Making sure headlights are aimed where they should be aimed and incorporating collision avoidance technology are two ways to improve pedestrian safety in the U.S., according to a new report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The steady increase in pedestrian fatalities caused by vehicle crashes – which have risen every year since 2009 – caused the NTSB to issue a Pedestrian Safety Special Investigation Report based on its investigations into 15 highway crashes between April 24 and Nov. 3, 2016 in which vehicles struck and killed pedestrians. Some 5,987 pedestrians were killed in 2016 because of vehicle crashes.

Consumer advocates are attacking a bill heading for a vote soon in the U.S. Senate that would clear legal obstacles for the deployment of driverless cars — a proposal that, critics say, lacks safeguards needed to protect the public and largely would let vehicle manufacturers regulate themselves. The measure, which is being pushed by auto and tech industry lobbyists, is called the AV START Act, standing for “American Vision for Safer Transportation through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies.”

Many high-risk traffic situations between motorcycles and other motor vehicles could be prevented if vehicle drivers were better able to detect and anticipate the presence of a motorcycle when entering or crossing a road, making a turn or changing lanes.

Two school bus crashes in 2016 – in Maryland and Tennessee – had something in common, according to the National Transportation Safety Board: (NTSB) a lack of oversight when it came to making sure the bus drivers were fit to drive. The two incidents were included in a recently released NTSB Special Investigation report identifying recurring safety issues in school bus transportation safety.

The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) released a study last week that finds that the percentage of fatally-injured drivers with known drug test results* who tested positive for drugs has risen over 50% in the last ten years.

A little preparation can go a long way toward make sure your summer travels by car will be safe ones. That’s the message the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is trying to get across to motorists in a dedicated page chock full of safety tips, a video and a downloadable safety checklist that drivers and passengers should follow before, and during, their trips.

Polaris Industries has agreed to pay $27.25 million – a record penalty – to settle charges that it failed to immediately notify federal officials about a fire hazard on its recreational off-highway vehicles that regulators have linked to at least one death and more than 180 fires.

The nation's first pedestrian death involving an autonomous vehicle may have been unavoidable, according to local authorities, although the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation into the incident continues. The accident occurred Sunday night around 10 p.m., when 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg was struck by an Uber self-driving vehicle as she walked across a busy street outside of a crosswalk.

Traffic safety measures ranging from seat belt and drunk driving enforcement to design standards for cars and trucks “averted a public health disaster” by preventing about 5.8 million deaths in the U.S. from 1968 through 2015, according to a new study. The analysis found that without federal and state policies, traffic deaths annually would “likely have been in the hundreds of thousands rather than tens of thousands” in recent years.