The U.S. Department of Transportation announced this year that it will undertake the first major update to its vehicle safety ratings in seven years. The new program will continue to assess passenger cars, pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles, and vans on the five star scale, but will add an overall safety rating that combines the scores of several crash tests.

The new regulations, to be administered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), will take effect for the 2010 model year and will also include new front-end tests and a test in which a vehicle strikes a pole sideways to simulate the wrapping of a vehicle around a tree. Female crash test dummies will also make their debut in the safety-testing program and will be used to represent both women and small children. Additional measures will also include testing for leg injuries and reporting whether vehicles have safety technology.

The new criteria should make it more difficult for vehicles to attain the maximum five star rating. Under the current system, nearly 90 percent of vehicles score the maximum five stars, and many automakers feature that safety rating in their advertising.

For more on the new improvements to the crash test program, see here.

This video from New Mexico shows how quickly and unexpectedly a car crash can happen in icy conditions. These drivers were driving too fast for the conditions.

Temperatures are dropping and it won’t be long until Texas has its first ice of the 2008-2009 winter driving season. Plan ahead and leave for your destination a little early.  Bridges in our area can remain icy and retain dangerous conditions for some time, even after the temperatures rise above freezing.

 A recent survey of Texas judges shows that runaway juries and frivolous lawsuits are in large part fictional events and that tort reform legislation was not necessary.  To evaluate the nation’s need for tort reform, Baylor Law School researchers surveyed a broad sample of trial judges. 

All 389 judges in Texas at the time of the survey received detailed questionnaires, and 78% of them participated.  Their responses demonstrate that tort reform advocates, at least in Texas, have made many unfounded claims regarding the need to cap jury awards.  83% percent of responding judges reported that in the last 2 years, they had not seen a single “runaway” jury verdict.  In fact, 58% believed that juries awarded damage amounts that were inappropriately low many times. 

The report also addresses the impact of many popular tort reform anecdotes that are misleading or fabricated.  It was published in the Spring 2007 issue of the Baylor Law Review.

Experienced Dallas, Texas personal injury attorneys handling all types of injury claims, including: Car Accidents, Truck Accidents, Medical Malpractice, Defective Products, Work Injuries, Construction Accidents, Car Wrecks, and Premises Liability, among others throughout Texas.