 percent;• Unbelted deaths (10,428 fatalities) increased by 4.6 percent;• Motorcyclist deaths (5,286 fatalities – the largest number of motorcyclist fatalities since 2008) increased by 5.1 percent;• Pedestrian deaths (5,987 fatalities – the highest number since 1990) increased by 9.0 percent; and• Bicyclist deaths (840 fatalities – the highest number since 1991) increased by 1.3 percent.

NHTSA continues to work closely with its state and local partners, law enforcement agencies, and the more than 350 members of the Road to Zero Coalition to help address the human choices that are linked to 94 percent of serious crashes. NHTSA also continues to promote vehicle technologies that hold the potential to reduce the number of crashes and save thousands of lives every year, and may eventually help reduce or eliminate human error and the mistakes that drivers make behind the wheel.

Click here to view 2016 Fatal Motor Vehicle Crashes: Overview

Click here to view 2016 Quick Facts

UP Highway: Improving Safety Features of Highways, Local Roads & Streets 11/20 9 am More InfoUP Highway: Improving Safety Features of Highways, Local Roads & Streets 11/21 9 am More InfoUP Highway: Improving Safety Features of Highways, Local Roads & Streets 12/8 9 am More Info

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Date City Location Address Time11/9 Ontario Ontario Fire 444 Southwest 4th Street 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm 11/11 Hillsboro Tuality Health Ctr. 334 Southeast 8th Avenue 9:00 am - 11:30 am11/14 Coos Bay Coos Bay Fire 450 Elrod Avenue 11:00 am - 1:00 pm11/15 Redmond Redmond Fire 341 NW Dogwood Ave. 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm11/16 Eugene Eugene Fire 1725 West 2nd Avenue 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm11/18 Vancouver Peace Health* 92 Avenue Entrance 8:45 am - 2:15 pm11/18 Beaverton Beaverton Police Dept. 3725 SW Cedar Hills Blvd. 9:00 am - 12:00 pm11/18 Keizer Keizer Fire District 661 Chemawa Road NE 11:00 am - 2:00 pm11/20 Bend Bend Fire Department 1212 SW Simpson Avenue 11:30 am - 2:30 pm 11/30 Forest Grove Forest Grove Fire 1919 Ash Street 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm12/2 Portland Washington Co. Sheriff 4876 NW Bethany Blvd. 9:00 am - 11:30 am12/2 Springfield PeaceHealth River Bend 333 Riverbend Drive 10:00 am - 12:00 pm12/7 Redmond Redmond Fire 341 NW Dogwood Ave. 11:00 am - 2:00 pm12/9 Hillsboro Tuality Health Ctr. 334 Southeast 8th Avenue 9:00 am - 11:30 am12/12 Salem Salem Hospital Visitor Parking Garage 11:00 am - 2:00 pm12/12 Coos Bay Coos Bay Fire 450 Elrod Avenue 11:00 am - 1:00 pm

www.Child Safety Seat Resource Center.org

Car Seat Check-Up Events and Fitting Stations

*Peace Health Event: Registration required by 8:45 am for 9:00-10:00 am class. First come, first served. Must attend class to participate in the clinic, which is held from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

Fatal Crashes in Rural vs.

Urban Environments

Drivers and passengers are three to 10 times more likely to be killed in crashes in rural areas vs. urban environments, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The proximity of trauma care is one reason. Another: Seat belt use is lower in rural areas. CDC found 61% of drivers and passengers killed in America’s most rural counties were not wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.

Promoting seat belt use is one of the least expensive and most efficient ways for employers to save lives and save money. Crashes can wreck your bottom line. Take proactive steps to combat the costly toll of incidents. Educate employees on risky driving behaviors. At the same time, reduce your liability exposure.

Try these three simple ways:

Conduct a simple physics lesson: Seat belts in a collision. What would happen if you or your passengers were not wearing a seat belt and your vehicle was brought to a sudden and abrupt halt in a collision with a tree?

Share a nugget: Riders in the back seat who use lap and shoulder belts are 44% more likely to survive a crash than unrestrained occupants in passenger cars. In passenger vans and SUVs, the likelihood of survival increases to 73%.

Watch a video: Doesn’t Matter How Far; Just Belt Up Article credit to National Safety Council