Steering Clear of Holiday Season Danger

December 1999 - Steering Clear of Holiday Season Danger

by Richard H. Middleton, Jr. & Leah S. Guerry

The signs are unmistakable: A slight chill in the air, the trees turning from green to orange and crimson to bare, colorful lights, candles and ornaments replacing the jack-o'-lanterns and scarecrows. The Winter holidays are here, and with them plenty of parties and festive social gatherings.

With all the seasonal shopping and celebrating, it is helpful for families to have some type of savings plan -- not just a financial plan, but a family savings plan that invests in and protects the lives of all its members.

This is essential when it comes to driving and traveling this holiday season. It's unfortunate, but too many people choose to drive after enjoying a little too much holiday cheer at parties and gatherings.

The U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offer these sobering statistics:

q In 1995, almost 42,000 people were killed in highway crashes, and 3 million were injured. Of those killed, over 17,000 people -- 41 percent -- died in alcohol-related accidents. Approximately one million people are injured in alcohol-related crashes each year.

q Alcohol-related crashes cost society over $45 billion each year in emergency and acute health care costs, long-term care and rehabilitation, police and judicial services, insurance, disability and workers compensation, lost productivity and social services.

So whether you're attending or hosting a get-together this month, it is imperative that we all do our best to make this an alcohol-safe holiday season. It pays to start by learning some important facts that can mean the difference between life and death:

q Drinking coffee does not sober people up. It cannot rid the body of alcohol. All it will do is make a person a nervous, wide-awake drunk. Only time reverses alcohol impairment.

q Alcohol is alcohol, whether it's beer or scotch. One 12-ounce beer has as much alcohol as a 1.5-ounce shot of whiskey or a 4.5-ounce glass of wine.

q Body size is only one factor in determining how much you can drink. Metabolism, amount of rest, and food intake all play a part in how you handle liquor.

If you have decided to host an event this year, it pays to put some forethought into planning a safe function. The Washington (DC) Regional Alcohol Program offers the following tips for party givers:

q Collect your guests' car keys when they arrive, so that when they are ready to leave, they must get a second opinion on whether they are sober enough to drive home.

q Make sure to serve food with alcohol. High protein and carbohydrate foods like cheese and meat are especially good. They stay in the stomach much longer, slowing the rate at which the body absorbs alcohol.

q Don't make alcohol the focus of the event. Entertain guests with music, games, dancing and conversation. Serve alcoholic drinks only upon request and offer non-alcoholic alternatives. And stop serving alcoholic beverages at least one hour before the end of the event.

q If you observe a guest drinking too much: Engage him or her in conversation, offer food, and/or offer to make the next drink, using less or no alcohol.

Sometimes it happens — a guest drinks too much. In that situation, do not give back the car keys. Instead, try a little persuasion. Suggest that you or a sober friend drive them home. Invite the impaired guest to stay overnight in your home, which, while perhaps inconvenient, could save your guest's or someone else's life. You can also call a taxi and pay for the ride. Whatever you do, don't give in. In the end, you'll have a safe and grateful friend.

Richard H. Middleton, Jr., president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, is a partner in the Savannah, GA, law firm of Middleton, Mathis, Adams & Tate, P.C.

Leah S. Guerry is the executive director of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association.

by Richard H. Middleton, Jr. & Leah S. Guerry

When President Clinton announced his seatbelt initiative in 1997, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) started telling people to buckle their children under age 12 in the back seat of cars. Increased volume in back seats may mean NHTSA will eventually have to re-examine its seatbelt requirements.

Currently, the agency requires that the two front seats and rear window seats (called outboard seats) are fitted with a lap/shoulder combination belt, also called a three-point belt. The only seat in most models of cars without a lap/shoulder belt is the rear center seat.

"The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) has urged us to require the three-point belt, but we've said, it's a very rarely occupied position," says Clarke Harper, chief of NHTSA's light duty vehicle division. He adds, "We would support companies who want to put the three-point belt in that area."

Most cars are still manufactured without a rear center lap/shoulder belt. However, some 1999 models of Acura, Bentley, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Lexus, Mazda, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Saab, Toyota, Volvo and VW do have the three-point rear center belt. In fact, Volvo started offering a rear center three-point belt as an option in 1987 — two years before NHTSA began mandating shoulder harness systems for the rear outboard seats.

In order to make it easier for manufacturers to voluntarily place a lap/shoulder harness in the rear center seat, NHTSA altered some of its testing requirements. Prior to the change, manufacturers who installed a rear center lap/shoulder harness had to comply with a test structured for a lap-only belt. Manufacturers would then run a second test on the three-point system.

At this point, Harper says the agency has crash data about lap/shoulder belts on rear outboard seats, but not for center seats. The problem, explains another NHTSA employee, is that there aren't many car models with rear center lap/shoulder belts, and people generally do not sit in that seat.

Attorney James Murphy, of the Milwaukee firm Murphy, Gillick, Wicht & Prachthauser, believes NHTSA should require the lap/shoulder belts for all seating positions.

"It's been recognized by the medical profession and those interested in motor vehicle safety that lap belts can cause death and serious injury.When it is very clear there is a hazard and it's clear there is a solution to remove that hazard, the government should act," says Murphy.

One of Murphy's clients was severely injured -- while sitting restrained with a lap belt in the rear center seat -- in a vehicle crash. All of the other occupants of the car who were wearing a lap/shoulder combination -- and even the one person who was not belted at all — were not as severely injured as the client who was wearing the lap-only belt.

Murphy says the NTSB has yet to act, even though the agency concluded the following after its 1986 study of lap belts in frontal crashes:

q It may be argued that the center front and center rear seating locations in passenger cars have the lowest rates of occupancy, and that therefore it is not warranted to provide the superior protection of lap/shoulder belts at these locations. The safety board believes that, to the extent these seating locations are used, their occupants deserve crash protection equal to those provided for other occupants.

Murphy also says that some manufacturers still claim that the lap-only belt in the rear center seat is just as effective as a three-point belt. The Milwaukee attorney also says manufacturers argue that since the center rear seat (and center front seat) are not often occupied, it does not make good economic sense to provide the three-point belt in those positions. However, according to Murphy, Nissan Motor Co., wrote to NHTSA, stating that the cost for installing lap/shoulder belts in center seat positions would only increase the retail cost by $25 for sedans, $48 for wagons and hatchbacks and $166 for vans. Those prices certainly do not seem too high, considering the benefit -- increased safety for our families.

Richard H. Middleton, Jr., president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, is a partner in the Savannah, GA, law firm of Middleton, Mathis, Adams & Tate, P.C.

Leah S. Guerry is the executive director of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association.

Reprinted with permission of Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association, P. O. Box 4289, Baton Rouge; (225) 383-5554 or (800) 354-6267.