“If Toyota drivers experience any issues with their accelerator pedal, they should contact their Toyota dealer without delay,” said Robert Passmore, senior director of claims for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

In the event that a driver experiences an accelerator pedal that sticks or returns slowly to idle position, Toyota says the vehicle can be controlled with firm and steady application of the brakes. The brakes should not be pumped repeatedly because it could deplete vacuum assist, requiring stronger brake pedal pressure. The vehicle should be driven to the nearest safe location, the engine shut off and a Toyota dealer contacted for assistance.

“Consumer safety is a top concern for the insurance industry and we are encouraged that Toyota dealers nationwide are beginning to make repairs on the vehicles involved in the recall,” said Passmore.

Insurers want consumers to know that if Toyota’s recalled part causes an accident, the driver’s automobile liability or physical damage insurance will provide coverage.

“This type of unforeseen event is what insurance is for,” said PCI’s Passmore. “If the pedal is a factor, the insurer will pay the claim for the driver and then likely seek to be reimbursed by Toyota. This is one less thing for the consumer to worry about.”

There is also good news for consumers because a vehicle recall by itself will generally not cause insurance rates to increase, Passmore said. “Looking forward, it is unlikely that rates would be affected by the recall.”

Over the years Toyotas have had a good safety record as evidenced by their popularity, so it is unlikely that there will be enough accidents caused by the faulty pedals that rates will increase, according to Passmore.

“Insurers look at the cost of claims over a period of time for vehicle,” he added. “They are interested in how much it costs to repair a vehicle and how often the vehicle is involved in an accident.”

While Toyota is pursuing repairs to recalled vehicles, the nation’s largest auto insurer says Toyota vehicle safety has been a concern for some time.

After the tests, only 25 percent of the booster seats got a “good” or “best” rating from the Insurance Institute. Eleven booster seats are not recommended because the belts don’t provide a good fit.

Officials said children 4-8 years old in booster seats are 45 percent less likely to suffer serious injuries in accidents.

However, even kids in booster seats who aren’t properly belted in are at risk. Seat belts that cross the stomach can cause abdominal injuries. Plus, belts that cross the neck or are too low on the chest can cause spine and head injuries.

Twenty five states have laws requiring a booster until the age of eight. Three states — Florida, Arizona and South Dakota — don’t require booster seats at all.

Crash tests show seat belts alone do not protect a child, which is why safety experts say even booster seats that don’t get the top safety recommendation can still protect kids.

Officials said age is not the most important factor. It’s actually based more on the child’s height and how well they fit into adult seat belts.

Conducted by LeaseTrader.com, the survey of more than 3,000 drivers found that for 18.3 percent of men, road rage was the most dangerous distraction, followed by eating/drinking at 14.7 percent, watching other drivers at 10.9 percent, and children in the car at 9.8 percent.

For women, kids in the car ranked highest at 26.3 percent, followed by putting on makeup at 16.6 percent, the radio at 10.4 percent and navigation at 9.5 percent.

Finally, only 7.6 percent of men and 4.2 percent of women said texting while driving provided a dangerous distraction.

“The new technologies that help us multitask in our everyday lives and increasingly popular social media sites present a hard-to-resist challenge to the typically safe driver,” AAA Chief Executive Robert Darbelnet said in a statement accompanying the survey commissioned by the AAA Foundation.

“Enacting texting bans for drivers in all 50 states can halt the spread of this dangerous practice among motorists nationwide, and is a key legislative priority for AAA in state capitals,” Darbelnet said.

The group, which provides emergency road services to its members and lobbies on automobile issues, formerly was known as the American Automobile Association.

The random telephone survey questioned 2,500 U.S. residents 16 and older in April and May.

Although nearly all respondents considered the practice unacceptable, 18 percent said they had sent a text message while driving within a month of being surveyed.

Most data available on texting and driving are anecdotal, but the U.S. Transportation Department is seeking more information as pressure grows to ban the practice.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will hold a two-day conference on distracted drivers next week in Washington.

Separately on Friday, 93 percent of 1,000 licensed drivers responding to a survey commissioned by Ford Motor Co. supported a nationwide ban on texting while behind the wheel.

AAA says surveys of its members also favor a ban, a step that Ford and other major automakers support.

About a dozen states have imposed prohibitions, and proposals for a national ban have been introduced in Congress.

The wireless industry — including cellphone manufacturers, carriers, and some Internet companies represented by the CTIA-Wireless Association — support state and local efforts to ban texting while driving.

Teenagers with their own cars or free use of one are much more likely to get in crashes than those who share a car. And crashes are much less common among teens whose parents set clear driving safety rules.

The findings are in two studies by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and funded by State Farm Insurance Co. They are in the October issue of Pediatrics.

The researchers say the findings can help parents keep their kids from becoming a grim statistic: Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, killing more than 5,000 each year.

Getting a driver’s license and car are often viewed as rite of passage for U.S. teens, and many parents underestimate the risks.

More than 7,000 people nationwide were killed in crashes involving teen drivers in 2007, government data show. More than 3,000 of these deaths were teen drivers, and more than 250,000 teen drivers were injured.

“With teen drivers, you have to recognize that it’s a public health issue,” said Dr. Jeffrey Weiss, a Phoenix pediatrician who co-wrote an American Academy of Pediatrics report on teen drivers.

The 2006 report encourages parents to highlight the seriousness of driving privileges by requiring teens to sign driving contracts promising to abide by safety rules.

The new research shows that kind of hands-on approach pays off.

“Families need to know that driving is different” from other steps toward independence,said Dr. Flaura Koplin Winston, the study’s lead author. “Just at the time their teen is pulling away, they need to get back involved to spare them heartache.”

The research is based on a nationally representative survey of more than 5,500 teens in grades nine through 11. Students at 68 high schools answered questionnaires in 2006.

More than 2,000 students who reported driving on their own were the focus of one study; 70 percent said they had their own cars or were the main drivers of cars they used.

Winston said it’s alarming that so many kids have their own cars or feel that they have free use of one. She said that freedom can lead to “a sense of entitlement about driving” that may make them less cautious.

Among these “main” drivers, 25 percent had been involved in crashes, versus just 10 percent of teens who shared driving access. Winston said the lower crash rate doesn’t reflect less driving time, but is likely due to having to ask for the car keys, which helps parents monitor their kids’ driving.

Compared with teens whose parents were uninvolved, kids who said their parents set clear rules and monitored their whereabouts without being overly controlling had half as many crashes and much better driving habits.

These teens were 71 percent less likely to drive while drunk and 30 percent less likely to use a cell phone while driving than kids with uninvolved parents.

Dr. Niranjan Karnik, a University of Chicago specialist in adolescent mental health, said the research underscores the importance of appropriate parenting and widely enacted graduated licensing laws for teens.

Debby Hendricks of Hatfield, Pa. made her daughters wait until age 17 to get their licenses, and gave them lots of driving practice beforehand.

The girls, aged 17 and 19, also share a family car, and can’t “just grab the keys and leave” without saying where they’re going and with whom, Hendricks said.

So far so good — neither girl has been in an accident, although the younger one, Leslie, has only had her license for a few months.

Leslie considers herself a safe driver, but adds, “I probably do underestimate the risks.”

In 1970 around 55,000 people were dying on U.S. roadways every year, so recent trends are definitely going in the right direction, says Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Speaking at a conference held by the Insurance Council of Texas in July 2009, Lund said much of the recent decrease in traffic fatalities has a lot to do with the economic downturn.

“When the economy tanks one of the few good things about it is people are driving less, they are driving more safely and we don’t kill as many people on the roads. That’s unfortunately why we’re down to 37,000 deaths in 2008,” Lund said. Vehicle miles traveled during the first three months of 2009 declined by about 11.7 billion miles, according to preliminary data collected by the Federal Highway Administration. Lund suggested that those numbers will start to creep back up as the economy recovers.

Aside from the economy, however, other influences have served to keep roadway deaths in check, including stricter traffic safety laws in most states and automobile safety improvements, such as side airbags and antilock brake systems. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a July 2009 announcement that increased seat belt use, a reduction in alcohol impaired driving, safer roads and highways, and improved vehicle safety have all played important roles in the declining death rate.

Top Safety Picks
Automobile manufacturers have realized that they can compete on safety, Lund said. As a result, the number of vehicles list of the IIHS’ Top Safety Pick rated automobiles has increased from around 13 or 14 a few years ago to more than 70 today. To be eligible for Top Safety Pick status a vehicle has to be a good performer for frontal crash protection, a good performer for side impact protection and a good performer for rear impact protection. “It also needs electronic stability control,” Lund said.

Real world data from automobile crashes show that side air bags in vehicles reduce the risk of fatalities by 30 percent, Lund said. “If you add the head protection you’ll see we’re up to 40 and 50 percent reductions in the risk of fatal injury,” he added, noting that every new vehicle sold in the U.S. after September of this year will be equipped with side airbags, the result of an agreement with automobile manufacturers.

While neck injuries are not life threatening, it is estimated that the insurance industry pays out between $8 billion and $10 billion a year for neck sprains caused automobile accidents. With a good rated head restraint system, as opposed to a poorly rated one, “we see about a 15 percent reduction in the likelihood there is a neck injury claim filed in a rear impact,” Lund said.

Electronic stability control (ESC), which basically is an extension of the vehicle’s anti-lock brake system, can apply the brakes to each individual wheel when it senses that the car is losing control, Lund explained. “ESC has a huge effect. We see about a 40 percent reduction in single vehicle crashes and overall about a 35 percent reduction in the risk of fatal crashes,” with ESC equipped vehicles, he said.

The IIHS plans to add another element to its list of requirements for Top Safety Pick status – vehicle roof strength. “We kill about 10,000 people each year in crashes where rollover is involved,” Lund said. One factor in whether or not one survives a rollover accident is the strength of the vehicle’s roof. The federal government requires a vehicle to support one and a half times its own weight, and “they all meet minimum standards. But there’s a range of performance out there and some manufacturers have built in a lot more protection than others,” he said.

The IIHS estimates that with a vehicle that supports four times its own weight the risk of death from a serious rollover accident is reduced by 50 percent. That standard “will be part of our Top Safety Pick program going forward,” Lund said.

Other examples of recent innovations in vehicle safety that are not yet included in criteria for Top Safety Picks but were available on vehicles in 2008 include crash avoidance technology such as forward collision warning, brake assist and lane departure warning systems. Blind spot protection and adaptive headlights that can rotate “to reveal what’s around the bend before you get to the bend,” are still other examples of new technologies designed to make driving safer, Lund said.

Challenges Going Forward
Despite more stringent traffic laws and vehicle safety improvements, Lund said in some ways driving is getting more dangerous. One of the main culprits is distracted driving in what is an increasingly multi-tasking society. Eating, applying make up and even smoking have long been seen as common but dangerous-while-driving activities. Cell phone use – both the voice and texting features – is now seen as a major contributor to the distracted driving problem.

“The thing about cell phone use is that we’ve actually been able to measure that,” Lund said. “We know that once the conversation begins there’s a four-fold increase in the risk of crashing.”

A few states and municipalities have implemented laws to prevent or limit the use of cell phones while driving and even more have enacted stricter provisions regarding seat belt use. At the same time however, travel speeds have been allowed to creep up.

Lund noted that Texas was the first state to get back to an 80 mile per hour speed limit, which is allowed in the western part of the state. Unfortunately, Lund said, “the faster you’re going out there when you crash the more likely it is that there are going to be severe consequences. And the faster you are going the more likely you are to crash in the first place.”

He also questioned whether consumers would continue to accept new safety features, such as crash avoidance technologies, some of which take automatic actions – such as braking – if they sense a crash is imminent. Lund said, for example, studies show that professional drivers tend to find the lane departure warning systems to be annoying and routinely disable them.

The data shows a continuing drop in motor vehicle fatality rates over the 40-year period from 1968 to 2008, as well as a decline in the motor vehicle traffic injury rate despite an increase in vehicle miles traveled, according to the analysis by the American Insurance Association (AIA) .

For example, Americans drove close to one trillion miles in 1968, compared to nearly 3 trillion in 2008. Over those four decades, the motor vehicle traffic fatality rate dropped from 5.19 deaths per-100 million vehicles miles traveled in 1968 to a record-low 1.27 deaths per-100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2008.

Additionally, over the past 20 years the injury rate has dropped from 169 injuries per-100 million vehicle miles traveled in 1988 to 80 injuries per-100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2008.

The researchers said that by examining the underlying rates rather than simply looking at the total number of deaths and injuries, the statistics take into account any fluctuations in vehicle miles traveled and show that improved safety measures are the leading cause for the pronounced reduction in fatalities and injuries.

AIA’s analysis goes a step further to highlight how the safety-promoting efforts of the insurance industry and other groups have made a critical difference. By looking at the current year vehicle miles traveled and using the fatality rate of historical years, AIA has estimated the amount of people that would have been killed or injured had there been no improvements at all in vehicle and traffic safety.

The new analysis is based on an increase in the number of alcohol-impaired female drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2008 compared to the 2007 statistics.

“Impaired driving is an issue that cuts across all segments of society and, sadly, the number of arrests of women driving under the influence is on the rise,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “This is clearly a very disturbing trend.”

He pointed to statistics from the FBI showing that arrests for women driving under the influence increased by nearly 30 percent (28.8%) over the 10-year period from 1998 to 2007. Over that same decade, DUI arrests for men decreased by 7.5 percent, although the total number of men arrested during the period outstripped women by about four to one.

The NHTSA study confirmed the FBI statistics showing that impaired driving by women is becoming a national safety issue. According to the NHTSA analysis, the number of impaired women drivers involved in fatal crashes increased in 10 states, and remained flat in five states—despite an overall decline of 9 percent in all drunk driver crashes in 2008 from 2007.

Overall, about 2,000 fatalities a year involve an impaired female driver.

The 10 states with increases in the number of drunk female drivers involved in fatal crashes are: Ohio, New Hampshire, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, West Virginia, Indiana, Washington, Kansas and Tennessee. The five states where the number of alcohol-impaired female drivers remained unchanged in 2008 were Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Oklahoma and Utah.

The nationwide anti-drunk driving enforcement campaign targets drivers in the final weeks of summer before and during the Labor Day holiday weekend. The annual crackdown is intended to reduce the tragic toll caused by impaired drivers, nearly 12,000 fatalities in 2008.
The campaign is known as Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest. It will involve 11,000 police departments and other law enforcement agencies across the nation. The enforcement runs from August 21 through the Labor Day weekend. Police will be redoubling their efforts during this high-risk travel period to ensure that impaired drivers are detected and arrested. Over the Labor Day weekend last year, 40 percent of all fatal crashes involved a drunk driver.

For his recent doctoral dissertation, Romoser’s study at the university’s Human Performance Laboratory found that drivers 70 to 89 years old can best learn to use more side-to-side glances when executing turns at intersections when they practice adding more side glances in a hands-on driving simulator, compared to hearing a lecture.

As people age, Romoser explains, they begin to process information more slowly, including visual information. This in turn makes it harder to process moving objects in the visual periphery. “The statistics reflect this,” he adds. “Rear-end, head-on, single-car and car-pedestrian accidents actually decrease among older drivers in this age group, probably because they do self-regulate. But side-impact crashes increase markedly over age 70, and findings from our head-movement studies suggest a reason: older drivers fail to compensate for the loss of peripheral processing. They don’t use enough side-to-side glances at intersections so they’re having accidents.”

“The problem is that, for some older drivers, once they cross the threshold into the intersection while making a turn, side-to-side scanning stops altogether. This is worrisome because without an additional quick glance over the shoulder at the beginning of a turn, older drivers are likely to miss the sudden emergence of a previously unseen car. Compared to younger drivers, older drivers tend to focus only in the direction of the turn once they commit themselves to an intersection,” he adds.

Romoser and colleagues tested three groups of 18 subjects each, ages 70 to 89, who either received: