Assignment 7/19

Part One: Article One-
Driver in Deadly Motel Crash Is Charged
By Associated Press
11:45 AM EDT, July 20, 2007
ANTIGO, Wis. - A man who plowed his sports utility vehicle through a motel, killing a sleeping man, had a blood-alcohol level more than five times the legal limit to drive, authorities said. Stephen VanVleit, 58, of Antigo was charged with felony homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle, felony homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle, and drunken driving, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday. His blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash was 0.46 percent, the complaint said. The legal limit to drive in Wisconsin is 0.08 percent.
He was convicted of drunken driving in Arizona in 1998 and 2003, the complaint said. The most serious charge filed against him Thursday carries a sentence of up to 25 years in prison if he's convicted. Jesus Manuel Quirios-Castillo, 26, died in the crash reported around dawn Wednesday at the Good Nite Inn. VanVleit's GMC Yukon hit a truck in the motel parking lot, accelerated, crashed through a brick wall and the window of Room 28, ran over Quirios-Castillo and then went through another wall in the back of the room, investigators said. The SUV then struck a garage and an auto on a neighbor's property, they said. VanVleit lived at the motel. Shortly after the crash, his mother told another resident that her son had been at her home at 4 a.m., was very intoxicated and refused to get a ride home from his uncle, the complaint said. Castillo and his 24-year-old brother, Octavio, were staying in the room because they were scheduled to help dismantle a garden center, sheriff's investigators said. Octavio Castillo suffered some injuries in the crash, the complaint said. Motel manager Robert Lindemann said the surviving brother told a motel resident that he and his brother were to leave Saturday for Mexico to see their mother, whom they hadn't seen in six years. VanVleit was in stable condition at Langlade Memorial Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Copyright © 2007, The Associated Press
http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-motel-crash,0,2557578.story

This story relates to what we have talked about in class because it explains about a man that was irresponsible when drunk. We talk about how drinking affects you and your decision and that it is very wrong to do when driving. Also, even though you might not get caught; there is a high chance you will one day and you will have very serious consequences.

Article Two-
State police will increase traffic patrols on Route 9
By NICOLE ORNE, Reformer Staff

Wednesday, July 18
MARLBORO -- The state police and the town will be working together to curb traffic concerns along Route 9. At last week's Select board meeting, Brattleboro barracks commander Lt. Rick Hopkins told the board that state troopers did, in fact, police the town roads, not just Route 9, a notion expressed by the board the week before. When Hopkins read a recent article in the Reformer about speeding on Route 9, he immediately called up the Select board to set up a meeting. Having read about the town and board's concerns and feelings of helplessness, Hopkins wanted to discuss possible solutions to the problem. There is a lot of communication between the sheriff's department and the state police, he said, so "if there's a sustained, continuous problem on a road and you told the sheriff's department about it, I'd expect to hear about it," and respond. And when Select board member Lucy Gratwick asked for specific amounts of time spent policing back roads, Hopkins assured her that a larger staff was on its way. While the state police are busy right now, Hopkins said there will be three more people on staff by the end of the summer. Right now,
"We start with places where the accidents are." Hopkins had applied for and received a $10,000 grant from the state to aid in accident reduction on Route 9, specifically for the section running through Marlboro. This was used for 2005 and 2006, but the grant focus has since changed, Hopkins said, so he could not re-apply. There was a limited impact, he explained, because real change requires a few years of work. "It's kind of tough to make a big difference in one year," he said. Hopkins agreed that last year was particularly difficult, with several fatal accidents on Route 9. "There are good years and bad years. Last year was a bad year and we couldn't explain why," he said. It was clear that something needed to be done. State Police Lt. Bill O'Leary applied for a grant to create a position for a crash data analyst.
"With the number of fatalities we saw over the years, it became an issue to get real time crash data from Vermont," O'Leary explained. Sarah Kepchar, the new analyst, has spent most of the past two months training.
"She's going to be able to get us data about crash patterns and causes," O'Leary said. "She's just now getting her feet wet. We're hoping, in the next couple of months, to get data reports out to the field commanders." While some accidents, such as weather-related crashes, cannot be fixed by enforcement, Hopkins said, "a lot of them you can."
"What we think we're seeing is faster drivers," Select board member Craig Hammond said.
"It seems people are more distracted when they're driving and just fly," Select board Chairwoman Gail MacArthur added. "With new cars, you don't know you're going so fast." Hopkins agreed, saying that speeding cars could also affect residents' quality of life. Road Commissioner David Elliott said it was important to see the truth of the issue. "It's not out-of-staters," he said. "It's Vermonters that know where they can make up a little time." It was also important to recognize that college students and participants in the summer music festival were not really as much of a problem as suggested, Gratwick said. Its residents in Marlboro and Halifax that cut through town on their way to work, Elliott agreed. Hopkins suggested three solutions:
* The state police could do a speed survey with an unmarked car with a laser.
* They could put a "smart cart," an electronic display that gives drivers a real-time visual of their speed, on the road. Doing so, however, tends to be a double-edged sword as people may accelerate to see how high they can get the reader to go.
* Or Marlboro could send a representative to the community advisory board.
The community advisory board is comprised of people from all towns within a department's jurisdiction. It meets quarterly with the state police to discuss issues, serving as a "conduit between the town and the state police," Hopkins said. Representatives also have a direct contact to call with issues or trends between meetings. Although there was an attempt in the past to send someone from Marlboro, there is currently no representative on the board. The next meeting, possibly an open house, will be held in October. There will be a statewide meeting in December.
http://www.reformer.com/ci_6401077?IADID=Search-www.reformer.com-www.reformer.com

This article relates to what we talked about in class because the police are trying to improve the HTS and make it more safe. The police are trying to keep Route 9 more efficiently driven and keep people safe. Also, if the police improve the security then the HTS will have a big impact because people, cars and roadways will be better pretected.

Third Article-
Driving Small Doesn't Mean Less Safe
Dan Carney
POSTED: 7:40 pm EDT June 19, 2007
UPDATED: 9:43 am EDT June 21, 2007

Until very recently, Americans super sized their vehicles the same way they super size their fast food. After all, more is better, right? But with the price of gasoline hitting $3 or even $4 a gallon, more Americans are slimming down their vehicle purchasing habits.
Many are thinking smaller. Honda, for example, recently reported the most Civic sales ever during the month of May. "Small is big right now," notes Dick Colliver, executive vice president of Honda's American operations. However, going from big to small feels uncomfortable for American drivers. While many don't mind the thought of giving up some surplus cargo space or towing capacity that went unused in large cars, they balk at the idea of trading away safety for fuel economy. These consumers formed their impressions of small car safety at a time, decades ago, when their ability to protect occupants in a collision left much to be desired. Small cars used to fare poorly in laboratory crash tests and produced grossly higher fatality rates in real-world driving. But that notion is outdated. Crash protection has been growing, along with the size of the small cars themselves, over the years. Crash fatalities in the smallest cars on the road fell by 15 percent between 1985 and 1995, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. That was the period when airbags went from a novelty on luxury vehicles to standard equipment on all cars. Today, small cars feature an array of impressive technologies and thoughtful design touches aimed at maximizing their safety, including front and side airbags. High-strength steel withstands blows with less intrusion into the cabin, and electronic driver aids such as antilock brakes and electronic stability control help reduce crashes. These factors produce cars that are dramatically safer than the little cars of yore. Additionally, today's small cars are much bigger and heavier than those of the past. Consider that a 1984 Honda Civic hatchback weighed 1,830 pounds. The lightest version of today's hot-selling version of the Civic tips the scales at 2,628 pounds, and the Si version weighs 2,945 pounds, more than half a ton heavier than the 1984 model. Significantly, most compact cars like the Civic approach the 3,000-pound mark that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has identified as the weight that provides good crash protection on highways populated with many big trucks and SUVs. That's the point of diminishing returns, beyond which each extra pound adds less crash protection, according to IIHS spokesman Russell Rader. What about truly small cars? The 1985 Chevrolet Sprint weighed 1,540 pounds - that's less than the tiny, bullet like cars that raced in the Memorial Day weekend Indy 500. Today's equivalent, the Chevrolet Aveo, weighs 2,348 pounds. And the all-new 2008 Scion xB weighs 3,086 pounds when it's equipped with an automatic transmission. Remarkably, that's heavier than a 1986 Ford Taurus or Buick Century. These numbers show today's small cars aren't the flyweight deathtraps many consumers suppose. That's due to stiffer government requirements and consumers' growing insistence that new cars earn top scores even in non-mandatory crash tests. For example, the federal government has toughened its requirements for things like side impact protection, mandating more metal in a car's side. The Insurance Institute's offset front crash test and side-impact test are not government requirements, but customers insist on top scores in them, so car manufacturers respond by adding reinforcing bulk that improves a car's performance in the tests. Even some of today's smallest cars - like the Honda Fit and Toyota's Yaris - bagged "good" scores (the highest available) from the IIHS's frontal and side crash tests. On the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's tests, the Fit earned the maximum five stars in the frontal crash, and five stars for the front seat in the side impact test, with three stars for the back seat in a side crash. The Yaris got four stars for front crashes and three stars for side impacts. Compare those scores with the old Chevrolet Sprint of 1985. It earned just one star in the frontal test, meaning it met the minimum requirements of that time, but no more. It also weighed much less, so it would be punished more in a collision with a bigger car. Modern small cars are designed for greater safety too, although few are aware of this fact. Unlike full-size pickup and SUVs with rigid bumpers and trailer hitches, a small car is more likely to show visible damage in a crash, as the crumple zones collapse to absorb the blow. Too many consumers still equate a badly damaged vehicle with badly injured occupants, when in fact the vehicle is suffering so the passengers don't have to explain Natae Rayner, senior product education and development administrator for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.
"There are crush zones and crush boxes in the front of the vehicles used to absorb the impact then distribute that force in the proper places," he said. This kind of design could, over time, lead to lighter, more efficient cars that still provide the needed protection for a car's occupants said S.M. Shahed, a corporate fellow for Honeywell Turbo Technologies who researches fuel-saving technologies.Shahed says that very efficient cars (even ones that get up to 100 miles per gallon) have to be lighter than the ones on the road today. They will still protect the occupants as well as today's cars, but would probably suffer enough damage to be totaled even in crashes of just 25 mph.
"I think our philosophy needs to change from safety for the vehicle to safety for the occupant," he said. "What if I have a car that in a 25 mph crash is going be totaled and you are going to be 100 percent safe?" he asked. "If the price you have to pay for a 100 mpg car is totaling the car at 25 mph, I'm willing to pay that price.” We’re nowhere near 100 mpg today, but there are an increasing number of small cars that score well in crash tests. In addition to the subcompact cars already mentioned, compacts like the Honda Civic, Subaru's Impreza, Nissan's Versa and the Toyota Prius all earn "good" scores in both front and side crash tests at IIHS.No small cars earned five stars in every category of NHTSA's testing, but many earned a confidence-inspiring mixture of four- and five-star ratings - that's worth contemplating when you're paying up to $100 to gas up a super sized vehicle.
Copyright 2007 by MSNBC.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

This article relates to what we have talked about in class because gas affects what type of vehicle that is bought but there talking about how if the car is smaller it always isn't safer. If a small vehicle gets into a collision with a bigger vehicle; which one is the most likely one to have less damages? the bigger one. Even though a smaller car would be great on gas mileage, it might not keep you safe in a collision which could end up costing even more.
http://www.wptz.com/news/13537700/detail.html

Part Two: timing arrival for green
First you see the light in the target area and see a red light as a closed zone. Then, check your rear zone and alert your rear zone by braking. Next, begin constant braking and time your arrival into the open zone. After at 10 mph, go or stop. If it's a green light search the intersection and if it's a red light stop smoothly.

Part Three: The benefits of keeping a four second following distance are it opens the view, allows you to gather vital information, allows you to plan ahead, eliminates surprise and allows time for reduced risk decision making. Also, you create more time, create more space and removes control the front vehicle has over your actions.