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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.

 

AAA Leads Fight for Stronger Occupant Protection Laws in Eight States safety With the passage of Colorado's law last week, eight states recently succeeded in closing the loopholes in child occupant protection laws, according to AAA's Seated, Safe and Secure report on child passenger safety. The report is the first in a series that monitors the progress of state efforts to strengthen child occupant protection laws. After launching its nationwide Seated, Safe and Secure campaign in March and offering its model "Guidelines For Effective Child Passenger Safety Legislation," AAA's network of club representatives have led efforts to strengthen child occupant protection laws in Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia. "We're off to a good start, but we have a very ambitious campaign goal of closing the loopholes in child occupant protection laws in every state and the District of Columbia by 2005," said Susan Pikrallidas, AAA vice president of public affairs. "With motor vehicle crashes being the leading cause of death for children, we will also continue to increase public awareness through education and serve as a national resource for child passenger safety issues to our members and the general public." Read the full article

US aims to reduce fatal light truck, car crashes By John Crawley The U.S. government will seek ways to reduce the increasing number of deaths among people in passenger cars who collide with sport utility vehicles and other light trucks, the nation's top auto safety regulator said on Wednesday. Jeffrey Runge, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said industry and government needed to examine the problem, which stems the fact that highly popular SUVs and light trucks are heavier and ride higher than traditional passenger cars. Previous attempts by the government to study the issue fell flat even though consumers have been snapping up SUVs and pickups for several years. Each year since 1995, more people in passenger cars have been killed in crashes with light trucks than in crashes with other passenger cars, the highway safety agency said. There were 6.3 million accidents on U.S. roads in 2001 with 41,730 fatalities. Most victims were not wearing seat belts, NHTSA figures showed. Read the full article

Acute Stress Disorder Is Common Among Children and Parents Following Pediatric Traffic Injury According to Researchers at The Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia In 90 percent of families with children injured in a traffic crash, the child or a parent will suffer at least one significant acute stress symptom, according to a study at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. And 25 percent of children and parents experience more pervasive symptoms that warrant clinical attention. Nancy Kassam-Adams, Ph.D. and Flaura K. Winston, M.D., Ph.D., co-authors of the study in the June 2002 issue of Pediatrics, offer guidelines for assessing acute stress symptoms in children and parents. "The study investigated the range of acute stress symptoms in children and their parents to enable pediatricians to better identify and address the psychological impact of injury," said Dr. Kassam-Adams, associate director of behavioral research, TraumaLink at Children's Hospital. "Evidence about the prevalence of these symptoms in injured children can help physicians distinguish between normal reactions to trauma and reactions that require further care and follow-up." Read the full article

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