Spring is around the corner, and it won’t be long before it’s prom and graduation seasons for many high schoolers. Rites of passage for many, these are times for teens to celebrate, but can also be times of poor decision-making, especially when vehicles are involved. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that 2,524 teen drivers and passengers were killed and 177,000 were injured in 2013. Twenty-seven percent of these fatalities occurred between April and June, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
“The statistics are staggering, especially when you consider that most of these accidents and fatalities are preventable,” said Randy Petro, Mercury Insurance’s chief claims officer. “We don’t want any families to suffer through the loss of a child, so Mercury is taking action with the launch of the ‘Mercury Insurance Drive Safe Challenge.’”
The Mercury Insurance Drive Safe Challenge kicked off with a free defensive driving program, which included hands-on driving skills training and classroom material. An interactive website provides teens with detailed instruction, as well as gives parents the tools to shape responsible driving behavior.
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7772251-mercury-teen-drive-safe-challenge/
The Toyota Prius v is the only midsize car out of 31 evaluated to earn a good rating in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s first-ever headlight ratings.
The best available headlights on 11 cars earn an acceptable rating, while nine only reach a marginal rating. Ten of the vehicles can’t be purchased with anything other than poor-rated headlights.
A vehicle’s price tag is no guarantee of decent headlights. Many of the poor-rated headlights belong to luxury vehicles.
The ability to see the road ahead, along with any pedestrians, bicyclists or obstacles, is an obvious essential for drivers. However, government standards for headlights, based on laboratory tests, allow huge variation in the amount of illumination that headlights provide in actual on-road driving. With about half of traffic deaths occurring either in the dark or in dawn or dusk conditions, improved headlights have the potential to bring about substantial reductions in fatalities.
While regular visits to the eye doctor and dentist are mainstays of preventive healthcare, less than one in four Americans have had their hearing checked in the past two years, according to a consumer survey by Wakefield Research on behalf of EPIC Hearing Healthcare (EPIC). And, while most people with poor vision own glasses or contacts to help them see better, only one in five people who could benefit from a hearing aid wears one.
“A lot of people aren’t aware how important preventive care is for their hearing health,” said William M. Luxford, M.D., medical director, House Clinic. “Regular, comprehensive hearing exams by an audiologist are the best way to establish a baseline for your hearing and ensure any hearing loss is caught early so further damage can be prevented or minimized and hearing can be improved as quickly as possible.”
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7823651-epic-healthy-hearing-habits/
Drivers of vehicles with good small overlap front ratings from the Insurance Institute from Highway Safety can expect to be protected well in a frontal crash involving the left corner of the vehicle. But how would the passengers sitting next to them fare in a right-side small overlap crash? A new study shows that good protection doesn’t always extend across the front seat.
The Institute conducted 40 mph passenger-side small overlap tests on seven small SUVs with good driver-side small overlap ratings. Only one of the vehicles, the 2016 Hyundai Tucson, performed at a level corresponding to a good rating, and the others ran the gamut from poor to acceptable.
The results have prompted IIHS to consider instituting a passenger-side rating as part of its TOP SAFETY PICK criteria.
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7856251-ad-council-embrace-refugees/
Buckling precious cargo into a late-model vehicle has gotten a bit easier in the past year, the Institute’s LATCH ease-of-use ratings show.
IIHS launched its ratings of child seat installation hardware in vehicles in June 2015. Out of 102 vehicles rated at that time, the majority were poor or marginal. Today, a total of 170 current models have been evaluated, and most are good or acceptable. Three models — the Audi Q7, Lexus RX and Toyota Prius — earn the top rating of good+, a distinction that no vehicle achieved last year.
A properly installed, age-appropriate child restraint can protect a child much better in a crash than a safety belt alone. LATCH, which stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children, is intended to make it easier for caregivers to install child restraints properly. Child restraints installed with LATCH are more likely to be put in correctly than restraints installed using the vehicle safety belt, IIHS research has shown.
Even with LATCH, installation errors are common. The Institute’s ratings are based on key ease-of-use criteria that have been shown to minimize mistakes.
Going on the offensive against one of the most daunting challenges in cancer, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) today announced the launch of a groundbreaking, collaborative clinical trial for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a deadly disease which has seen few improvements in treatments in more than 40 years.
Beat AML was announced yesterday by Vice President Biden, along with many new, Moonshot inspired initiatives across industry, non-profit and government.
AML is the most lethal of the blood cancers, which together are the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S.; AML is responsible for more than 10,000 deaths each year. Despite advances in treating other blood cancers, the standard of treatment for AML – a combination of toxic chemotherapies – has remained the same for more than 40 years. Overall prognosis remains poor, with a five-year survival rate below 20 percent for patients over age 60.
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7554854-lls-beat-aml-acute-myeloid-leukemia/
Four out of eight small pickup trucks evaluated by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety earn good ratings for occupant protection in all five IIHS crashworthiness evaluations, but the lack of an automatic emergency braking system and poor-rated headlights means these pickups fall short of qualifying for either of the Institute’s safety awards.
IIHS engineers evaluated two body styles of each pickup — crew cab and extended cab. Crew cabs have four full doors and two full rows of seating. Extended cabs have two full front doors, two smaller rear doors and compact second-row seats. The Institute tests the two most popular versions of pickups because their performance can vary by body style. The ratings in this round of evaluations apply to 2017 models.
A new crash test program from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety aims to ensure that manufacturers pay attention to the safety of front passengers as well as drivers.
The test was developed after it became clear that some manufacturers were giving short shrift to the right side of the vehicle when it comes to small overlap front crash protection. A good or acceptable passenger-side rating will be required to qualify for the Institute’s 2018 TOP SAFETY PICK+ award.
The first test group in the passenger-side small overlap front test program did better overall than vehicles IIHS previously evaluated for research. Ten out of 13 midsize cars tested earn a good rating, while one is acceptable and two earn a marginal rating.
In contrast with a group of 2014-16 model small SUVs tested for research, none of the 2017-18 midsize cars had a poor or marginal structural rating. Instead, the biggest problem in the new group was inconsistent airbag protection in five cars, which would put passengers’ heads at risk.
Off The Grid tells compelling human stories from across the globe, framing them within a bigger picture. It’s about individuals whose lives have been affected by unforeseen events, but who decide to take their destinies into their own hands.
A new episode of Off the Grid – Silent Death on a Syrian Journey – exposes a booming illegal trade in the Middle East: organ trafficking. Producer/Director Mouhssine Ennaimi visits Lebanon where hundreds of thousands of desperately poor Syrians have taken refuge. With little money for food and shelter, Abu Ahmed and Abdallah have sold their kidneys to organ traffickers. One of them was given only a fraction of the sum promised and faces now health complications. The other one is recovering in a filthy room in a dirty slum hoping to be smuggled to Europe by the organ trafficker.
To view the multimedia release go to:
https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8219151-trt-world-off-the-grid-organ-trafficking/
Off The Grid tells compelling human stories from across the globe, framing them within a bigger picture. It’s about individuals whose lives have been affected by unforeseen events, but who decide to take their destinies into their own hands.
A new episode of Off the Grid – Silent Death on a Syrian Journey – exposes a booming illegal trade in the Middle East: organ trafficking. Producer/Director Mouhssine Ennaimi visits Lebanon where hundreds of thousands of desperately poor Syrians have taken refuge. With little money for food and shelter, Abu Ahmed and Abdallah have sold their kidneys to organ traffickers. One of them was given only a fraction of the sum promised and faces now health complications. The other one is recovering in a filthy room in a dirty slum hoping to be smuggled to Europe by the organ trafficker.
To view the multimedia release go to:
https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8219151-trt-world-off-the-grid-organ-trafficking/
A new water system now serves El Salado in Colombia after being chosen by Ferrovial for its Social Infrastructure programme in 2016. €162,000 euros has been invested in the aqueduct system, which is powered by a solar facility and is the first of its kind in Colombia. The community now has daily access to water fit for human consumption. Until now, it had a poor quality water supply that was only available for a few hours, three days a week, due to high maintenance costs.
The community of El Salado in Colombia was scarred by the massacre that took place 18 years ago, where 66 people were killed. All the residents abandoned the village and uprooted to Bogotá, Cartagena or Sincelejo, but a small group of former El Salado villagers eventually began the task of restoring the village for the return of its inhabitants.
To view the multimedia release go to:
https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8274351-ferrovial-water-el-salado-colombia/
In a new round of evaluations, 5 of 7 small SUVs earn good ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for occupant protection in a passenger-side small overlap front crash.
The ratings bring to 16 the number of small SUVs the Institute has evaluated in the passenger-side small overlap front test, which was introduced in 2017 to encourage manufacturers to offer the same level of protection for front-seat passengers as drivers in this type of crash.
The BMW X1; Chevrolet Equinox and its twin, the GMC Terrain; Jeep Compass and Mitsubishi Outlander earn good ratings in the passenger-side small overlap front test. The Mitsubishi Outlander Sport earns a marginal rating, and the Ford Escape earns poor. For the 2018 model year, the Equinox shed weight to join the small SUV size class. Earlier models were classified as midsize.
None of the newly rated 2018 models earns better than acceptable marks for structure. (The Honda CR-V and Mazda CX-5 are the only small SUVs evaluated so far to earn good ratings for structure in the passenger-side small overlap front test.) The Outlander Sport is marginal, and the Escape is rated poor. Both the Outlander Sport and Escape allowed too much intrusion into the occupant compartment on the right side.
