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After crash that killed 6 teens, NTSB chief says people underestimate marijuana’s impact on drivers

DETROIT — A horrific crash that killed six high school girls in Oklahoma two years ago has the head of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board urging parents to warn teenagers about the risk of driving after using marijuana.

Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy made the appeal to parents Thursday as her agency released the final report on the March 22, 2022 collision between a tiny Chevrolet Spark hatchback and a gravel-hauling semi in the small town of Tishomingo.

The board, after an investigation by its staff, determined that the crash was caused by the 16-year-old driver slowing for an intersection, then accelerating through a stop sign because she likely was impaired by recent marijuana use and was distracted by having five teen passengers in the car, the NTSB report said.

In an interview, Homendy also said the cannabis problem isn’t limited to teens. As more states have legalized recreational marijuana, teens and adults tend to underestimate the risks of driving under its influence.

“There’s a perception that in states where it’s legal that it’s safe and legal to drive impaired on marijuana,” she said.

In its report on the crash, the NTSB cited studies showing that marijuana decreases motor coordination, slows reaction time and impairs judgment of time and distance, all critical functions for driving.

Currently it’s legal for people 21 and older to use marijuana recreationally in 24 states plus Washington, D.C., according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Oklahoma doesn’t allow recreational use, but like most states, it’s legal for medical purposes. Driving while impaired by marijuana is illegal in all states and Washington, D.C.

The NTSB, which investigates transportation-related crashes but has no regulatory power, put out a safety alert Thursday urging parents to talk to young drivers about how marijuana can impair driving, and how they can make responsible choices to avoid driving while impaired or riding with impaired drivers.

Homendy said states that have legalized marijuana are behind in making sure people know that it’s illegal to drive under its influence. Over half of Americans live in a state where recreational cannabis use is legal, she said.

“Unfortunately, I think state laws that are legalizing recreational and medicinal use of marijuana have really come before thoughts or action on what are they going to do about traffic safety,” Homendy said. “They are far ahead on legalizing it, but very behind when it comes to traffic safety.”

States, she said, need to collect more data on how legalizing marijuana has affected traffic safety, and they need to start enforcing laws against driving while impaired by cannabis.

“Enforcement has got to be there in order to deter,” she said.

One study on crashes in Washington state, which has legalized recreational marijuana use, showed that more drivers involved in fatal crashes tested positive for marijuana after it became legal, the NTSB said.

In Tishomingo, about 100 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, six high school girls got into the car designed to carry four for a lunch break, the NTSB report said.

At an intersection, the driver slowed to 1 mile per hour, but accelerated and didn’t come to a complete stop for a sign. Instead, she sped up and turned left in front of the gravel truck. The truck driver braked and steered to avoid the Spark, but hit the driver’s side at just under 50 mph (80 kilometers per hour). All six teens died of multiple blunt force injuries.

Tests on blood taken from the driver’s body found a THC concentration of 95.9 nanograms per milliliter, the NTSB said. If such a level of THC, the main chemical component of marijuana, were found in a living person, it would indicate “a high likelihood that the person had used cannabis very recently, and therefore was likely still experiencing acute impairing cannabis effects,” the report said.

But the NTSB cautioned that body-cavity blood samples can sometimes be contaminated by other body fluids or by THC from other tissues, including the lungs, that may contain high concentrations.

In addition, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol found vaping mouthpieces and cannabis buds in the car at the scene of the crash, the report said.

The NTSB recommended in the report that the Oklahoma State Department of Education develop a drug and alcohol abuse curriculum for local school districts that tells students about the risk of cannabis-impaired driving. At present, only Massachusetts and Rhode Island have such course requirements, the NTSB said.

The agency also wants the Governors Highway Safety Association, a group of state highway safety officers, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Association of State Boards of Education to inform members about the Tishomingo crash and the need for cannabis information in school and driver education coursework.

The safety association said in a statement that cannabis-impaired driving is a growing safety concern, and state highway safety offices are focused on eliminating all impaired driving.

“We have to start communicating well ahead of time, to kids, that driving, having ingested or smoked or inhaled marijuana is impairing, and it’s a risk to them and a risk to others,” Homendy said.

Best and worst states for distracted driving in 2024

Distracted driving might make for entertaining dashcam videos on social media, but it has increasingly become a deadly problem on America’s roads. Bader Scott Injury Lawyers’ recent study found that distracted driving kills thousands of people each year, but some states see much higher numbers than others.

New Mexico was the worst state in the study, with a final score of 100, and almost 40% of its fatal crashes were caused by distracted driving. The ten worst states for distracted driving include:

  • New Mexico: 100 Final Score/39.7% fatalities caused by distracted driving
  • Kansas: 48.01/26.83%
  • Louisiana: 40.16/17.33%
  • Kentucky: 37.91/17.2%
  • New Jersey: 36.36/26.72%
  • Hawaii: 30.59/21.55%
  • Idaho: 25.97/16.28%
  • Texas: 22.48/11.23%
  • Wyoming: 21.01/8.96%
  • Washington: 18.8/13.23%

Bader Scott calculated its overall score by examining other factors, including total crash deaths, fatalities by distracted drivers, deaths per 100,000 residents, and distracted drivers per 100,000 licensed drivers. New Mexico took the “top” spot in a few categories, including distracted drivers per 100,000 licensed drivers.

Some states performed much better in the study, with one scoring a zero overall. Rhode Island ranked as the best state for distracted driving, earning the lowest overall score. The ten best states include:

  • Rhode Island: 0/0%
  • Connecticut: 3.42/2.23%
  • Alaska: 4.36/2.44%
  • Mississippi: 4.74/1.71%
  • Nevada: 4.97/2.64%
  • California: 5.65/3.34%
  • Minnesota: 5.9/4.05%
  • North Carolina: 5.99/3.01%
  • New Hampshire: 6.24/4.11%
  • Iowa: 6.27/3.85%

The law firm looked at data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), and Census Bureau Population figures. It’s important to note that while the distracted driving rankings apply to the 2024 calendar year, Bader Scott’s data from the NHTSA and FHA came from 2022. Overall scores were calculated based on three key indicators: distracted driving fatality percentage (30% weight), number of people killed per 100,000 residents by distracted drivers (35%), and the number of distracted drivers involved per 100,000 licensed drivers in fatal crashes (35%). Those weighted scores drove the final calculations, and states were ranked based on the overall number.

These states have the roughest roads in the country

Complaining about the roads and weather have become pastimes for many people in America, but some drivers have a legitimate reason for all the bellyaching. Home Solutions’ recent study focused on road safety, calculating the percentage of rough roads, annual miles driven, and fatal injuries across all 50 states. The rough road numbers won’t be surprising for people who live in the worst states, but they’re eye-opening for everyone else.

Rhode Island had the roughest roads in the country, with 15.3 percent scoring above 220 on the International Roughness Index (IRI), which is a generally accepted measure of road quality in America. The top ten states with the roughest roads include:

  • Rhode Island: 15.3 percent of roads
  • Massachusetts: 14.6%
  • California: 12.4%
  • New Jersey: 9.5%
  • Hawaii: 9.1%
  • New York: 8.9%
  • New Mexico: 8.2%
  • Maryland: 7.7%
  • Wisconsin: 6.6%
  • Louisiana: 6.3%

The math behind the IRI calculations is beyond what we’ll get into here, but Rhode Island’s drivers likely don’t need equations to figure out that their state’s roads need some help. That said, many states fell below the one percent mark for rough roads, showing that the issue is largely related to the amount of money and time spent on care and maintenance.

Alabama had the fewest rough roads, at 0.4%, while Wyoming was close behind at 0.6%. Minnesota, Nevada, and Georgia round out the top five, with all coming in below 0.8%. At the same time, Wyoming had the deadliest roads in the study, so it’s not all roses for The Cowboy State.

Wyoming had a whopping 57 road deaths per 100,000 drivers, placing it high atop the list of deadliest states. In comparison, Rhode Island, with its bumpy roads, only saw 8.5 deaths per 100,000. Massachusetts wasn’t much worse, with just 9.5 deaths, though California was significantly higher, at 20.2 deaths per 100,000 drivers.

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GMC Sierra EV AT4, Chevy Silverado EV Trail Boss caught in spy photos

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GMC Sierra EV AT4, Chevy Silverado EV Trail Boss caught in spy photos originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 9 Jul 2024 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Premium fuel is now recommended for most light-duty vehicles

Many of us will remember the days when you could stop at a gas station, throw in $5 of 87 octane, and hit the road for miles without worry. Those days are over and have been for quite some time, as Energy.gov’s recent Fact of the Week showed that automakers have recommended premium fuel for most light-duty vehicles since 2018.

More than half of all light-duty vehicles come with a premium fuel recommendation, a significant increase from the 6.5 percent of vehicles needing premium back in 1985. That growth is due in part to automakers’ move to smaller turbocharged engines and higher compression requiring higher octane.

While it’s still possible to buy a car that doesn’t require high-test fuel, the number of available models has fallen pretty consistently over the past two decades. Vehicles requiring midgrade gas weren’t broken out of the numbers until 2011, but the category has represented a tiny number of available models since.

Octane ratings measure a fuel’s ability to stop “pinging” or “knocking.” While there are outliers, such as racing fuel, most gas stations in the United States offer three octane ratings that range from 87 for regular fuel to 93-94 octane for premium. The higher the octane rating, the more capable the fuel is of resisting knocking at higher compression levels, allowing automakers to extract more power from smaller, more fuel-efficient turbocharged engines.

While it’s always a good idea to follow your vehicle manufacturer’s recommendations, there may be times when premium fuel is unavailable. Newer vehicles’ advanced engine control systems can often adjust operations to accommodate lower-octane fuels, but they may suffer a fuel economy or power hit along the way. At the same time, using premium fuel in a vehicle not designed to take advantage of it can yield little to no benefit and costs way more in the process.

These are the 10 worst states for drunk driving deaths

Drunk driving is a problem for everyone, causing almost a third of all traffic fatalities and ruining thousands of lives each year. The problem is much worse in some states, however, as a new study from the Simmrin Law Group showed that South Carolina had the highest rate of drunk driving-related deaths in 2022.

The firm’s study found that southern states are the worst for drunk driving, taking four of the “top 10” spots in the ranking. It assigned an overall score out of a possible 100 points based on total traffic fatalities, the number of alcohol-impaired fatalities, the percentage of drunk drivers, and more.

10 worst states for drunk driving deaths:

  1. South Carolina: 100 overall score
  2. Texas: 84
  3. New Mexico: 81
  4. Wyoming: 74
  5. Montana: 72
  6. Arizona: 70
  7. Oregon: 70
  8. Louisiana: 65
  9. Mississippi: 64
  10. Alabama: 61

In South Carolina, a whopping 43% percent of traffic fatalities are due to drunk driving, much higher than the national average of 32%, and 8.82 people per 100,000 residents were killed in drunk-driving crashes. Second-place Texas saw 42% of fatal crashes caused by drunk drivers.

More than 13,500 people were killed by drunk drivers in 2022, but some states contributed much less to that total. Utah had the lowest percentage of drunk driving-related fatalities, at 22%. New Jersey, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New York were the next-best in the rankings. Simmrim Law Group said that the Northeast states likely had fewer drunk driving deaths due to more accessible public transportation and stricter drunk driving laws.

Though interestingly, none of the states ranking worst on the list have particularly lenient DUI laws. Arizona is considered to have some of the strictest laws in the country, with a first offense costing the driver 10 days in jail and fines of at least $1,250. They also must install an ignition interlock device and submit to drug/alcohol counseling. Drivers caught with a blood alcohol content of 0.15 or higher have to do 30 days in jail and pay $2,500 for a first offense.

Buick EV delayed for the U.S. market, new timeline uncertain

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Buick EV delayed for the U.S. market, new timeline uncertain originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 31 Jul 2024 10:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2025 Buick Envista Review: Looks expensive, isn’t. A hidden gem

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2025 Buick Envista Review: Looks expensive, isn’t. A hidden gem originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 24 Jul 2024 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What is torque? (And while we’re at it, what is horsepower?)

Whether you’re reading about V8 pickups or electric sedans, the concept of torque is critical to understanding the capabilities of a car. Torque often takes a back seat to horsepower when it comes to performance metrics, but it can tell you a lot about how a car will feel in the real world. So what is it and why does it matter? Let’s dive in.

Torque

Simply put, torque is a measurement of force being used to rotate something. Whenever you turn a knob or screwdriver, you’re applying torque. Your typical physics teacher will probably demonstrate the concept with some sort of simple lever, but this is Autoblog, not West Crestfield Senior High, so we’re going to stick with vehicular examples. The best way to easily visualize torque is not with engine components, but with something slightly more car-adjacent: a lug wrench. 

Torque is a measurement of an amount of force being applied over a given distance. That’s why automotive engine torque is expressed in pound-feet; you’re applying a force (in pounds) over a distance (in feet). That’s the exact same thing you’re doing when you stick a box wrench on a nut and crank it. The wrench doesn’t make you any stronger; it just multiplies the work you were already doing.

Read more: Why do so many cars have 2.0-liter turbo engines? A closer look

Let’s say you get a flat tire. Your emergency kit consists of a (properly inflated) spare tire, a jack and a lug wrench with a 12-inch handle. You line up the jack at the proper point and you’re ready to loosen those lug nuts before you put the wheel in the air, but when you stick the lug wrench on and give it a good, assertive yank, nothing happens. Uh-oh. Not enough torque.

Since we know what torque is, maybe we can work out a solution. There are only two components to this fancy math problem: force and distance. If we make one bigger, we’ll get more torque. That means we either need somebody stronger to yank on the wrench, or we need one with a longer handle.

Since you’re still not speaking to Dwayne Johnson (He knows what he did), your best option is a bigger wrench. But unless you conveniently ran over that machine screw in an auto parts store parking lot, chances are you won’t be able to make that happen. But if you’re lucky, maybe you have a length of pipe you can slip over the wrench handle to make it longer. Since your wrench handle is a foot long, the math here is easy: a two-foot pipe will give you twice the torque. Three feet? Three times. Et cetera, et cetera.

Horsepower

Now that you understand torque, understanding the difference between it and horsepower is much easier. Torque is that’s a very simple “can it be done?” formula. You need to move something that requires X force and you have Y foot-pounds to apply. If Y is greater than or equal to X, you can move it. Problem solved. Simple math.

Horsepower is math too, albeit slightly more complicated. That’s because horsepower cares about the rate at which you accomplish work, not just whether you can accomplish it. If torque is the answer to “can it be done?” then horsepower is the answer to “how fast can you do it?”

Read more: How do today’s new vehicles match their EPA MPG ratings?

To calculate horsepower, you multiply torque (in pound-feet) by speed (in RPM, in the case of a car) and divide the total by 5,252. Why 5,252? Because it’s a mathematical constant, as in “why are you constantly asking us questions we don’t feel like answering?” 

Let’s revisit our flat tire scenario. What happens if you don’t have something to make the wrench handle longer? You may be able to find other ways to apply force to the end of the handle. Like, by hitting it with a hammer, for instance.

Like the wrench, the hammer itself doesn’t actually make you stronger, but it allows you to more efficiently apply momentary force on the end of the wrench handle. But one hit may not be enough. You may have to hit it again and again and again to work the nut loose enough that you can use the wrench to finish the job.

Read more: Most powerful SUVs in America for 2022

Your hammer strategy didn’t apply as much torque as you would have by using a longer wrench, so it took a little longer. The rate at which you accomplished the work decreased, but you eventually got it done. This is the same basic premise behind a handheld impact gun. You’re delivering quick, powerful bursts of torque over and over again to incrementally apply leverage. 

If you had a large enough impact gun, you could use it to turn the crankshaft on your car and move it down the road, but even a hypothetical monster impact gun isn’t going to be able to move a many-thousand-pound car very quickly. It has the torque to get it going, in other words, but it lacks the horsepower to make that happen quickly. 

Fundamentally, this is how an internal combustion engine works, only you have multiple wrenches (your connecting rods) applying torque to your nut (the crankshaft) thousands of times per minute. And to take that analogy further, the crankshaft in turn (sorry) becomes a giant wrench that you’re using to turn your flywheel.

Read more: What is a CVT?

The flywheel is where an engine’s torque output is measured. Every part of your powertrain downstream of the crankshaft is just another wrench turning yet another component, and using this analogy, your transmission is basically a box of differently sized wrenches, allowing you to choose the best one for the job you’re trying to perform — hence the advantages of modern 10-speed automatics. 

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So which is better? 

There’s a saying in racing: to finish first, you must first finish. Torque is the “can it be done?” figure, so it stands to reason that it’s the most critical measurement of an engine’s potential. But if you’re in a race — whether wheel-to-wheel or against the clock — “how quickly?” is an incredibly relevant question. Neither torque nor horsepower tells the whole story. Look no further than the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 for a perfect illustration of the fact that there are numerous factors at play, such as tire choice, aerodynamics, suspension design, and (arguably most critically) gearing. But that’s a topic for another time. 

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Americans to set July Fourth travel record: ‘We’ve never seen numbers like this’

Traffic crawls on Interstate 93 headed south out of in Boston, Wednesday, July 3, 2024, as people make their way out of the city.  (Getty Images)

NEW YORK — High fuel costs and the threat of a hurricane are not expected to dampen Americans’ desire to hit the road this summer, with vacationers preparing for record travel to kick off Fourth of July holiday festivities.

Motorist group AAA expects a record of almost 71 million people to travel around the Independence Day holiday, growth similar to a pre-pandemic trajectory.

Some 60 million people will drive with nearly 6 million flying to their destinations, while around 4.6 million people will take buses, trains or cruises during the holiday period, according to AAA’s forecast.

“We’ve never seen numbers like this,” AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross said. “2024’s travel seems to be what 2020 would have been, had it not been for the pandemic,” he added.

U.S. summer travel will be closely watched from multiple fronts this year, as it could offer central bank officials and policymakers an important measure of consumer sentiment in an election year.

Inflation was unchanged in May even as consumer spending rose, boosting hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve might be able to control inflation while avoiding a recession.

Gasoline prices have eased over the past few months, with the national average price for a gallon of motor fuel at $3.50 on Tuesday, a 3-cent decline from last year. Domestic airfare is 2% cheaper than last year, with an average domestic round trip costing $800, according to AAA booking data.

‘Wanting to travel’

Despite recent declines, fuel prices remain well above historical levels. The average price for a gallon of gasoline was $2.74 during the July Fourth week in 2019, and the weekly average price from 2015 through 2019 was under $2.50 a gallon, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

Still, vacationers’ travel plans are largely unaffected by higher prices this year, according to a survey of over 1,000 people by auto retail group American Trucks.

Four-week average U.S. gasoline demand hit a one-year high of 9.2 million barrels per day (bpd) last week as retailers stockpiled ahead of the holiday, EIA data showed on Wednesday. Four-week average jet fuel demand was at 1.7 million bpd, identical to a seven-month high hit earlier in June.

“What we have noticed is that it’s more about the rate of change than the price itself that affects the psyche of consumers,” said John LaForge, head of real asset strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Since the price of gasoline has not moved dramatically higher or lower in the past six months, consumer psyche is largely unaffected by it, LaForge said.

For now, U.S. vacation travel is unlikely to be affected by Hurricane Beryl, which has brought devastation to some Caribbean Islands since Monday, but is expected to weaken considerably as it reaches Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula by Thursday night.

U.S. fuel inventories are also better stocked than they have been in recent years, providing motorists a buffer from sudden price shocks in case the hurricane disrupts refining operations.

U.S. gasoline stockpiles stood at around 231.7 million barrels in the week ended June 28, 5.6% higher than the same time last year, EIA data showed. Jet fuel stocks were 4.7% higher than last year.

“Americans are optimistic and wanting to travel, there’s no denying it,” GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan said.