The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "seat belt" ...
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Ticket Fraud
After receiving a tip, The Times discovered that two police officers were "falsifying the time on traffic tickets they issued to make it appear they were working overtime in accordance with a state seatbelt awareness and safety initiative."
Tags: tickets; seat belt; police; police department; open records request;
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Teens at the Wheel
A special report by the Tribune examines the dangers of poorly trained teenage drivers. Photos of 59 Chicago-area teens who died in car accidents in the year 2006 are included in the package, which also has graphics and charts detailing the locations and numbers of deaths. Individual stories include police views, the grief of families whose children died, what some parents and young people are doing to raise awareness of the need to drive intelligently, and Illinois lawmakers' push for new laws regarding how to obtain and keep a driver's license.
Tags: Teen drivers; car accidents; teen driving deaths; seat belts; drivers license laws
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The Pull of Chance
A casual lunch with the county medical examiner leads this reporter to do a story on automobile safety. The reporter based on her conversation investigated a major glitch in seat belt mechanism. She found that in case of accidents, in some models of cars, the seat belt gets hooked with the seat lever throwing the person out of the vehicle through the rear.
Tags: automobile safety; automobiles; seat belts; wearing seat belts; accidents; paralysis due to automobile accident; safety in cars; seat lever
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A Place Where Children Die
The investigation found that children on the Warm Springs Reservation in central Oregon die at a rate more than three times that for Oregon and nearly twice for Native Americans nationwide. Many of the deaths of 58 children since 1990 occurred because tribal leaders have not pursued basic steps proven to reduce mortality rates on reservations. Some causes for the deaths are due to a lack of seatbelt laws, scaling back of sobriety checkpoints, and failures in the child welfare system.
Tags: Warm Springs Reservation; Oregon reservation; Native American; child mortality; traffic accidents; child welfare system; alcohol; tribal leaders; child safety; sobriety checkpoints; seat-belt law; Warm Springs Early Childhood Education programs; Indian communities; Indian Health Service; tribal Children's Protective Services; Warm Springs Fire and Safety; Boys and Girls Club; Warm Springs Elementary; The Rainbow Market; Oregon Liquor Control Commission; substance abuse programs; tribal budget; Portland's Rose Garden sports arena
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Death on the Roads
A 12-part Newsday series looks at why "Long Island is one of the most dangerous places in the nation" to drive a car. "Collisions claim roughtly 275 lives each year on Long Island," writes Jo Craven McGinty. "That's the equivalent of a Boeing 757 crashing annually, and it's more than five times the number of murders." The series delves into the causes for those numbers and concludes among other things that "bad driving, bad roads and bad vehicle design" are to blame.
Tags: driving; accidents; accident; crash; roads; collision; vehicle design; wreck; SUV; fatal; car; danger; pedestrian; seat belt; truck
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Sticky Subject. Industry finds devil in the details of plan for border SUV labels. New warnings highlighting risk of rollovers inspire exercise in deconstruction. The fate of the dangling man.
This article talks about SUV rollovers, and the increasing number of rollovers that are happening. The federal government is considering requiring SUV manufacturers to place labels on the vehicles which warn of the "high risk of rollover."
Tags: SUV; Sport Utility Vehicles; SUVs; government; labels; rollover; seat belts; federal government; driver safety; roads; highways; speeding; traffic
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Dying to Drive: Inexperience, speed can be deadly mix for teenage drivers, statistics show
According to the author, "The series analyzed fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States in which at least one driver was between the ages of 14 and 19. Among the major findings: Speeding contributed to more than half of the wrecks. More than two-thirds of people killed in cars driven by teens were not wearing seat belts. More than half of the wrecks were single-vehicle crashes. More than three-quarters of the crashes involved sober drivers."
Tags: motor vehicles; car crashes; car accidents; teens; speeding; seat belts; fatal motor vehicle crashes; fatal car crashes; driving; drivers; teenagers
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A Reporter At Large: Wrong Turn
The New Yorker examines the reasons for "America's slipping record on autosafety," in comparison with road accidents trends in Europe and Australia. The story reveals that a so-called "passive approach," launched in the 1970s, has focused on improving the auto design in order to have crashes without injuries. This has only shifted attention from the driver to the vehicle. The article points to new scientific studies showing the human seeing and memory are selective, which causes fatal drivers' errors.
Tags: traffic fatalities; General Motors; N.H.T.S.A.; safety; drunk driving; Ralph Nader; politics; speeding; William Haddon; collisions; air bags; seat belt; Ford; road accidents; Public Citizen
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Loose seat belt laws
There is no state law in Ohio requiring back-seat passengers to wear seat belts, unless the driver is 18 and driving with a temporary permit. The Beacon analyzed federal (NHTSA) crash data and found that ..."More than a third of the 279 children ages 4 to 15 years old, who died in crashes from 1994 through 1999 were riding legally unbuckled in back seats."
Tags: crash; seat belt; transportation; children; fatalities; safety; child seats; House Bill 113; CAR
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Battered cargo: The costs of the police 'nickel ride'
An Inquirer investigation going back seven years documented injuries to 20 people tossed around in Philadelphia Police Department wagons. Two of those people were permanently paralyzed. "Most of the victims had clean records. They were arrested on minor charges after talking back to or arguing with police. Typically, the charges were later dismissed. Those wagon injuries have cost taxpayers more than $2.3 million in legal settlements, but ...no Philadelphia Police Officer has ever been disciplined for subjecting a passenger to a wild ride." These rides were reportedly part of rookie officers' street training. Furthermore, although Internal Affairs is required to investigate any injury to someone in police custody, this did not happen in 11 of the 20 cases documented by the Inquirer. The bare wagons were not equipped with safety devices, such as padding or seat belts, that have been added to police vans in other cities in recent years. Now, only 10 of the department's 86 vans have been retrofitted for these features.
Tags: police van; Philadelphia Police Department; nickel ride; police wagons; police brutality; internal affairs