National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah A. P. Hersman is testifying about pipeline safety today before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Hersman will provide an overview of the NTSB’s ongoing investigation into the cause of a natural gas transmission pipeline rupture that occurred in Sissonville, West Virginia on Dec.11, 2012.

Progress in traffic safety is “at risk of being undone,” according to a safety group that has put together a 2013 Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws, a report card grading all 50 states and the District of Columbia on their performance on 15 basic traffic safety laws.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released a preliminary report on the Dec. 11, 2012, rupture of a natural gas transmission line in Sissonville, W.Va.

Pilots won't be allowed to use smartphones or laptop computers for non-work purposes -- like surfing the web or sending emails - under a rule being proposed by the Federal Aviation Authority. At issue: potentially dangerous distractions, such as a 2009 incident in which two Northwest Airlines pilots flew 150 miles past their destination because they were engrossed in using their laptop computers for personal activities.

The BNSF Railway Co. has signed an accord with OSHA in which the company agrees to voluntary revise several personnel policies that OSHA alleged violated the whistleblower provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act and dissuaded workers from reporting on-the-job injuries.

A Swedish study has found that drivers take long gazes at electronic billboards, possibly raising the risk of highway crashes. The new research has put the U.S. billboard industry into a defensive mode. In an effort to dismiss the findings, the industry’s top trade group quickly cited an unpublished U.S. government study to argue that the electronic displays pose no traffic safety hazard.

When noise is a problem, it’s usually in the “too much” rather than “too little” category. The opposite is true of ultra-quiet electric and hybrid vehicles, who emit so little noise that pedestrians and bicyclists may not be able to detect their presence, thus increasing their chances of an accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that it is investigating a collison Monday between the oil tanker Overseas Reymar and one of the supports of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Being prepared can help travelers avoid dangerous situations in winter, says the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), which is passing along some travel safety tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that are especially useful this season.