Online Defensive Driving Tips

Pittsburgh’s mayor expressed disappointment yesterday over the arrests of 2 of the city’s firefighters. The fire department made it mandatory for random drug tests to be conducted after a string of arrests last year because of domestic violence, DUI, public drunkenness and assault. A firefighter was also caught stealing a security truck from a casino. 2 firefighters were arrested last week in two separate incidents. Witnesses say they saw one firefighter kicking and punching a man. The victim was found lying unconscious in an intersection and was bleeding from cuts to his face and head. In another incident, police found another firefighter standing outside his Suzuki, smelling of alcohol. Apparently, he had been driving drunk and sideswiped another vehicle. When asked for his driver’s license, he apparently handed the officer a credit card. He also failed sobriety tests and a Breathalyzer test showed that his blood alcohol level was .228, which is three times the legal limit.

All across Indiana, police are going to start working overtime this month in order to watch out for and crack down on drunken, dangerous and impaired drivers. With more and more drunk driving cases being reported every day, law enforcement agencies have decided to step in and take harsh measures against those who deem it necessary to flaunt the laws. The Indiana state police, along with more than 250 other agencies, have decided to take part in Operation Pull Over that runs till March 20th. The police and agencies taking part in this federally funded project will send out increased patrols that look for aggressive or drunken drivers without seatbelts. The Indiana police have said that there were 41 deaths on the state’s highways in 2009, and nearly 24 percent of these involved drivers who were drunk.

More than 40 percent of drivers say they have fallen asleep while driving at least once. According to a study carried out by the AAA Foundation, one out of every ten of these drivers has admitted doing this in the past year. The AAA Foundation is a non-profit research and educational organization. Driving when sleep-deprived and drowsy can lead to accidental deaths. As per reports, nearly one in six car crashes is caused due to a fatigue impaired driver. Every state prohibits drunk driving. And only New Jersey has laws against driving when deprived of sleep. This should not be the case, especially after it has been proved that the effects of sleep deprivation are similar to those of drunk driving. The director of communications and public affairs for AAA Arizona, Linda Gorman said, “Driving Drowsy is similar in many ways to driving drunk. Awareness decreases, reaction time slows, judgment is impaired and your risk of crashing skyrockets”. A few handy tips have been offered by AAA Arizo...