With a new administration comes new opportunities for auto safety. There are two areas in which the president’s new appointee to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) can immediately improve American auto safety. First, he or she can complete the revamping of some of our most antiquated auto safety regulations. For example, we [...]
Keeping Belts Snug in Rollover
December 26, 2008
We have seen a remarkable number of cases in which seat belted occupants are somehow either partially ejected or completely thrown from a vehicle during a rollover despite the fact that they were wearing their seat belts. The evidence points to a startling conclusion: seatbelts are not reliably remaining locked during the course of a [...]
Finding a Safe Car Part Two: Three Safety Features to Insist on for Your New Car
December 22, 2008
I wouldn’t buy a new car without the following three safety features: 1. Electronic Stability Control (“ESC”). These systems sense loss of control systems before it gets out of hand. By sensing any kind of vehicle slippage to the left or right, they use the vehicle’s antilock brake system components and other existing systems to [...]
Finding a Safe Car Part One: Three Essential Resources
December 18, 2008
Friends often ask me whether the car they are thinking of buying is safe. I always refer them to these three terrific sources of car safety information: 1. WWW.SAFERCAR.GOV – This is the government’s website reporting on its safety testing of vehicles. The government doesn’t test every vehicle sold, but it tests many of them, [...]
