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California is one of the few states to enact safety measures to protect passengers traveling in limousines. After a limo fire killed five women in 2013, California regulators took action by requiring limo companies to install emergency exits and provide safety briefings to their passengers. Now, a deadly limo accident in New York is raising…

California residents may be surprised to learn that 60 percent of the infectious diseases that affect humans originated in animals. Three quarters of all emerging infectious diseases are also zoonotic. Most people are aware of the dangers of zoonotic conditions such as rabies, but there are a number of other conditions that can be contracted…

Semi-trucks hauling containers of gasoline, flammable gas or crude oil are not an uncommon sight on California’s highways, and they are generally given a wide berth by passenger vehicle drivers. While the vast majority of these commercial vehicles arrive safely at their destinations, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reports that over 1,300 such vehicles…

On July 10, a California man was sentenced to 18 years in prison for a deadly drunk driving crash early last year. The 26-year-old was convicted of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and DUI in June. According to authorities, the defendant’s blood alcohol content was between .10 and .18 percent when he lost control of…

Every day, a person in California or another state dies every 51 minutes because of an alcohol-impaired driver. This means that about 30 people die every day in this country in perfectly preventable accidents. In 2013, about one-third of traffic-related deaths were due to impaired driving with many of these deaths being of children age…

California parents of teenage children may be alarmed to learn that while drivers under age 21 account for roughly 10 percent of licensed drivers, they account for significantly more fatal alcohol-related accidents. Approximately 17 percent of alcohol-related accidents that result in a fatality are attributed to drivers in this age range. Teenage drivers are also…

If you’re like most motorcyclists, you’ve probably been told to take special care at intersections, because drivers often don’t notice motorcycles when they make turns. Another hazard is following or being followed by passenger vehicles, because drivers often don’t understand how quickly bikes can stop — or they themselves stop on a dime without any…

In our post last week, we began a discussion about safety features in automobiles. Specifically, the safety features we tend to take for granted (like seat belts and air bags) were once optional add-ons for which car buyers paid a premium. Through common-sense regulatory efforts, however, truly crucial safety features have become standard in all…

Some of the vehicle safety features that we now take for granted have not been around all that long. It is difficult to imagine driving a car without seat belts or air bags. But after each was invented, there was a period of time in which they were optional “luxury” items that customers had to…

Each year, some 10,000 people are killed in drunk-driving accidents on U.S. roads and highways. And while some of the victims are the drunk drivers themselves, many are innocent individuals (including children) who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Drunk driving and DUI accident rates used to be much higher than…