Motor Vehicle Safety

Fasten your seat belts
 Car crashes are a leading cause of death. Aside from always following traffic signs and obeying the rules of the road, buckling up your safety belt may be the single most dramatic move you can make to reduce your health risks. The deaths and injuries that occur every year due to car accidents could be reduced by about half if both drivers and passengers used their safety belts. Make sure that everyone in your vehicle is strapped in, and that small children are secured in safety seats before you take off. It can save your life, and it's the law!

Never, Ever Drink and Drive
Young people in particular are at high risk for auto accidents. Adding alcohol to the situation is sheer insanity. Alcohol is the major cause of fatal car crashes caused by human error. People are killed on the road every day because they or others had alcohol-impaired judgment or reflexes. If death doesn't scare you, how about disability? Drunk driving results in hundreds of thousands of injuries including lifetime disability from brain damage, paralysis, blindness, or amputated or deformed limbs.

New Air Bag Guidelines
To help prevent injuries in the event your car's air bag deploys : Properly restrain all infants and children in safety seats, or lap and shoulder belts, whenever they ride in a motor vehicle. Never use rear-facing child safety seats in the front seat of a vehicle. A rapidly inflating air bag can strike the rear-facing seat, seriously injuring or killing the child. Infants should ride in a rear-facing safety seat - placed in the rear seat of the vehicle - until they are about one year old. Have children ride in the rear seat whenever possible. When a child rides in the front seat, make sure the seat is pushed back as far as possible - away from the air bag. (Kids often sit close to the dashboard so they can see better. This minimum clearance can be a problem if the air bag ever deploys.) 

Hot Cars
On a warm day, the temperature inside a car can shoot up in minutes - even if the windows are partially open.. Even if it is not so hot outside, the danger of overheating exists - especially if you have a dark-colored car. Don't leave pets or children unattended.