Evolution of Safety and Driving

Following last month's Driver Safety Awareness Campaign, the PRTPO can't stress enough the fundamentals of safety and automobiles. As a driving culture, we have made developmental leaps in both, since the advent of the "driving machine" in the nineteenth century. It seems one was born from the other out of necessity. If we look back through the history of the automobile, we find safety became paramount:

• 1885, First seat belt patent filed. Compulsory, some of those early vehicles had no doors!
• 1901, Connecticut was the first state to enact speed limits, in the city and county. They learned quickly, no matter how exhilarating it was to feel the wind in your hair, that "Speed Kills."
• 1910, New York City was first on the books with drunk driving laws. Again, realizing the two don't mix and, unfortunately, to this day, like texting-considered the modern-day drunk driving-and driving, we have trouble, psychologically, permanently dividing the two.
• 1930, 3-way traffic signals were introduced in the United States.
• 1951, Airbags are invented, most people are under the impression airbags came much later, it took a while to perfect the technology which mechanically evolved in 1968.
• Department of Transportation is created in 1966 by Congress to ensure the efficiency, safety, accessibility and convenience of a national transportation system vital to US interests.
• 1970, the National Highway Traffic Safety Act (NHTSA) is established and responsible for reducing deaths, injuries, and economic losses resulting from motor vehicle collisions, including promoting consumer safety awareness, vehicle safety standards, enforcing fuel economy standards and anti-theft regulations among many other functions.

The list goes on and on: 1985, Vince and Larry Ad Campaign, "You Can Learn A Lot From a Dummy," 1996, Side impact testing, 2003, the Click It or Ticket seat belt campaign, 2008, 5-star safety ratings standards are elevated for consumer awareness. Which brings us to the Distracted Driving Campaign in 2009 where President Obama signed an Executive Order directing Federal employees, while, basically, using company equipment/vehicles on company time to cease texting, it started the proverbial ball rolling. 

(Ref:Resource material retrieved from: https://one.nhtsa/timeline/index.html)

Even with these consistent efforts throughout the years, the numbers of needless deaths continue to rise due to distracted driving. If there is anything we have learned from this history or rather, driving lesson, is that when we step anywhere close to a moving vehicle, it's important to remember, safety first! In a pre-flight safety check on an airplane, one must carefully check off each task to make sure the aircraft is in proper working order before takeoff. It is requisite. The NTSB statistics show it is safer to fly than to drive. Perhaps it is time to implement such a list before entering an automobile, a list that includes, at the very top: Cell phone OFF, cell phone in the glove box, cell phone locked in the trunk! We are all aware; there are plenty of other distractions while driving, let's make using a device, talking on the phone one less distraction, the one distraction that can, literally, save your life and the lives of others. It is a point we'll continue to drive home long after Driver Safety Awareness Month, because, we want you to get home, safely. 

For additional life-saving information, please visit us on social media and our website, www.safepalousedrivers.com, Distracted, Drowsy & Inexperienced Drivers.