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Should you replace the driver’s seat belt after an accident?  Absolutely.  In fact, the seat belt for all occupied passengers should be replaced as well. My daughter was recently rear-ended by a 90 year old woman who could not walk without the aid of a walker.  As a result, we had to get an estimate…

On Austin roads last year the number of traffic deaths in 2017 fell to 76.  This was the second consecutive year in which there was a decrease, from 79 in 2016, following a record-setting spike in 2015, when 102 people died. Although several of the crashes in 2017 had multiple victims, the total number of…

A new study has found further evidence linking hits to the head rather than concussions to the onset of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the neurodegenerative disease traced back to the kind of head trauma experienced by football players, other athletes and combat veterans. “The concussion is really irrelevant for triggering CTE,” Dr. Lee Goldstein, an associate…

Four people were killed in auto accidents within a 12-hour period ending Friday morning in three unrelated crashes in Central Texas. The first traffic death occurred about 8:45 p.m. Thursday in Kyle on the Interstate 35 frontage road at the Kyle Parkway intersection. Police said the driver, 52-year-old Daniel Adrian Gonzalez of Austin, was heading…

It turns out many folks have no idea that their prescription medications make driving dangerous and put them at risk for a DUI arrest. A recent 2017 study looked at data from the 2013-2014 National Roadside Survey, in which drivers across America were asked about drug use, including prescription drugs. Almost 20 percent said they…

A driver has been charged with intoxication assault after police say he collided with another car while drunk on Sunday, injuring a woman and two children, according to an arrest affidavit. At 9:22 p.m. Austin police got a call about a car driving westbound on Texas 71 that was speeding and had run a red…

On Saturday afternoon, a family of four traveling to the airport to go back home was hit by a drunk driver. It’s possible that only one of them may survive; the 10-year-old girl who was sitting in the backseat. The Latulippe family, from California, flew to Austin to visit friends, said Jim Enos. Enos’ 38-year-old…

New-model cars are loaded with more driver distractions than ever before, including navigation systems that take an average of 40 seconds to program, according to a study of more than two dozen 2017 vehicles. “It’s a staggering increase in the technology and complexity of the vehicle in the last two to three years,” said David…

The Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said late last week that they are no longer pursuing the regulation that would require testing for the fatigue-inducing disorder that has been blamed for deadly rail crashes in New York City and New Jersey and several highway crashes.   The agencies argue that it…

Austin police have arrested a man who they said was intoxicated when he crashed into a car on North Lamar Boulevard on Thursday night, sending another man to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, according to an arrest affidavit. Tremaine Purnell, 35, faces charges of intoxication assault and aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, jail records…