Free Republic

Traffic fatalities in the United States have been plummeting for years, a major victory for regulation (strict drunken driving laws have helped) and auto innovation (we have safer cars). But that progress obscures a surprising type of inequality: The most disadvantaged are more likely — and have grown even more likely over time — to die in car crashes than people who are well-off. New research by Sam Harper, Thomas J. Charters and Erin C. Strumpf, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, finds that improvements in road safety since the 1990s haven't been evenly shared. The biggest declines in...

Saturday, July 18th, was the fortieth anniversary of the day that Mary Jo Kopechne drowned at Chappaquiddick (an island part of Edgartown,Massachusetts) in a car driven off a bridge by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D.-Mass.). And, still, questions linger. What did Kennedy do that night? Was he intoxicated? Why wasn’t he prosecuted? The one question still pondered by political observers on all sides: did what is known universally known as “the Chappadquiddick incident” keep Kennedy from being elected President? Clearly, it did. For younger readers who know Kennedy -- now 77 and battling cancer -- primarily as the premier voice...

Micro cars can give motorists top-notch fuel efficiency ..., but the insurance industry says they don't fare too well in collisions with larger vehicles. In crash tests released Tuesday, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that drivers of 2009 versions of the Smart "fortwo," Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris could face significant leg and head injuries in severe front-end crashes with larger, mid-size vehicles. "There are good reasons people buy mini cars. They're more affordable, and they use less gas. But the safety trade-offs are clear from our new tests," said Adrian Lund, the institute's president. Automakers who manufacture...

Police in Winona say a smelly spill caused at least five traffic accidents. A truck spilled a load of apparent chicken renderings while traveling on a street Thursday. The contents covered an eight-block area and ended up on - or inside - many vehicles parked along the street. The slippery pavement caused at least four rear-end collisions between vehicles unable to stop at intersections. A moped also tipped over because of the road conditions. No injuries are reported. Police are trying to locate the truck. Deputy Winona Police Chief Paul Bostrack says it's believed the truck may have been hauling...

The person who died in a single-car accident on county road S2 in the Anza-Borrego Desert on Tuesday night was a woman, 55, from Jiutepec, Mexico, the California Highway Patrol said yesterday. At a border checkpoint on S2, U.S. Border Patrol agents asked the driver of a northbound Ford sedan, a 37-year-old man from Chula Vista, if they could check the trunk, according to the CHP. The vehicle sped away and the driver apparently lost control of it between Canebrake in eastern San Diego County and Ocotillo in Imperial County. The car went into the desert terrain, hitting two big...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. traffic deaths rose nearly 1 percent in 2003 and reached a 13-year high at 43,220, the government reported on Wednesday. It was the fifth straight year road deaths rose, although passenger car fatalities decreased. Sport utility vehicle deaths went up roughly 10 percent over 2002, with more than half of the victims in those crashes killed in rollovers. Motorcycle deaths also jumped. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (news - web sites) said preliminary figures showed 405 more highway deaths overall in 2003 than the previous year and the most since 1990 when...

By the Associated Press [WIBC News] - The Indiana State Police are investigating why a man killed in a car crash was carrying three identifications and four checkbooks with different names. Police initially thought there were two occupants in the car that crashed late Sunday, killing Q. Naim Abdullah, 24, of Plainfield. State police troopers and volunteer firefighters searched the high weeds and mud at the scene of the crash on Interstate 65 in southern Bartholomew County, but no one else was found. Abdulla was traveling northbound at a high rate of speed, swerved to miss a tractor trailer and...