Personal Injury Blog

Most drunk driving accidents across the country involve persons who were driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of between .13 and .24. That is much above the .08% legally permissible blood-alcohol concentration limit that is in effect not just in Nevada, but across the country. A new study finds that punishments for driving above the .08% alcohol permissible limit is one of the reasons, why there has been a reduced risk of re-offenses, contributing to a lower risk of accidents.

Repeat offenders are not just at a higher risk of being arrested for DUI, but also at a higher risk of causing an accident. By the time a person is arrested for DUI, he has already driven while impaired several times. Repeat offenders are much more likely to cause a serious or fatal accident.

The study by researchers at the University of Oregon which focused on DUI accidents in Washington, found that punishments for drivers who were legally drunk at the time of their arrest, led to a reduction in the number of re-offenses. They also led to an additional 9% reduction in the number of cases in which the BAC level of the intoxicated motorist was above the .15% limit.

The National Transportation Safety Board has, for some time now, been mulling proposals to lower the minimum blood-alcohol concentration that is currently at .08. The fact is also that a person driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of .05% is impaired to some extent, and has a higher risk of causing an accident. Several groups have called for a lowering of the blood-alcohol concentration, and the results of the study could be used to further those proposals.

A number of automakers have now accepted that drowsy driving is the next major challenge facing American drivers. Many of them have now begun investing in technologies, designed to detect when a motorist is too tired to be driving.

Nissan recently announced an exciting new technology that it says will help reduce the risk of drowsy driving accidents, by detecting fatigue or drowsiness in a motorist. According to statistics by the AAA, close to 40 percent of drivers have reported falling asleep at the wheel at some point, while 11%, reported dozing off while driving over the past year alone. In the United States, drowsy drivers are responsible for as many as 300,000 accidents, and more than 6,400 fatalities every year.

Several automakers are experimenting with technologies that are aimed at identifying signs of drowsiness in a motorist, and warning him when he is in danger of dozing off. Most of these technologies are not very sophisticated however, and focus on warning a motorist, depending on the amount of time that he has been driving at a stretch.

Now, Nissan has announced the introduction of a new drowsy driving detection system on its new models. This system is designed to analyze driving behavior, and look for signs of drowsiness in a motorist. When the system detects that the driver is in danger of dozing off, it flashes a little coffee mug symbol in the center of the instrument panel along with an audible warning.

The system detects drowsiness by monitoring steering input patterns of the driver using sensors, and comparing these to patterns of subsequent driving. When it finds behaviors that are typical of a drowsy motorist, it immediately delivers a visible and audible alert.

If you were injured in a drowsy driving accident, speak to a Las Vegas car accident lawyer for help filing a claim.

When motorists see road signs that show more action, or faster-moving figures, they're much more likely to react quickly to the sign.

Those interesting findings came from a study that was conducted recently by the researchers at the University Of Michigan. The results of the study were published recently in the Journal of Consumer Research, and the findings indicate that when people see warning signs that show greater movement and faster action, they're much more likely to react quickly.

When a warning sign shows figures moving at high speeds, motorists are likely to react much more quickly, than when they're looking at signs in which images are moving in a much more slower fashion. An example is a school crossing sign. In some signs, the figures look as if they're walking across, while in others, they look like they're sprinting across.

When motorists see the signs in which the imagery is faster-paced, they're much more likely to respond, and slow down. In other words, the faster-moving imagery seems to convey to drivers a sense that child pedestrians are likely to run out into the road in front of them. In contrast, when you see signs in which the imagery is slower, and there isn't much action happening, you are much more likely to respond slowly.

The researchers used eye-tracking technology, and found that when motorists looked at warning signs with fast-paced imagery, their eyes reacted much more quickly, and they paid attention much quicker than when they were looking at static signs.

Injury prevention depends not just on increasing safety inside a car, but also optimizing the environment outside a car to maximize a motorist’s ability to react and respond in time to prevent an accident. Traffic control devices like warning signs, play a major role in this.

Need assistance filing a car accident claim? Speak to a Las Vegas car accident attorney.