Infograph: Stay Safe On The Road This Summer (~2X as many fatalities during summer months than the rest of the year combined)

July 21, 2014 at 8:00 am

As alcohol-related accidents tend to increase in the summer months, I’d like to remind you (& all Americans) that buzzed driving can put a stop to summer fun. Here are some surprising facts:

  • Nearly twice as many people are killed in auto accidents during the summer months than the rest of the year combined.
  • 1 drunken-driving fatality occurred every 51 minutes in 2012
  • 35% of all drivers in nighttime fatal crashes who were alcohol-impaired
  • 24% of males drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2012 had a Blood Alcohol Content of .08 or higher
  • A DUI can cost drivers up to $10,000 — that’s more than three months worth of income for the average working American

But before you down that extra beer and get behind the steering wheel in your vehicle, you might want to take a look at this infograph (via Ad Council):

Image courtesy: via Ad Council

As part of an ongoing “Buzzed Driving” public service campaign, the Ad Council has also partnered with I Heart Radio on a new website with more statistics and resources to help talk to students, kids and friends about safe driving in the summer: iheartradio.com/summerdriving. Help us spread the word and save a few lives.  Stay Safe!

On point and delivered with unmatched sophistication – No one does road safety messages like the Aussies

February 16, 2012 at 3:17 pm

(Source: via Reddit)

Image Courtesy: Imgur.com via Reddit

And here is the funny road safety campaign video featuring the sign above. How much I wish America adopted this blunt, yet funny style of conveying the message. Our American campaign signs are boring compared to the Aussies’. PERIOD!

Disturbing News from Department of Energy – Audit Cites Nuclear Weapons Drivers Got Drunk (sometimes?!) on Job

November 22, 2010 at 8:52 pm

(source: Washington Post’s Federal Eye)

This is very disconcerting, to say the least. But I’m glad at ths ame time they are working to fix the problem.

Federal agents responsible for driving nuclear weapons and other sensitive materials sometimes got drunk and were detained by police while on the job, according to a new watchdog report.

report released Monday by the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General found 16 alcohol-related incidents between 2007 and 2009 involving personnel with the National Nuclear Security Administration‘s Office of Surface Transportation (OST). About 600 OST agents are responsible for safely transporting or shipping nuclear weapons and other materials across the country.

Two incidents involved extended overnight missions where OST agents parked convoy vehicles in safe harbor before checking in at nearby hotels, the report said. In separate incidents, an agent was arrested in 2007 for public intoxication while two agents were handcuffed and temporarily detained by police officers in 2009, according to the report.

Click here to read the entire story.

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Wanna be famous? Get a DUI in Evsham TWP, NJ; Cops will post your DUI mugshots on Facebook

August 17, 2010 at 3:48 pm

(Source: Allfacebook.com)

There are so many reasons not to drink and drive, but if residents of Evsham Township needed one more, their police department has given it to them: now, drunk drivers get featured on the Evsham Township Police Facebook page, complete with name, listed offence, and mug shot. While this might be an effective way to deter criminals, there are some that question whether it is ethical to post these details on a Facebook page that can be viewed by millions of users.

police-department

Image courtesy: Allfacebook.com

Drunk drivers are not the only criminals to find themselves in the red hot spotlight of the Evsham Township Police Facebook page: a car thief, a store robber, a gang found fighting in the street and a movie theater burglar are among those with their mug shots splashed across the page. But the drunk drivers are the sticking point for a lot of legal and ethical debates. Is it right to post pictures of people who have been charged but not yet convicted?

Click here to read the entire story.

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Nuns dismayed by politicization of DUI accident.

August 3, 2010 at 5:07 pm

Decry attention on man’s status as an alleged illegal immigrant. Incident occurred Sunday morning when three nuns traveling by car was hit by an allegedly drunk driver. The crash killed one and left two others critically injured.

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com
Carlos Montano, 23, is charged in the crash.

The religious order that was home to three nuns whose car was hit Sunday morning by an alleged drunk driver in Northern Virginia said it is upset at what it views as the politicization of the incident.

Sister Glenna Smith, a spokeswoman for the Benedictine Sisters, said Tuesday that “we are dismayed” by reports that the crash, which killed one woman and critically injured two others, is focusing attention on the man’s status as an alleged illegal immigrant. Critics of federal immigration policy have seized on the crash.

“The fact the he had DUIs is really poignant, but he’s a child of God and deserves to be treated with dignity,” Smith said of the driver, Carlos A. Martinelly Montano. “I don’t want to make a pro- or anti-immigrant statement but simply a point that he is an individual human person and we will be approaching him with mercy. Denise, of all us, would be the first to offer forgiveness.”

Read more at www.washingtonpost.com

 

Forklift + Drunk driver @ Russian vodka warehouse = $100,000 loss for Warehouse owner

November 2, 2009 at 10:33 pm

(Source: Mashable)

This astonishing video of a Russian forklift driver who smashes until shelves of Cognac and Vodka, and subsequently destroys a huge portion of the Moscow warehouse.

The driver of the forklift lost control, slammed into stock shelves, and seconds later was covered in bottles of alcohol. The driver is said to be okay with a minor leg injury, but the warehouse is looking at over $100,000 in damages.

Ladies, we have a drinking problem! Experts say American women are drinking more, DUIs are up

August 8, 2009 at 12:12 pm

(Source: Associated Press)

It seemed too horrendous even to imagine. But the case of the mother who caused a deadly wrong-way crash while drunk and stoned is part of a disturbing trend: Women in the U.S. are drinking more, and drunken-driving arrests among women are rising rapidly while falling among men.

And some of those women, as in the New York case, are getting behind the wheel with kids in the back.

Men still drink more than women and are responsible for more drunken-driving cases. But the gap is narrowing, and among the reasons cited are that women are feeling greater pressures at work and home, they are driving more, and they are behaving more recklessly.

AP Photo

Image Courtesy: The Associated Press - Graphic shows driving under the influence arrests for men and women for 1998 and 2007; includes alcohol-impaired women drivers involved in fatal crashes

“Younger women feel more empowered, more equal to men, and have been beginning to exhibit the same uninhibited behaviors as men,” said Chris Cochran of the California Office of Traffic Safety.

Another possible reason cited for the rising arrests: Police are less likely to let women off the hook these days.

Nationwide, the number of women arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs was 28.8 percent higher in 2007 than it was in 1998, while the number of men arrested was 7.5 percent lower, according to FBI figures that cover about 56 percent of the country. (Despite the incomplete sample, Alfred Blumstein, a Carnegie Mellon University criminologist, said the trend probably holds true for the country as a whole.)

In New York’s Westchester County, where Diane Schuler’s crash killed her and seven other people last month, the number of women arrested for drunken driving is up 2 percent this year, and officers said they are noticing more women with children in the back seat.

Schuler’s relatives have denied she was an alcoholic and said they were shocked to learn of her drug and alcohol use before the July 26 crash. The wreck, about 35 miles north of New York City, killed Schuler, her 2-year-old daughter, her three nieces and three men in an oncoming SUV she hit with her minivan. Schuler’s 5-year-old son survived his injuries.

Schuler, a cable company executive, could have had a drinking problem that her family didn’t know about, said Elaine Ducharme, a psychologist in Connecticut who has seen more excessive drinking, overeating, smoking and drug abuse during the recession.

In the Chicago suburb of Wheaton, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s daughter was stopped by police after she pulled away from a McDonald’s with three of her kids in the car. She pleaded guilty to drunken driving and was sentenced to 18 months of court supervision.

One federal study found that the number of women who reported abusing alcohol (having at least four drinks in a day) rose from 1.5 percent to 2.6 percent over the 10-year period that ended in 2002. For women ages 30 to 44, Schuler’s age group, the number more than doubled, from 1.5 percent to 3.3 percent.

The problem has caught the attention of the federal government. The Transportation Department’s annual crackdown on drunken driving, which begins later this month, will focus on women.

Click here to read the entire article.

Spate of car crashes across Russia kills more than 100 people in one week; Government blames country’s “systemic” road problems

August 2, 2009 at 8:52 am

(Source: BBC)

A spate of car crashes across Russia has killed more than 100 people in one week – leading the government to blame the country’s “systemic” road problems.

Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev blamed criminal negligence and a road culture lacking basic driving skills.

He admitted Russian roads are bad, infrastructure is weak and drivers often chat on their mobile phones at high speed or drive while drunk.

Over 10,000 people died on Russian roads in 2009 – Europe’s highest toll.

In the last week a drunk driver in Perm hit a pregnant woman and child in a car-park, killing them both.

The Russian government has made earnest attempts to combat bad driving – including employing legions of traffic police with stop and search powers.

But Mr Nurgaliev admitted most drivers in Russia still think they can break the law and get away with it.

Click here to read the entire article.