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Hybrids cars: hazardous to a blind person's health? |
| Published: October 4, 2007, 11:30 am |
| Tags: blind can t hear hybrids, blindcan thearhybrids, hybrid cars, hybrid cars too quiet, hybridcars, hybridcarstooquiet, hybrids safety risk, hybridsasafetyrisk |
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Filed under: Health and Safety, Lifestyle, Media, Newspapers, Monitoring your kids, Road trip, Outings, Making a DifferenceSo you've purchased a hybrid car. Congratulations! You're getting higher gas mileage and producing fewer emissions saving money, the planet, and your fellow man! Well, unless your fellow man happens to be blind. Because hybrid cars are virtually silent at slower speeds, they pose a significant threat to those dependent on noise to determine when it's safe to cross a street or parking lot. "I'm used to being able to get sound cues from my environment and negotiate accordingly. I hadn't imagined there was anything I really wouldn't be able to hear," said Deborah Kent Stein, chairwoman of the National Federation of the Blind's Committee on Automotive and Pedestrian Safety. "We did a test, and I discovered, to my great dismay, that I couldn't hear it." Manufacturers are aware of the problem, but so far no efforts have been made to add a noise-making component [ Full article ] |
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