Something to be thankful for—a safe holiday

When you go over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house this Thanksgiving, take some safety tips along. The holiday offers a bounty of safety challenges resulting from a combination of traveling, cooking and visiting unfamiliar surroundings with kids in tow. But since most of us wouldn't have it any other way, we'd like to serve up some reminders on ways to make the holiday weekend a safe one.

On the road
This time of year the roads are busier, making travel more risky, especially if you have to drive through the white and drifted snow (oh!)  The holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve is one the most dangerous on the roads, due to a high incidence of alcohol-related traffic crashes, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

Before you hit the road, make sure your car is properly maintained and equipped. Some areas of the country have already experienced a first snow storm—or two—so refresh your winter driving skills. The Automobile Association of American also has some good ways to vaccinate your car against the cold.

If the car is going to be packed with kids, food and luggage, make sure you pack it safely. Parents of children eight and younger who may be traveling through other states, should check the booster and car seat laws in those states to make sure you comply. Laws vary from state to state. All occupants should follow the advice in the public service ad: "Cluck, cluck, Buckle up."

If you get lost along the way and need to check directions, pull over before talking on your cell phone or texting for help. Both are dangerous practices that take your eyes off the road. And in many states you can be fined. A GPS may be of help, but only if it's not obscuring your vision or causing a distraction.

If a flat tire, mechanical breakdown, or empty fuel tank forces you to stop driving, pull your vehicle as far off of the road as safely possible and call for help. If you are traveling a long distance, you should prepare your own roadside emergency kit.

Away from home
Parents of small children may want to check with their hosts beforehand to make sure that breakables and other hazards have been removed from common areas. But just to be sure, here are some quick ways to childproof other people's homes when you arrive.

If you are staying the night, either there or in a hotel, make sure your child has a safe sleeping environment. Not all cribs and playyards are safe and you should never place your baby on an air mattress to sleep.

In the kitchen
The risk of cooking fires doubles on Thanksgiving, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Too often cooks get distracted by arriving guests or other demands and leave food unattended instead of turning off the burner. Stove tipovers are another kitchen hazard and can occur when a turkey is placed on an open oven door causing the range to topple forward.

And as we've reported here before, Thanksgiving plans can go up in flames when things go awry with a propane-powered deep fryer. (See video)

Foodborne illnesses don't take a holiday just because we do. When you are cooking your turkey, use a meat thermometer to make sure it reaches a temperature high enough to kill bacteria. And remember to keep your cooking surfaces clean to avoid cross-contaminating foods. Here's the 411 on foodborne illness.

We hope these warnings haven't ruined your appetite. As the old song goes, Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!

Hard facts for easy riders

A couple of home truths about motorcycles: wearing the right helmet in a crash is good; avoiding the crash altogether is better.

With that in mind, we note a couple of safety developments in the past few weeks. The first is a proposed new rule from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that would strengthen the tests that motorcycle helmets must undergo to be certified by the Department of Transportation and that would require manufacturers to put larger, tamper-proof certification stickers on their helmets.

Why should you care about the sticker? Because legitimate stickers can be stripped off qualifying helmets and applied to novelty helmets, and fake stickers made or sold for the same reason. And why should you care about the strength of the helmet? Because deaths from motorcycle crashes have more than doubled in the past 10 years—to almost 5,000 annually—and head injuries were the leading cause of those deaths.

Novelty helmets may look cool, but they don’t adequately protect a rider’s head as it smashes onto the pavement or a guardrail or any other lethal surface. Makers of novelty helmets often include a disclaimer that they’re not intended for protecting wearers from injury. So true—recent tests show that novelty helmets fail every performance requirement for motorcycle helmets.

It makes sense to wear the best helmet possible, even if the law in your state doesn’t require one.

The second development came this week  when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released tandem studies (here and here) showing that both the frequency of accidents and the rate of fatal crashes drop among motorcycles with antilock brakes. That may seem like a given, but it is, in fact, a departure from real-world experience with autos. (Years of Consumer Reports’ tests of antilock brakes have found them to be very effective in preventing the brakes from locking up, and allowing the driver to keep control of the car in a panic stop. Unfortunately, many drivers don’t use ABS correctly, and their potential hasn’t translated to effectiveness on the road.)

Because of the inherent instability of a motorcycle, locking a front or back wheel can cause the bike to fall over or throw the rider. ABS allows a rider to apply maximum braking force without locking a wheel.

Still, antilock brakes on motorcycles are relatively new, and almost always available only as optional equipment on larger bikes. Concerned riders have to make an effort to find a bike with these brakes and resign themselves to paying extra for them. 

Faulty tire valves may have been installed on 2007 Fords

Federal safety regulators have opened an official investigation on faulty tire valves that may have been installed as original equipment on more than one million 2007 Ford cars and trucks.

The valve stems in question were made for Dill Air Control Products of Oxford, N.C. by Shanghai Baolong Industries Co. in China. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration started investigating the valve stems this past May after they were linked to a rollover crash of a 1998 Ford Explorer that killed a Florida man a year ago. Cracks in valve stems can cause tires to lose air, and such air loss at highway speeds can result in tire failure and a loss-of-control crash.

NHTSA says it has identified 37 complaints of cracked and leaking tire valves in 2007 models of Ford vehicles. The models identified include Grand Marquis, F-150, Mustang, Edge, Fusion, Expedition, Explorer, MKX, MKZ, Milan, Focus and Escape.

Eleven complaints allege that loss of tire pressure caused by a cracked and leaking valve resulted in under-inflated tires needing replacement. In addition, 23 of the 37 complaints said more than one valve was found to be severely cracked or cracked and leaking and needed to be replaced.

Dill informed NHTSA that as many as 30 million of the suspected valve stems have been distributed in the North American market. Soon after the original investigation was opened in May, one U.S. auto parts distributor, Tech International of Johnstown, Ohio, issued a recall on some of the faulty tire valves it had sold under the Topseal brand, also manufactured by Shanghai Baolong. Ford Motor Company uses valves stem supplied by Topseal as original equipment on its vehicles.

In documents on the newly-opened Ford probe, NHTSA says the original equipment snap-in tire valves may crack due to poor ozone resistance. "Air leakage from a cracked tire valve may result in tire damage, which could affect vehicle control," said NHTSA.

Most consumers will have a have a hard time figuring out with any certainty if they have any of the defective valve stems on their tires. That's because there is no visible identification of the valve once a valve stem is installed, The only way to to view the manufacturer’s identification and part number found on the base of the valve is to remove the tire from the wheel and inspect it from the inside.

Consumer Reports says motorists should conduct a visual inspection of their valve stems to check for cracks. Move the top of the stem around, checking for any sign of cracks in the base of the stem where it meets the wheel. Consumer Reports also recommends that you check your tire pressure every month and if one or more tires continually needs to be topped-off, it may be a sign of a leaking valve stem or tire puncture. If a valve stem is found to have cracking, have it replaced as soon as possible and as a precaution replace all the other valve stems at the same time.

Dill has posted photos on it Web site of what consumers should look for when they inspect valve stems.

NHTSA steps up investigation of tire valves … but not enough

Late last month the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) upgraded its ongoing investigation into suspected defective tire valves imported by Dill Air Controls Products to what it calls an Engineering Analysis. Should the agency’s analysis find that Dill tire valves are indeed defective, the result could be a massive recall of approximately 23.5 million tire valves installed from August 2006 through July 2007.

NHTSA originally opened an investigation as a Preliminary Evaluation on May 15 following the fatal rollover crash of a 1998 Ford Explorer that allegedly was the result of a faulty Dill tire valve. On September 8, according to NHTSA, another serious crash involving a 2001 Toyota Sienna appeared "to be related to a cracked and leaking Dill tire valve.” To date, there have been more than 4,700 complaints filed with NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigations regarding faulty Dill valves.  And a vehicle inspection program conducted by the major tire retailer Discount Tire from April through June 2008, uncovered approximately 23,000 defective Dill valves. 

According to reports filed with NHTSA, Dill imported valve stems from a manufacturer in China, Shanghai Baolong/ Topseal Automotive that lacked adequate ozone protection, which can cause the rubber to crack prematurely.  Affected valves exhibit visible cracks shortly after being installed.  Over eight to 14 months of use, the cracks can grow large enough to cause air leakage.  Driving on under-inflated tires can cause tire damage and, eventually, cause the tires to fail or blow out.

Tech International, an importer of tire valves made by the same Chinese company that makes Dill tire valves, has already recalled some 6 million defective valve stems that it distributed. To date, Dill has not issued a recall of the tire valves, although it has posted advisories on its web site. Discount Tire stores that sold Dill valves from August 1, 2006 through July 31, 2007 sent letters to their customers warning them of the problem.  We hope that other retailers who have sold the valves act as responsibly.

Problem could affect 2007 Fords
Based on analysis of claims filed with NHTSA, Sean Kane, President of Safety Research Strategies said, “I suspect that many 2007 model year Fords may have had the defective valve stems installed as original equipment.”  He recently sent a letter to NHTSA requesting that the agency immediately open a defect investigation on valve stems used as original equipment on Ford vehicles.

In our own employee parking lot, finding a defective valve stem on a ’07 Ford was not hard.  Of the three cars inspected, we found one Ford Focus that had obvious cracks in at least one valve stem (See photo).  At our recommendation, the owner brought his car in for service and had all four valve stems replaced.   

We think NHTSA should open a defect investigation on valve stems used on Fords.  And that they should endeavor to identify other makers of vehicles that may have used valve stems manufactured by Shanghai Baolong as original equipment.  The agency's delay is dangerous and potentially puts many drivers at risk. 

Small pickups score badly in recent crash tests

With names that conjure up images of the rugged West, you might expect small pickup trucks to be tough contenders in a collision. But in crash tests performed for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, that was not the case and most of the vehicles did not offer strong side-impact protection.

This is the first time the IIHS has tested side-impact protection on small pickup trucks and the results were not favorable. Side-impact tests are important because these type of crashes are the second most common type of fatality. In addition, small pickups have the highest driver death rate of all vehicles with most occurring in single-vehicle crashes and rollovers.

The crash test results show that only the Toyota Tacoma earned the highest rating of good in the side test for occupant protection. The remaining trucks—Dodge Dakota, Mitsubishi Raider, Ford Ranger, Mazda B Series, Nissan Frontier, Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon—rated poor or marginal.

To see how the trucks ranked, read the full report on our Cars blog. And to find out how your vehicle fared in an IIHS crash test, check out the 250 crash test videos in the Car section.

David Kelly replaces Nicole Nason as top NHTSA administrator

The White House has named David Kelly to be acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, replacing Nicole Nason, who is leaving for an as yet undisclosed job in the private sector.

Kelly was previously chief of staff to Nason, who leaves after serving a little more than two years as head of the government's primary auto safety agency. Before joining NHTSA, Kelly was with the National Safety Council, serving as a program manager and director of the NSC's air bag and seat belt safety campaign.

Kelly will have at least two big issues to resolve as the Bush Administration winds down in the coming months.

The first is a proposed 4.5 percent annual increase in fuel efficiency standards for the 2011 through 2015 model years. NHTSA issued the proposal in April. Automakers have called the proposed increases too ambitious, but many members of Congress have said they don't go far enough.

NHTSA must also complete work on toughening automobile roof crush standards by October 1, a set of rules that has not been revised since 1973.   

Nason, who was a lobbyist for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. before joining the government, has had an uneven tenure as head of the auto safety agency.

Under Nason, the agency adopted new regulations to improve child seat ratings and to require seat belts on some smaller school buses. The agency also recalled hundreds of thousands of Chinese tires over concerns the steel belts could separate and cause a crash.   

In addition, the agency strengthened its new car crash test standards during Nason's tenure. Before the changes most vehicles were able to achieve top ratings, which critics say rendered the test results all but useless for consumers.   

But Nason was also responsible for a bizarre policy that effectively forbade anyone at the agency to talk to the media on the record except herself, including the NHTSA Office of Communications. Because of that policy, many of the government's leading auto safety experts have been unable to talk directly to the media on issues within their area of expertise.   

David Champion, Senior Director of auto testing for Consumer Reports, says he hopes the new NHTSA director will keep "the safety of the American motorist foremost and understands vehicle dynamics."

"Cars are a huge compromise," says Champion. "You change one aspect and it can reduce other factors." For example, he said, "With the push for a stronger roof crush standard, we do not want manufacturers to design bigger and wider roof pillars as this will compromise visibility, reducing safety in everyday driving. Currently there is no visibility standard."

Read more about car safety on our Cars blog.

Number of motorcyclist fatalities continues to rise

A positive downward trend in the number of overall motor vehicle fatalities over the past few years has been disrupted by a disturbing rise in the number of motorcycle riders killed in accidents. Mary Peters, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, said that in 2007 the overall number of traffic fatalities fell to 41,059, the lowest number since 1994. In addition, the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled was 1.37, the lowest fatality rate on record, she noted.

Unfortunately, motorcycle fatalities continued a 10-year increase, reaching 5,154 in 2007, the highest number since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration started collecting fatality crash data in 1975. Motorcycle fatalities now account for 13 percent of all traffic deaths and, in 2007 alone, the number of motorcycle riders or passengers killed on the nation’s roads increased 6.6 percent over the previous year. Injuries from motorcycle accidents are also on the rise—there were 103,000 in 2007 compared to 88,000 a year earlier, an increase of 17 percent.

To draw attention to the growing number of motorcycle mishaps, the DOT has made motorcycle safety a centerpiece of its end-of-summer campaign, "Over the limit. Under arrest" to curb drunk driving, and has created several public service announcements on the topic.

One of the ads (see image) features a motorcyclist being pulled over by the police. When he's approached by an officer, the rider lifts his visor and beer comes spilling out of his helmet. Of course, the message is that motorcycle accidents are no laughing matter.

Indeed, the number of motorcycle fatalities has increased as the number of states requiring helmets has declined. In 1975, 47 states required riders to wear helmets but now only 20 do, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.  As we've written before, Secretary Peters rides a motorcycle herself and is an advocate for helmet safety.

Motorcycle safety has taken on an added urgency as more drivers turn to the bikes to combat high gas prices.  NHTSA is promoting its "Share the road" campaign to educate drivers of both two-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles in ways to coexist on the highway. In a play on words one ad says, "Objects in mirror are more vulnerable than they appear." The message is intended to alert drivers of cars, SUVs and trucks that motorcycles may be difficult to see because of their smaller size and that motorcyclists are more susceptible to potential accidents and injuries.

At Consumer Reports we've been writing about motorcycle safety for years. The tips we offered in an article we published in 1981 still resonate today. You can read more about motorcycles and scooters on our Cars blog or join a discussion on the topic in our forums.

'Safe road' Web site maps traffic fatalities

A new online tool from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Excellence in Rural Safety is a creative mash-up that allows you to see where traffic fatalities have occurred on the roads you travel. The Web site, www.saferoadmaps.org uses Google Maps integrated with statistics from the federal government’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) to provide all the details on specific crashes and fatalities. (It uses data from 2006, the most recent available.) It has the potential to influence trip planning and your local driving habits.

I gave saferoadmaps.org a test drive by typing in my home address. I live in a busy area in New Jersey, where there are lots of busy highways and intersections. When I asked for all accidents within a 10-mile radius, up popped a map with several yellow warning symbols, each one indicating the location of a fatal accident. I was relieved to see that the busy road right down the street from our house was incident-free.

I narrowed the radius to two-miles and clicked on the one symbol that appeared. The accident involved a 37-year-old male pedestrian who was hit and killed by a car. The driver and passenger survived, speeding and drinking were not factors, and both occupants of the vehicle were wearing seat belts. In addition to the accident data, there were views of the accident location, including an aerial photograph that allows you to pan in any direction. (Some incidents include street-level views that can also be rotated.) There’s also a map view that you can zoom in or out as you choose, as with the Google Maps site.

The tool isn’t flawless. It takes a bit of exploring to find the most direct way to retrieve and view the information you want. One tip: to find accidents in a specific area, we found it easiest to click on “Maps” at the top, and then “Safe street maps,” and then type in a street address and zip code. Don’t forget to set the radius you’d like to search, and then hit “Search locations.”

This tool is also interesting if you have a regular route you take to work and want to see how many accidents have happened along the way. I travel the New York State Thruway over the Tappan Zee Bridge to work every day and found that four of the fatalities that occurred in 2006 involved speeding. Checking the maps can help you become more aware of the problems on a specific road, or may even cause you to choose an alternate route if you find that the road you or a family member regularly travels is particularly dangerous.

Other tools on the site allow you to set criteria and filter down accident results based by state. You can choose to see the age of the driver, the type of road (rural or urban) where the incident occurred, time of year, and whether speeding, drinking, or lack of seat belt use was involved.

By mapping out every fatality, this site illustrates the many problems we have on our roads and that information can help drivers as well as policy makers form important judgments to improve travel safety.

For more on safe travel, see our special section on vehicle safety.—Liza Barth

Car safety advocate asks for all-out effort to prevent hyperthermia deaths

In July a 4-year-old died after being left in an SUV in West Palm Beach, Florida on a 90-degree day. His body temperature rose to 108 degrees, according to the Associated Press.  A day later in Dallas, a 19-month-old girl died and police suspect she was also left in a hot car.

Such incidents are sadly in the rise. The number of hyperthermia deaths resulting from kids being left in cars has jumped ten fold, from just 11 in the period from 1990-1992 to 110 in the period from 2004-2006, according to Jannette Fennell, president of Kids and Cars, an advocacy group. There have been 23 such deaths reported so far this year, she says.

Fennell, however, takes heart in the news that in the same time frame deaths from air bag deployment deaths have fallen. Last year, in fact, there were no deaths related to the deployment of airbags, the first time that has happened since 1992, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Fennell attributes this success to a campaign in recent years to have children ride in the back seat. And she is hopeful that, just as with the reduction in air bag deaths, that new technologies, beefed-up regulations, and safety education programs can be developed to reduce the number of deaths from hyperthermia.

“As summer temperatures soar and hyperthermia deaths grow, there is an immediate need to create and implement a public campaign to educate parents, caregivers and others about these horrific incidents and the proven paths to take to avoid them," said Fennell. "Technology needs to be in the forefront of this solution to prevent unnecessary deaths and save innocent lives.”

Fennell says that investing in a few safety advances such as alert signals could help remind parents that they have youngsters on board. “Vehicle reminder systems currently tell us our keys are still in the ignition, our headlights are on, a door is open, or that we need to buckle up,” says Fennell. “Sensor-driven technology exists that could alert a stressed and distracted parent who is rushing to work when a child dangerously remains in the rear seat.”

Like the airbag deployment problem, Fennell says solving the rapidly escalating hyperthermia problem will require an all-out effort including education, enforcement and technology improvements and the commitment of industry, government regulators, and safety groups.

At least one good opportunity to help tackle the problem has already been fumbled away, she says.

A provision for a "driver reminder system"  to prevent children from being left alone in a vehicle was originally included in the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act, a landmark piece of child safety legislation passed by Congress earlier this year. Unfortunately, the driver reminder system language was dropped from the legislation before it was passed into law.

More on hyperthermia
Our video (above) details the dangers of leaving children or animals in vehicles and our Cars blog recently wrote about the hazards of hot cars.  The Kids and Cars Web site also offers advice for parents.

Booster seat laws vary from state to state

Recent changes to booster-seat laws in Kentucky, Massachusetts and Michigan expose the hodgepodge of state rules that govern the use of safety seats by children older than four. The states are uniform in their requirement that children use a car seat until they outgrow front-facing child restraints, usually around the age of four and 40 pounds. But at that age and size kids are still too small to ride safely using only the vehicle's seats belts, which are constructed to fit adults. Booster seats elevate children to a height where they can wear the car's belts correctly.

As many as one half of children ages 4 to 7 are not properly protected when riding in a car, according to a study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  In the study, 35 percent of children were prematurely using the car's seat belts without a booster and 15 percent were unrestrained— meaning not wearing a seat belt at all.

Not every state has a booster seat law. And even states that have passed laws fail to agree on what age, size or weight a child should be to graduate from a child restraint to car seat belts. New laws in Massachusetts and Michigan, for example, require children younger than eight or smaller than 4-feet, 9-inches to use booster seats. Kentucky's new law, however, only requires kids younger than seven and shorter than 4-feet, 2-inches to be belted in a booster.

With such a variety of state laws, it's hard for a parent to know what to do.  Jennifer Stockburger, program manager for vehicle and child safety at Consumers Union, says it's good to acquaint yourself with the laws in your state and others if you are planning to travel.  At CU, publishers of Consumer Reports, we recommend that you follow these four rules for determining whether your child is ready for adult seat belts rather than following your state's law alone.

1. Make sure the shoulder belt lies across the chest and shoulder blades and away from the neck.
2. Position the lap belt across the hips and upper thighs and not across the abdomen.
3. Make sure the child's back is against the seat back and that his knees bend comfortably over the seat cushion without needing to slouch.
4. Your child should be able to sit in that position comfortably for the duration of the trip.

Stockburger notes that children who are moved to adult belts prematurely too often suffer neck and abdominal injuries in car accidents.

CU is not alone in advocating that children remain in booster seats until they're ready for adult belts. NHTSA  recommends that children stay in booster seats until they are at least eight years old and 4-feet, 9-inches. So does the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has a  guide to child restraints on its Web site. Consumer Reports' Babies & Kids blog has a helpful timeline that parents can follow for proper car seat use for growing children.