Devon Glass from Church Wyble, P.C. and Steve Lombardi from The Lombardi Law Firm are experimenting with a joint project about highway safety. They are looking at trends and tendencies of accidents and injury or death on the interstate highway system that exists in their states, Michigan and Iowa respectively. Their states are separated by Illinois. They are separated from my state _ Hawaii _ by the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada Range and 2,500 miles of deep blue ocean. And lest I forget to mention, 5 times zones for Lombardi and 6 for Glass.
Is it possible for little Hawaii to join the discussion with these two Midwesterners? Let me count the ways.
Lombardi asks the first question, which I will answer for Hawaii, in the title of his article: Who wins and loses when a Ford Focus and a fully-loaded semi-truck crash? I can state without hesitation that the Ford Focus loses in Hawaii. the laws of physics apply in Hawaii and Ford is still selling cars here. Oh, and "yes", we have trucks.
The next question is does Hawaii have interstate highways? Again I am happy to answer yes! I’ll buy a Mai Tai for either or both Lombardi or Glass if they can identify the names of the interstate highways on Maui where the AAJ midwinter convention will be held in February 2010. On Oahu where I live we have the H-1, H-2 and H-3 as interstates.
Next, in order to see if I can connect with Church Wyble, P.C. and Devon Glass in Lansing, Michigan, I read the article that Devon Glass wrote as part of this highway project: This May Save Your Child’s Life When Driving on the Interstate. I was born in Ann Arbor, graduated from the University of Michigan (several times) and so I feel the connection with Michigan in my bones (Go Blue!). First I’d like to thank Devon Glass for the excellent article. At Injury Board we all stress injury prevention and that applies in triplicate when it comes to kids and car crashes.
Continuing with my application to add Hawaii to Michigan and Iowa in analyzing interstate highway injury or death factors, I can say without qualification that Hawaii kids will benefit from the recommendations made in the Devon Glass article. The tips are so important to Hawaii drivers with children in the car that I want to quote them here:
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among children ages 2 to 14. As stated in the last paragraph, child deaths are due in large part to the non-use or improper use of child safety seats and seat belts. The National Highway Safety Commission has a “4 Steps for Kids” Campaign that helps parents choose the appropriate child safety seat based on their child’s age and also how to properly install it in the car:
1. For the best possible protection, keep infants in the back seat in rear-facing child safety seats up to the height or weight limit of the particular seat. At the very minimum, keep infants in rear-facing seats until age 1 and at least 20 pounds.
2. Once a child outgrows their rear-facing safety seat, they should sit in a forward-facing safety seat in the back seat until around age 4 and 40 pounds.
3. A child that has outgrown their forward-facing safety seat should sit in a booster seat in the back seat until the vehicle safety belt fit properly.
4. When a child outgrows their booster seat, usually around age 8 and when they are 4’9” tall, they can use the vehicle safety belt if it fits properly. A proper-fitting safety belt lays across the upper thighs and the shoulder belt fits across the chest.
Overall, all children under 13 should ride in the back seat. Please visit the NHSC website for a detailed illustration of which child safety seats you should choose to protect your children.
So I will wait to see if the application for membership in the Lombardi – Glass Interstate Network (LOGIN) will be accepted.
