The federal government is pondering how best to accommodate automated vehicles under standards that were developed when all cars were driven solely by humans and self-driving vehicles were not even a glimmer on the horizon. As a part of the process, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is inviting the public to comment on a pair of petitions from Nuro and General Motors (GM) about exemptions to those standards.

The new kid on the block – Tesla – is tops when it comes to equipping its vehicles with automatic emergency braking (AEB), although several other manufacturers aren’t far behind, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

“With the oil field traffic, everybody is in a hurry,” said Heather Lopez about the roads in Eddy County and neighboring Lea County. “Everybody runs like it is the end of days. Drivers get impatient. Trucks pull out in front of cars. They figure they are bigger and you are going to stop.” Figures compiled by Eddy County show there were 17 roadway fatalities in the county in both 2018 and 2017 and seven in 2016. In Lea County, according to the New Mexico State Police, there were 24 traffic fatalities in 2018, 12 in 2017 and 10 in 2016.

The effect of plastic on workers in the plastic industry, Apple’s efforts to resist curbs on distracted driving and amateur video helps a state OSH agency crack down on asbestos violators. These were among the top safety stories featured this week on ISHN.com.

Motorcyclists and pedestrians were the focus of two recent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports which used analyses from accident investigations to form recommendations to enhance safety for the two groups going forward. Motorcyclists—motorcycle riders and their passengers—have the highest risk of fatal injury among all motor vehicle users.

Garrett Wilhelm was chatting with the Facetime app on his Apple iPhone, police say, as he sped along an interstate highway northwest of Dallas on the day before Christmas in 2014. He crashed his SUV into a sedan carrying a young family, killing five-year-old Moriah Modisette and injuring her parents and sister.

The motor vehicle towing industry has a higher rate of work-related injury and death compared to other industries, according to NIOSH research presented at the National Occupational Injury Research Symposium in Morgantown, West Virginia. Yet studies historically have focused on the safety of other first responders, including law enforcement officers, fire fighters, and emergency medical services workers.

Older workers (those ages 55 and older) bring extensive skills, knowledge, and experience built over the course of a lifespan. However, age-related physical and mental changes may affect older workers’ driving. While such changes are normal, they also put older drivers at a greater risk of dying if they are in a motor vehicle crash.

The recent government shutdown may have delayed the release of the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) 2019 – 2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements, but it doesn’t appear to have downsized it. The agency today unveiled an ambitious version of its biennial wish list, one which calls for the implementation of 46 safety recommendations in just two years.

We may never know what caused the 22 highway, aviation, marine and railway accidents that occurred during the partial government shutdown and were not investigated, because furloughed National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators did not physically visit the accidents sites. That, says the NTSB, means “that perishable evidence may have been lost."