Return to January 2003 Newsletter

In The News

Every day the ARC Network updates the web site with valuable, important industry news. Following are a few articles from last month.

 

Vision Experts and Law Enforcement Agree - Driving and Sun Glare Can Be a Deadly Mixture As the nation braces for more winter weather, there may be an increase in the number of traffic accidents due to motorists being temporarily blinded by the sun, mainly because of the glare from highly reflective snow and ice. Without adequate protection, sun glare not only endangers drivers' safety, but also creates a vision-health hazard for winter outdoor enthusiasts. According to lens expert David Rips, problems associated with glare from the sun while driving are largely unrecognized, but likely affect the vast majority of adults. It also appears that as people age, they become more susceptible to glare and require a longer period of time to recover from exposure to glare. "The danger comes primarily from two different conditions of light from the sun," said Rips, president and chief executive officer of Younger Optics, an international leader in the development of lens technology. "One occurs when driving directly into the bright sunlight, temporary blinding the driver. The other condition comes from reflected light off of another vehicle, the roadway, or any reflective surface." The glare-induced "blindness" is especially prevalent during the winter months, due to the lower elevation of the sun in the sky and the extremely reflective qualities of snow and ice on the ground. The powerful glare of the winter sun has the potential to damage the eye. Because snow is so reflective, there is a risk of up to 85 percent of the UV rays of the sun being transmitted upward. Read the full article

MADD's 'Drink, Drive & Lose' Campaign is a Wrong Turn In War Against Drunk Driving America's war on drunk driving took a wrong turn today when a coalition of government and law enforcement officials vowed to set up roadblocks to arrest anyone who drives after drinking alcohol, even if they are well below the blood alcohol content arrest threshold. Chief William B. Berger, the immediate past president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, threatened that if you are stopped at a roadblock after consuming adult beverages, "you'll get a ride to jail." He added, "We will not allow a man or woman to leave (a roadblock) knowing they consumed alcohol ... " Chief Berger was among several speakers who kicked off the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's "You Drink & Drive. You Lose." campaign. While the American Beverage Institute endorses the campaign's plan to arrest and punish drunk drivers, the restaurant group strongly opposes efforts to target and arrest responsible adults whose only "crime" is having a beer, glass of wine or cocktail with a meal at a restaurant before driving home. "The very name of the program is misguided," said John Doyle, executive director of the ABI. "Drunk driving is a real problem in America. But as a past-president of MADD stated back in 1996, it has been reduced to a hard core of alcoholics. "Today these people are hijacking the nation's original agenda to get drunks off the road and are now running plays out of the neo-prohibition playbook by targeting responsible adults leaving restaurants, receptions and sporting events." Read the full article

CAPE and CART Partner to Evaluate Race Car Driver Safety Unique barrier crash test on racecar impacts chassis design in 2005 Recently at the annual SAE Motorsports Engineering Conference 2002 Show, IMMI, a leading developer of occupant restraint systems, announced it has conducted a rare crash test of a CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) racecar. The test took place November 12, 2002, at IMMI's CAPE (Center for Advanced Product Evaluation) facility in Westfield, Indiana. The purpose of the test was to gather data to help design a new chassis for 2005 and study driver safety. The test, the first in a series the company will conduct for the racing organization, was a full frontal impact at 50 miles per hour into a barrier using a 2001 CART Champ car. CART's test objective was to evaluate occupant dynamics in a crash and assess driver injuries and to create a real world crash test profile for future restraint system development for drivers through sled testing and engineering crashworthiness computer analysis. "This type of rare barrier crash test is a welcomed challenge to our CAPE facility and staff," said Bill Hurley, Market Development Manager, CAPE. "Teaming with CART to improve vehicle crashworthiness and driver safety in future CART vehicles is exactly why IMMI built this type of test facility." To conduct the test, CAPE engineers used a fully instrumented Hybrid III 50th-percentile crash test dummy to measure injuries and fully instrumented the racecar. The November 12 test and the agreement with CART are not the company's first foray into testing race vehicles. Race organizations and teams based in and around Indianapolis have called on CAPE's unique testing capabilities to evaluate occupant injuries as well as the energy-absorbing characteristics of vehicles. Read the full article

Return to January 2003 Newsletter