News fars

By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT
The Californian/North County Times
1/31/05

Safety Groups Question Revision by Transportation Department

By Greg Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Bush administration officials said yesterday that fewer people died on U.S. roadways in 2003 than the government had previously reported and took credit for an unexpected improvement in highway safety.

Safety advocates accused the administration of sensationalizing the numbers, and questioned how the statistics could have changed so significantly from estimates earlier this year.

By Cindy Skrzycki

Tuesday, March 16, 2004; Page E01

Every year, awful things happen to children in cars that do not show up in a fatality database run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Kids die in power window accidents. They get locked into cars that heat up like ovens. They are backed over by unsuspecting adults.

Also missing from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, or FARS, in some instances, are deaths caused when vehicles on the side of the road are hit and burst into flames.