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'You live in hell every day': The tragedy of forgetting your child in the car
At the hospital, while holding her son's lifeless body for the final time, Raelyn Balfour made a promise to her nine-month-old: his death would not be in vain. While driving to work on the morning of March 30, 2007 in Charlottesville, Va., Balfour forgot to drop off her child Bryce at the babysitter's. Later that day, he died of hyperthermia in the parking lot of her workplace.
SILENT KILLER: Keyless ignitions linked to more than 2 dozen carbon monoxide deaths
Key fobs have changed the way we start our cars. Instead of fumbling around for keys, you just hit the start button. But that convenience can come at a cost because just as easy as it is to start your car it’s just as easy to forget to turn it off with the key fob in hand. With the car still running and the garage door shut, that’s when it becomes a silent killer. An average of 430 people die each year in the U.S. from carbon monoxide poisoning, according to the Centers for Disease Control.Collision Mitigation Advances
Collision mitigation systems for trucks are becoming increasingly popular as they offer enhanced safety features, register fewer false activations and set the stage for increasing autonomous capabilities. When these systems first were introduced, there were many false positive results and unnecessary emergency brakings, said Art Trahan, Ryder’s senior manager assigned to national accounts. But the collision-mitigation products offered by the three suppliers — Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, Wabco and Daimler Trucks North America — have been improving. As a result, more of Ryder’s fleet customers are using them.
What's new — and what's missing — in your next new car
Automakers are continually making changes in vehicles. These can be technological breakthroughs, such as the automatic emergency braking systems that are increasingly becoming standard on new cars. Some are mandated changes, such as a federal requirement that all vehicles have backup cameras, which went into effect in May. At times, the shifts reflect consumer electronic trends. Cassette players in cars gave way to in-dash CD systems, which started disappearing from cars when Bluetooth streaming music arrived. Many of these feature swaps don't get a lot of fanfare, so you might not always realize what's come and gone until you're shopping for a new car.
University of Alabama engineers develop solution to child heat deaths in cars
An average of 37 children die each year in the United States from being trapped inside a hot car, and engineering researchers at The University of Alabama have crafted a solution to prevent these tragic accidents. A patent-pending device can alert a cell phone when a human or animal is inside a parked vehicle getting too hot. It was developed by UA students from a concept devised by Dr. Timothy A. Haskew, department head and UA professor of electrical and computer engineering, The device monitors carbon dioxide levels from human breath inside a vehicle along with temperature and car movement, using computer algorithms to determine when to alert a cell phone.
