Automakers increasingly tout the safety of their closely regulated and high-tech vehicles, often targeting families with younger, more vulnerable passengers. Advertisements show adoring parents buckling in small children, yet fail to acknowledge the fact that many backseat passengers face continual risk as a result of front seats too weak to avoid collapsing backwards, significantly harming the passenger directly behind them.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) claims the car’s safest place for children is in the backseat but frequently, this is not the case. Dangerously low seat standards, which have not been substantially updated since 1967,do not adequately protect automobile passengers.

Fixing seats to meet higher safety standards “would cost on the order of a dollar or so,” for automakers to accomplish per vehicle, claims one auto company engineer. 

When a pedestrian is involved in an automobile accident, the results are often fatal. For this reason, many cities have taken significant measures to improve pedestrian safety. Despite those efforts, many parts of the country are still experiencing a rise in pedestrian auto accident deaths and the overall national average has continued to increase. Even more concerning is that 2015 proved to be the most fatal year of all.

An In-Depth Look at the Statistics

Ever since the establishment of the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, the year-to-year increase of pedestrian deaths has averaged between 8.1 percent increase and a 10.5 percent decrease. Then the statistics for 2015 came in and showed that 15 percent of pedestrians died in traffic-related accidents; that equals a 10 percent increase overall, which is the biggest increase ever recorded. Not all states performed poorly, however. In fact, 21 states had a decrease in pedestrian deaths, and three states had no change. It is these states that may offer some explanation.

Time and time again, corporations selling deadly or defective products manage to conceal their wrongdoings from the public eye. Even as more injuries, deaths, lawsuits, and settlements pile up, indiscretions are sealed and hidden through sealed court documents. It is both disturbing and disgusting. And it happens much more frequently than most people realize.

Remington, Chrysler, Trinity, AMG, and More

A power system defect that caused Chrysler vehicles to stop without warning while driving them is just one of the many examples of companies that have been allowed to seal lawsuit documents, continue to sell their products, and not issue a recall. As was the motion filed by plaintiffs in lawsuits against Chrysler—a plea with the courts to force them into notifying their customers of the danger. Yet it, along with the majority of evidence, was originally sealed. Just like in so many other cases:

Throughout parts of Illinois, winter weather has already left more than a foot of snow. Other areas of the country are covered in ice and snow, and more winter weather is expected in the months to come. All that snow and ice places drivers are at a higher risk for automobile accidents, deaths, and injuries. Stay safe on the roads, and in your car, with the “three P’s of safe winter driving” from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): Prepare, Protect, and Prevent.

Prepare for Trips

Careful planning and preparation can make all the difference when it comes to staying safe on the roads. The following are areas of extreme importance, and should be practiced by all drivers this winter:

An alarming number of children are injured or killed because of automobiles. In fact, a total of 638 children under the age of 12 died in a motor vehicle accident in 2013, and another 127,250 were injured, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). KidsAndCars.org reported that another 184 children were killed in 2013 due to non-traffic incidents, including back-overs, front-overs, heat stroke, a vehicle accidently being set into motion, underage driving, power window accidents, and falls from vehicles.

Keeping Kids Safe While Driving

There are a number of contributing factors in the deaths and injuries of children in car crashes—intoxication of the driver, lack of proper vehicle restraint, and even the car itself. Keep your kids safe while on the road with these tips from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA):

With school now in full swing and social activities heating up, more drivers are on the road. More importantly, there are more inexperienced teen drivers on the road, and that means the risk of a vehicular accident is higher. Of course, the only way to become experienced is to practice safe driving. So take a deep breath and encourage your teen to use these back-to-school driving tips while navigating the Illinois roads.

General Driving Safety Tips

General safety rules apply whether your teen is driving through the city of Chicago (recently named eight worst city for drivers), in the country, or in your local hometown. They are even a good refresher for parents who, amidst all the distraction and day-to-day craziness, often forget to abide by these simple but important safe-driving rules:

There are only a handful of options when it comes to transportation in the city: public transit, carpooling, walking, or driving. For those that must drive in Chicago, Illinois, it probably does not come as a surprise to hear that the roads they are navigating happen to be the eighth-worst for drivers; the reasons why might be.

Chicago’s Driver Ranking: The Good, Bad, and Surprising

Out of all the cities in the United States, Chicago ranked as one of the worst ten cities for commute time, overall cost, traffic conditions, maintenance costs, and parking rates. Considerations included commonly dealt with driver issues, such as car repairs, gas prices, insurance rates, and personal vehicle maintenance repairs that exceeded the national average of $515.