The driver of the Dodge Challenger, whose car died last year, is a repeat offender with drug in his system and speeding as a selling point on television
The driver in the Las Vegas crash has drugs in his system. He also had a long record of speeding violations, including a traffic stop just weeks before. But he was never identified as a repeat offender, the NTSB said, in part because some of those speeding violations were pleaded down to parking violations.
In a statement, the parent company of Dodge said it extends “sincerest sympathies” to the family and friends of the people who died. Our owner’s manual encourages drivers to follow all traffic safety laws.
Meanwhile, those same automakers routinely use speed as a selling point on TV in ads like this one for the Dodge Challenger — the same car the driver in the Las Vegas crash was driving last year when he killed 9 people, including himself.
It’s important for transportation policies that focus on driver education and awareness, strong laws and law enforcement and funding to support these safety initiatives while vehicle technology is involved, said the group in a statement.
Safety advocates say the U.S. lags behind Europe, where speed assistance technology is already widespread. It’s set to become mandatory there for all new passenger cars next year.
Speed assistance systems sometimes get confused in real-world settings, said Kelly Funkhouser, a vehicle technology expert at Consumer Reports. There are many highway interchanges with multiple lanes and surface streets where sensor can accidentally set the speed limit on one road for the other.
Source: Slow down! As deaths and injuries mount, new calls for technology to reduce speeding
New York City’s Road Safety Pilot: Increasing the Speed of New Vehicles in the U.S., After the Las Vegas Collision
The pilot has gone well enough for the city to add 300 city vehicles, including 50 school buses. The city manages a fleet of more than 23,000 vehicles.
“If this is a successful pilot, we want to see this go throughout every vehicle that we are using in our city fleet,” Mayor Eric Adams said in announcing a pilot program last year.
Technology that caps the speed that vehicles can travel is already being deployed in New York City, which is testing it on a limited basis in its fleet of municipal vehicles.
The NTSB studied the Las Vegas crash, meeting last month to review its findings. And for the first time, the board called for U.S. automakers to install technology to reduce speeding in all new cars.
There probably isn’t enough consumer sentiment asking for it from the car makers. There may not be enough political pressure asking for it,” Jones said. “Once people start asking for this, maybe it won’t need to be a mandate. But until then, I think that’s probably what it’s going to take.”
The chair of the National transportation safety board said that they have a public health crisis and have to take action to prevent deaths and injuries.
A number of people died in car crashes in the US last year due to speeding. Speed-related crashes accounted for roughly 12,000 deaths in 2021, the last year for which there are complete statistics, and hundreds of thousands of injuries.
A Nevada woman’s crash: A search for speeding technology as a solution to the trauma of losing a loved one’s vehicle
“I’ve been dealing with this from emotionally, spiritually, physically, cognitively, my entire being,” May said. I am grieving like many things.
Nine people died in a Nevada crash in January of last year. Seven were members of a single family who were riding together in a minivan, including four brothers younger than 18.
May said that she remember getting hit and the sound of broken glass. “I remember seeing fire. I was concerned that my dog and I were going to die if I didn’t get out.
She was just a few minutes away from home in North Las Vegas when a car flew into an intersection and crashed into her.
Source: Slow down! As deaths and injuries mount, new calls for technology to reduce speeding
Road Safety in Nevada for the Underserved: Losing a Child Ignoring Adversarial Debris and Alcoholics
“There’s a sound in my head that plays every day,” May said. “I hear an overwhelming sound of women screaming. It feels like they are saying ‘the babies, the babies.’ A very loud screeching, terrible sound.”
Since the crash, May says she’s learned a lot about roadway safety. She is now employed by the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety. And she advocates for better traffic safety systems – including treatment options for people who drive under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
“It’s devastating to go from being athletic to using assistive devices and being stared at people asking uncomfortable questions,” May said. I used to be an athlete. Now I can’t even run. I can’t be around for long. I can’t walk long distances, or even sit in certain seats.”
Up First Briefing: 4th GOP debate; safety experts want tech to reduce speeding (with an appendix by P.C. Martin, A.J. Tuberville)
Good morning. You are reading a newsletter. You can also subscribe to the Up First radio show for all the news you need to start your day.
Four Republican presidential hopefuls take the stage for another debate tonight — the smallest group so far. Former president Donald Trump, who is still the frontrunner, is not attending. The smaller lineup could give participants a chance to stand out. Here’s how to watch the debate tonight and what’s at stake for the candidates.
Support for funding to assist Ukraine is wavering as the war with Russia continues. U.S. aid is set to run out at the end of the year, and European countries are divided.
The Sen. Tommy Tuberville had held hundreds of promotions in the military. He is blocking votes on promotions because he dislikes a Pentagon policy that pays for trips for troops who seek abortion care.
Source: Up First briefing: 4th GOP debate; safety experts want tech to reduce speeding
The suspect in the home explosion in Virginia, and what he told NPR about Izzeldin Abuelaish, an Israeli doctor who worked in an Israeli hospital
The suspect in the home explosion in Virginia has been identified by Arlington County police. Police suspect that James Yong is dead, and are looking into what caused the home to catch fire. Here’s what we know about the situation.
The first Palestinian to work in an Israeli hospital in the 1990s is Izzeldin Abuelaish. He believes in equality and peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Abuelaish first spoke with NPR after he lost his wife to leukemia in 2008 and three of his daughters were killed by an Israeli tank shell in 2009. He wrote a book titled I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the road to peace and human dignity after moving to Canada. The war brought a tragedy last month, when 22 members of his family died in an Israeli airstrike.