Security & Safety Briefs - May 5 - May 11
The Latest Headlines:
- Traffic Congestion Worsening, Study Says
- California Unveils Seat Belt Campaign
- Drunken Driver Gets Life Sentence
- Web Breach Might Have Been More Widespread
- California Unveils Seat Belt Campaign
Traffic Congestion Worsening, Study Says
/h4>U.S. traffic congestion is getting worse, costing millions of hours in lost time and millions of dollars in wasted fuel, according to a study released Monday.
Congestion delayed travelers 79 million more hours and wasted 69 million more gallons of fuel in 2003 than in 2002, according to the Texas Transportation Institute's 2005 Urban Mobility Report released Monday.
The study said that in 2003 there were 3.7 billion hours of travel delay and 2.3 billion gallons of wasted fuel for a total cost of more than $63 billion. Transport Topics
California Unveils Seat Belt Campaign
California officials began a public awareness campaign Monday for the state’s “Click it or Ticket” program, designed to boost seat belt use in the state.The $3.3 million statewide media blitz will run through June 5, state safety agencies said. Throughout the campaign, the California Highway Patrol and law enforcement officers across the state will focus on boosting seat belt use beyond the currently estimated 90.4% level.
"We applaud the California Highway Patrol and local law enforcement agencies throughout the state for joining us in this important effort," said National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chief Jeffrey Runge, who joined state officials in unveiling the campaign. Transport Topics
Drunken Driver Gets Life Sentence
A convicted drunken driver received a sentence of life in prison for causing a crash that killed two women when he was driving the wrong way on Interstate 10 in the Florida Panhandle, the Tallahassee Democrat reported Thursday.Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells gave Julio Cesar Montoya the maximum of life for two counts of manslaughter and one for causing serious injury, all while driving under the influence, the paper reported.
Montoya’s car hit another car with three women inside head-on. A third car and a truck then also hit the women's car, killing the driver and a passenger, the paper said. Transport Topics
Web Breach Might Have Been More Widespread
An Internet security breach last year could was part of a more extensive operation in which thousands of computer systems were similarly penetrated, the New York Times reported Tuesday.The incident involved a break into a Cisco Systems network, which involved either a single intruder or a small band that might have been based in Europe, the paper said. It could have been perpetrated by a Swedish teenager, the Times reported.
Investigators in the United States and Europe say they have spent almost a year following the case, which involved attacks on computer systems in the U.S. military, NASA and research laboratories.
The intrusions were first publicly reported in April 2004 when several U.S. supercomputer laboratories acknowledged break-ins into high-speed computers. Transport Topics
