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Show Trooper Talk What is traveling with us? By Jack Peterson, UHP As we travel down the roads of the Uintah Basin, we should take the time to look at some of the things that are traveling with us. Did you know that some of those innocent looking things can become lethal in a crash? Have you ever thought about the groceries that you bring home? Those things are traveling at the same speed that your car is. Consider the effect that a can of peaches traveling at 65 mph would have when it contacts the back of a persons head. Do you think that things like that dont happen? One of the things that many people forget is that when a vehicle is in a crash, there is more than just one crash. First of all, you have the vehicle crash. That is the impact of whatever the vehicle crashes into. Next we have what experts refer to as the human crash. That is whatever a person crashes into immediately after the crash. Hopefully, that will be a restraint device of some kind. Then we have the internal collision. That is when the inside of a person crashes into their skeletal structure. This collision kills or injures many people involved in Wednesday, April 23, 2003 Vernal Express Statistics tell us that a significant number of people still are not using restraints. What it means is that it doesnt take crashing into a tree at 65 mph to cause death or injury in a crash. A person can be injured by almost anything that is unrestrained in a vehicle eui if they have taken the time to buckle themselves into a safety device. So, you say to yourself, if it was really that dangerous, it would be against the law. Do you really think that is the case? Phil Haseltine, Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety, (ACTS), has stated that peoples attitudes usually reflect that. state laws often Unfortunately, fail to prescribe the best practice for safety." In almost 20 years of investigating crashes, I have seen many cases where people have been injured because of loose objects in their vehicle. Sometimes, it was being unrestrained Other themselves. times, it has been something in the imminent. children are more Statistically, likely to be restrained in vehicles than adults. Unfortunately, that doesnt necessarily mean a lot. rior. I talked with a woman this morning that was in a crash last year where a young man was killed when he crossed the road in front of her vehicle. She said It just happened so fast. I didn't have time to do anything. Even braking came after the crash. That is the way a lot of crashes are. We don't have time to see them coming. Obviously, if we didnt, we wouldn't have so many crashes. We need to take the time before an accident happens to protect ourselves and the people we love who travel with us. Take a moment and look at what is traveling with you. You might be surprised when you think about it as a high impact object. these young debutantes and parents had better come Prom night and graduation parties represents a high risk time for pre- pared. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that at age 16, which is the highest risk age fore drivers, females were killed as passengers than as drivers. 48 of deaths were passengers and slightly more More females will be a passenger of a male teen driver on prom night than any other time of the year across North America. Speeding, alcohol use, multiple passengers and driving between 12:00am and 3:00 am represents the deadliest combination of factors and is the prime recipe for car crashes. In year 2000, 34 of male drivers involved in fatal crashes were speeding. In 2000, 23 of speeding drivers involved in fatal crashes were also intoxicated. Between midnight and 3:00 am, 77 of speeding drivers involved in fatal accidents were Intoxicated. Parents who want to reduce the risk of their child's involvement in a car crash should do the following: 1 . Check your brakes and brake fluid. Teenagers speed the most. While teens are interested in how fast the car can go, if parents should be interested in how well the car can stop. Make sure your vehicle is in its best mechanical shape your teen is taking to the wheel. 2. Limit the number of passengers your teen is allowed to transport. The risk of a car crash goes up exponentially for each passenger added. Teens are very sensitive to hypocrisy and determine their 3. Be a good role model and do not drink and drive behavior by what they observe in their parent, not by what the parent says. Tell your teen not to drink and drive and lead by example. 4. Insist that your teen and all passengers wear their seat belts and again, lead by example. Parents must wear their seat belt r. too. 5. Do Not allow your teen to drive after midnight. If transportation is required after midnight, make alternate arrangements. Act as chauffeur, car pool with another parent or arrange for a taxi. It is better that the parent loses one nights sleep than the life of their child. Remember, the Prom Is but one night a year. To be really safe, parents must concern themselves with teen driver safety 365 days a year. Even with Prom night occurring in the spring, most fatal car crashes actually occur in the summertime. Safe driving doesnt take a holiday. Cindy L. Of Perry Perry Insurance Agency, Inc. 781-040- 4 o'-- &' o &'o'-oo Uintah County Animal Shelter Pees crashes. The next crash could be with whatever it is that is loose in the vehicle. Have you looked around your passenger compartment lately and seen some of the things that are carried in it. Aside from groceries, how about books or Walkmans or tool boxes or flashlights or children? All of those things have significant weight. When they are unrestrained, they can become missiles when they contact occupants inside a crashing vehicle. For example, H. Clay Gabler, a former engineer for the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration, completed a study in which the driver (restrained), had a passenger, (unrestrained), in the seat behind them, as compared to drivers with restrained passengers behind them. He found that in the crashes where an unrestrained passenger was behind a driver, one in 68 drivers was killed. That is comto restrained pared passengers where the driver was killed in every 330 crashes. Why is that? Because the mass of a person flying forward in a crash is very substantial. If there is nothing to keep that mass from colliding with other passengers, injuries are vehicle with them that caused the damage. In fact, there is even a place on the crash form that the state uses that requests information on what the victim collides with. It says, other interior. A pop can traveling 65 mph can be other inte- Prepare for a Safe Prom All Off The tlfeeh First Time Single Expectant Mothers Support & Educational Group LEARN ABOUT Parenting skills Healthy relationships Stress management Balancing work St home The pets of the week from Uintah County Animal Shelter are four kitd tens and their mother. There are two grey kittens and two grey and white ones. The mother is grey and white. The kittens are about eight weeks old and ready to be'adopted. The shelter also has several other kittens available as well As many cats, some of which are neutered andor declawed already. Women's wellness tiger-stripe- no fee fostering program which will The Animal Shelter has a help adopting families determine if they wish to keep the pet permanently. For those who choose to adopt from the shelter, Petfinder.com will provide two months free insurance through the PetCare Pet Insurance Program. Coverage includes things such as ear infections, motor vehicle accidents, defined poison ingestion and intestinal parasites. If you wish to foster or adopt one of these or another animal, or if your pet is missing, please call the shelter at or visit them in their new building at 1387 E. 335 S. 30-da- y, 781-729- contact Sue Sawyer or Lynne Gagon at TriCounty Health Department V 435-781-53- 54 or 435-781-54- 76 TV -- TV TV TV TW 7 m gk xTV rr V y "Moon Lake Electrics help has given us the power to save lives. y y Brad Hancock, City Manager, Roosevelt City, Utah Roosevelts Volunteer Fire Department "It has saved the lives of quite a few people is second to none in the state. In addtion to fighting fires, they are also responsible for hazardous spill containment and y Moon Lake Electrics linemen utilize a fleet of specialized one-to- n trucks. When Moon Lake heard that the vehicles community safety training. The department is also called whenever there is a severe auto accident. In those cases, it is critical that they remove the victims from the vehicles as quickly and safely as possible. And while the department has the training to perform extrication, it had trouble were perfect for storing equipment, they didnt hesitate to donate a truck to the fire department. In the last two years, that truck has been used in nearly 20 extrications and saved lives that otherwise might have been lost. locating an appropriate vehicle. MA vital service for our area A Extrication is few of Roosevelts finest volunteer firefighters pose with extrication equipment and the vehicle donated by Moon Lake. a pretty tricky business, as Brad Hancock, City Manager and Brad Hancock, Roosevelt City Manager and proud volunteer firefighter. the extrication volunteer firefighter explains. Extrication usually involves getting victims out of a vehicle, and that requires a lot of very specialized heavy equipment. To do it properly we needed a vehicle that could house all that equipment. Moon Lake Electric doesnt know much about extrication, but they do know about trucks and about helping neighbors in need. Cooperatives above and beyond the call of duty That kind of commitment may not be what youd expect from a power company, but Mxm Lake Electric isnt your typical utility. Its a cooperative. Moon Lake is committed to making this area a better, safer place to live. As Brad says, The measure of a community has to do with the quality of the people. Thanks to entities like Mixrn Lake, weve been able to perform a lot of services that you wont see in other cities of this size. That level of community concern is what Moon Lakes Tower to Bring you the Best is all about. . Moon Lake Electric Power to Bring you the Best y ffiDlWffilftiif |