GOING DUI ON ALLERGY MEDICINE

GOING DUI ON ALLERGY MEDICINE
CASSAHOWITZKA, FL :A letter from Eileen M. reminds that Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) laws have been replaced with Driving Under the Influence (DUI). She says that a number of legal medicines can lead now to a driving conviction. This includes prescription drugs as well as nostrums right off the open shelves. Some of these otherwise helpful medicines can cause side effects similar to and just as dangerous for drivers as is alcohol.

One medicine in the news is the antihistamine, diphenlyhydramine, sold widely for allergy symptom relief. Researchers at the University of Iowa reported that this medicine had a greater affect on some important driving skills than does alcohol. Particularly noted was a serious decrease in steering ability which could lead to crossing into oncoming vehicles. One has to wonder whether the roadways are teeming with drivers who may not realize that the “funny” feeling they experience is not caused by the illness but rather by the trusted cure.

This danger needs much more publicity and law enforcement scrutiny. While it is relatively easy to sniff out the heavy drinker of alcohol, not so for most medicines. It is likely that many crashes have as their cause undetected medicine induced DUI rather than driver carelessness. This could explain why so many careful and normally safe drivers have crashes for which they have no explanation – “it just happened” or “it was not my fault”.

The U of I research scientists also tested a newer allergy medicine whose generic name is fexofenadine. It is the active ingredient in a popular prescription drug. This chemical substance had no deleterious effect on the driving skills which they measured.
GHD219 all rights reserved

WHY SHOULD I IMPROVE MY DRIVING?

WHY SHOULD I IMPROVE MY DRIVING?
MATUNUCK, RI: Ben L, at age 70, is the typical older driver. He questions why there is all this pressure on older drivers to take a refresher program. He says he has been driving for 56 years with only a few fender benders, though most of them have occurred in the last few years. Ben claims they were all accidents and thus not his fault!

Here are some frightening facts from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:
About 5,700 persons age 65 and older die in motor vehicle crashes.

Older people (70 and older) made up 12 percent of all traffic fatalities, 12 percent of vehicle occupant fatalities and 16 percent of pedestrian fatalities, according to NHTSA.

About 82 percent of fatal accidents involving older drivers happen during the day. Seventy-four percent involve another vehicle.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, about half of fatal crashes involving drivers 80 years and older occurre at intersections and involve more than one vehicle. This compares with 24 percent among drivers up to age 65.

At age 50 about 23% of fatal crashes are at intersections.

Persons age 75 and older suffer 25 motor vehicle deaths per 100,000 persons. This is more than any other age group except the youngest who have 29 deaths per 100,000.

Drivers age 75 and older have higher rates of fatal motor vehicle crashes than any other age group except the teenagers.

Drivers age 75 and older have more crashes per mile than any other age group except teenagers.

Fatal crash rates per licensed driver rise sharply at age 70 and beyond.

For males, the motor vehicle deaths per 100,000 persons starts to rise about age 70. About age 80 and older, the crash death rate is 2+ times higher than for males age 40 to 74.

Males, at any age, have considerably greater vehicle death rates per 100,000 persons than do females of the same age. The rate for males at age 85+ jumps to 3 times greater than for females of the same age.
Is it any wonder that many auto insurance companies increase dramatically their premiums for drivers when they reach age 75? Your suggestions for improving the driving record of older persons are most welcome.
GHD218 all rights reserved

CELL PHONES IN TROUBLE STILL

WRECK-LESS DRIVING©
by Gunther Doerfert, Auto Safety Columnist

CELL PHONES IN TROUBLE STILL
SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY: Our regular correspondent, Michael A., says that starting January 1, 2001 it was unlawful to hand hold a cell phone while driving. Those caught doing so will pay a $150 fine. Accessories which allow talking and listening with both hands free to drive are OK though the distraction factor is still operative.

In the USA a number of cities have some restrictions on driving while using a handheld phone. In contrast, more than 16 countries have nationwide laws governing these devices in moving vehicles. What none have yet been able to do is to expand the regulation to cover the 4 minutes or so after such a cell conversation before the dangerous distraction is extinguished. Safety experts claim that handheld or not, cell phone use is so distractive that a driver is 4 times more likely to be in a crash.

But then why pick on cell phones as if they were the only cause of dangerous distraction for drivers? I suppose it is because a law enforcement officer can see the violation. It is much more difficult to regulate back seat drivers, playful and yelling children, frisky pets, talkative spouses, loud radios and scanners, smoking, drinking beverages, watching the scenery and a bunch of other distractors. And what about those men who shave on the way to work or those women who do their make-up while driving? Back when CB radios were the fad there was not all this concern but the distractive danger must have been there and is so still for those very few yet in use in passenger vehicles. Should police officers park their vehicles before speaking over their radios?

Of course, we should not regulate cell phones entirely out of motor vehicles. After all they are a wonderful tool even for those who are safety conscious and stop in a protected place to use them. Also, more than 200,000 emergency calls are made each day from car phones (not necessarily by the driver). In Y2003 there were about 150 million cell phones in use in the USA and it is at least triple this now. It is only a guess, but one can believe that most of them are carried at least part-time in motor vehicles.
GHD217 all rights reserved

NATIONAL COST OF ROAD CRASHES

WRECK-LESS DRIVING©
by Gunther Doerfert, Auto Safety Columnist

WAHKIAKUM, WA: “Just how much do road crashes cost our Country each year”, asks Stuart K. Excellent question. Adding up what individuals pay directly, insurance payouts, and costs absorbed by hospitals and governments it cost us more than $200 billion a year. Medical expenses are $21billion, lost wages and production are $70 billion, and vehicle damage is more than $46 billion. Current crash data will show much higher costs because of the greater number of crashes and inflation.

Guess who eventually pays all of this? You and me in higher taxes, higher insurance premiums, and higher cost for the necessities and luxuries we buy. To be sure, those involved in the crashes pay a high price in injuries, death, and, too infrequently, with jail time. But the principals in these crashes can not begin to pay the monetary costs they have caused, so all of us have to bail them out.

Because most crashes are not accidents but the result of driver’s mistakes it would benefit each and every one of us if we could train and retrain motorists of all ages to be safer drivers. Such training is available for the youngest (high school) and oldest (50+) drivers. Driver education in high school is a once and done opportunity. From there to age 50 little retraining is available. A few state legislators have decreed that all licensed drivers who complete a safe driving course must receive an additional insurance premium reduction for several years. Then the classes have to be renewed. Most of the 36 states and DC who mandate such a discount restrict it to those over age 55. More than 10 million seniors have taken advantage of this discount offer.

In the states where such an incentive is not offered relatively few older drivers take these classroom refresher programs. All it takes is 8 hours every few years to be a safer driver. Statistically, those who complete such a course have measurably fewer fatal and injury crashes and fewer moving violation convictions. But give them a insurance premium discount and they flock in by the millions. Make sense to you?
GHD216 all rights reserved

DON"T BE A HONKEE

WRECK-LESS DRIVING©
by Gunther Doerfert, Auto Safety Columnist

DON'T BE A HONKEE
Louisville, KY. Pastor Jean Davidson writes in “These Days” Daily Devotions.
“Feel Like Honking?”
“I was driving home when I approached a cross street where cars were waiting. Only twenty feet from the crossing, a car cut in front of me. I slammed on the brake and somehow stopped with inches to spare. I looked to see what had happened to the car I had barely missed. It con­tinued on as if nothing had happened. I wanted to follow the car and tell the driver what I thought about his driving. It did not occur to me to pray for God's best for him. I suspect that I should have. In a culture where revenge is the norm of the entertainment world, we are called to let go and live a different way, a way that blesses even drivers who nearly hit us.”
GHD all rights reserved

DO WHAT AFTER CRASHING?

WRECK-LESS DRIVING©
by Gunther Doerfert, Auto Safety Columnist

DO WHAT AFTER CRASHING?
CASANOVA, VA.: Harley G. asks if one should think ahead about what to do if involved in a crash. Each state has its own rules about the actions required of drivers involved in a crash. The rules, laws, and DMV suggestions in VA are similar to many other states so lets use them as a model.

Our first concern should be about possible injuries. If there are any injuries the police should be contacted immediately. If, luckily, there are no injuries the vehicles should be moved (if possible) so that traffic is no longer blocked or slowed.

The police should be contacted also if the vehicles are so damaged that they cannot be driven to another location and traffic cannot move safely. Call for police assistance if alcohol seems to be involved in the situation, one of the drivers has no insurance or flees the scene, or the property damage appears to exceed $1,000 (even a few bent panels can add up quickly).

Find a safe, practical way to warn on-coming traffic of the hazard ahead. Raise the vehicle hood, if possible, as a visual sign of trouble. Enlist some bystanders to help by using flares, waving a white or red cloth as a flag, and a flashlight at night. Be especially wary of fast approaching vehicles especially where the line of sight is short. Tractor trailers need a long space to come to a full stop.

All involved drivers are required to exchange full information such as name, address, license tag number, drivers license number, and vehicle description. Also seek witnesses and obtain their name, address, phone number, etc.

Carry a list of these needed actions in your vehicle. After the crash you may be too shaken to think clearly about the information you must gather or the laws about moving the vehicles. One of the best possible reasons for having a cell phone is the ability to summon medical and police help quickly. Harley says he always has one of the Kodak inexpensive, one use, cameras in both of his autos to record a crash scene immediately, before the vehicles are moved.
GHD215 all rights reserved

HOW MUCH BOOZE FOR .08% BAC?

WRECK-LESS DRIVING©
by Gunther Doerfert, Auto Safety Columnist

HOW MUCH BOOZE FOR .08% BAC?
NORTH POWNAL, VT.: Audrey S. asks how many alcoholic drinks one can consume to reach the new federal limit of 0.08 percent blood alcohol content (BAC) that defines a vehicle driver as DUI (Diving Under Influence)? She reports that about 18,000 vehicle deaths, adults and children every year are alcohol related

First lets understand that this law, passed by Congress and signed by the President, is effective only in states whose legislature adopts this stricter standard for drunk driving. Those states not having done so by year 2004 have lost a lot of federal highway construction money (I confess, I don't know which, if any).

Oh well, lets get back to Audrey’s question. A 137 pound woman will reach 0.08 BAC with three servings of 1 ounce of liquor, or 3 ounces of wine, or 12 ounces of beer in one hour on an empty stomach. A man of 170 pounds would get there with four servings. Be advised that another factor in amount tolerated is age. Persons in their 60s, 70s, etc might get drunk on lesser amounts in the same amount of time.

Another generalization is that persons in the 60+ age group drink less alcohol on any given occasion than do younger persons. This lower BAC law will do nothing to stop the chronic heavy drinking offenders who continue to drive after loss of license and are let off easy by the courts. But it should give good guidance to the many drivers who believe it is their responsibility to drive safely or not drive.. Also, while the stated BAC is presumptive evidence of DUI, drivers with lower levels can be arrested for DUI by exhibiting other symptoms such as erratic driving or inability to walk a straight line.

The important fact to remember is that even one drink of alcohol affects driving skills, more so for some than for others. Know your personal limit and remain WRECK-LESS.
GHD214 all rights reserved