Among the luxury sedans that were subject to the latest Side-Impact Crash Tests conducted by the car insurance industry, the 2008 BMW 5 Series came up as the worst performer. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released results of the series of crash tests on Thursday. The Volvo S80, Kia Amanti and Acura RL all gained the highest rating for safety from the said institute. On the other hand, the second-highest rating went to the Mercedes E-Class and the Cadillac STS.

Los Angeles, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/06/2007 -- The new crash tests conducted were designed in order to demonstrate what would ensue if a sport utility vehicle or SUV or truck happens to hit the sedan's side. The speed in the crash tests was set at 31 mph, the usual speed in instances of severe car crashes.

The tests were instigated after survey of roadway accidents on 2005 in the country turned up with figures of 9,000 people being killed due to side-impact crashes. This shows that the side-impact crashes are the most frequent type of crash with fatal implications. Frontal crashes come only second among those crashes with fatalities.

According to a news release, President Adrian Lund of the institute said that the "growing sales of SUVs and pickups have exacerbated height mismatches among passenger vehicles, thereby increasing the risks to occupants of many vehicles struck in the side."

All of the six sedans were outfitted with the regular side air bags. In the BMW 5 Series, the air bags were attached for the purpose of protecting the passenger's head. However, there are separate air bags, too designed to give protection for the chest and abdomen, which performed badly, according to the institute.

Thomas Plucinsky, spokesperson for BMW said that the institute's crash tests indicated that the 5 Series possesses a tough body structure. However, the dummy put in the car during the test was injured after it was hit by the car's armrest.

According to Plucinsky, the BMW runs about 12 crash tests on all of its cars before sending them out in the market. They also perform computer mock-ups of crashes. Furthermore, Plucinsky stressed that, "the issue is that depending on the location of seat, the location of dummy, the location of the sled, the results could change. This was one test on one day on one car."

In the group of luxury sedans subjected to the crash test, the Kia Amanti was among the lowest priced. It has an initial price of abut $25,500. Still, as far as the crash test results were concerned, it greater protection is to be had with it, as compared to other more pricey entries.

The BMW 5 Series has initial cost of $43, 500 and the Mercedes E-Class, on the other hand, start with $50, 550, based from the Edmunds.com, an automotive research website.

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A giant wind turbine in Klondike III wind farm in Oregon has collapsed. This incident caused the fatality of a worker who was doing his routine inspection at the top of the structure when it suddenly fell. Another victim working inside the tower has incurred serious personal injuries and taken to Mid-Columbia Medical Center in Dalles after being hit by various objects from the falling structure. Graciously, the third worker at the bottom managed to escape from possible injuries or death.

Los Angeles, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/07/2007 -- According to Sherman County sheriff's deputy Geremy Shull, the accident happened around 4 p.m. last Saturday. He said that the 242-foot-tall structure broke a little higher than the middle section of the tube that supports the blades. The names of the victims are yet to be identified but Shull said that the victim who died is a Goldendale, Washington resident and the other is from Minnesota.

Florida-based Siemens spokesperson Melanie Forbrick said that their company opted not to announce the names of the victims to pay respect to their families.

The wind turbine was fully erected but it was not yet been operated; the people working on it were maintenance people said Shull.

The untoward turbine collapse that resulted to fatality was recorded as the first occurrence in the history of Oregon but still, the probable cause of the collapse has not yet been established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which began to investigate the incident since Sunday.

The Klondike III wind farm project was operated by the PPM Energy in Portland. It was designed to produce 221 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply power in 96,000 homes. This was expected to be ready for operation later this year, Jan Johnson, a PPM spokesperson, said.

Only for this year, Oregon developers are set up in putting more wind turbines in the Columbia River Gorge in order to increase power production. These developments in the electric generation industry are foreseen to continue until 2008 or even later depending on the support that will be imparted by the Congress.

Meanwhile, Forbrick has made an affirmation that their company has never manufactured any wind turbine that collapsed since their company got into wind energy industry in 2004.

Oregon was recently ranked eight among states in the U.S. when it comes to wind-energy development as determined by the American Wind Energy Association.

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In his statement released yesterday, California Department of Insurance chief, Commissioner Steve Poizner affirmed that the state government is planning to extend its Low Cost Automobile Insurance program in other areas in California. The said expansion is being arranged to be implemented in the counties of Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Humboldt, Placer, San Benito, Shasta, Sutter, Tuolumne and Yuba. This is expected to take its effect after the new rates have been agreed upon later this October.

Los Angeles, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/05/2007 -- Immediately after this announcement, the California Department of Insurance conducted separate community meetings in each of the eleven counties that included in the list to examine the issue and determine their need of this particular program. The need analysis and meetings resulted into the determination of Commissioner Poizner that such expansion should be applied in these counties.

Poizner added that it is indeed an illegal act to without an insurance plan. He also affirmed that a little below 50,000 motorists are uninsured in these counties due to the unaffordable premium rates offered to them. Hence, the lives of the road user at put in jeopardy. Such program expansion will greatly benefit Californians and make them abide by the law to ensure the protection of all the motorists from possible damages.

As prescribed under the recently enacted law, SB 1500, the authorities may suspend the automobile registrations of motorists who will be caught traveling without an insurance policy. This is intended to warn them of their potential legal liabilities and at least lessen the chances of economic damages resulting from road accidents that involve uninsured drivers.

Obedient drivers with low salaries or earnings are qualified to avail the low cost auto insurance program. They may purchase this for less than $400 or even below $300 yearly depending on the county they are residing. These lower rates allowed more than 33,000 motorists to avail of the program.

This government program is being managed by the California Automobile Risk Plan and policies under such program are distributed by California licensed insurers.

Unlike what other people think, the California Low Cost Auto Insurance Program is a self-sufficient plan. Appropriate rates adjusted in each county to sustain its operation and so that no amount of subsidies should be burdened by the taxpayers.

For further information regarding how to avail this program, you may visit the Department of Insurance web site at http://www.insurance.ca.gov or just dial 1-866-602-886.

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Federal government officials, particularly Mary Peters, the U.S. transportation secretary cautioned the transportation authorities of each state in the country of the need to re-examine their bridges. This admonition was declared after investigations that probed into the devastating collapse of the interstate bridge in Minnesota found that there was a probable design flaw.

Los Angeles, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/04/2007 -- The National Transportation Safety Board or NTSB declared on Wednesday that they have found several issues regarding the gusset plates of the collapsed bridge.

For better understanding, the gusset plates' of the bridge are the steel plates used in tying up the steel beams of the bridge together.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Peters announced an advisory for the states to begin considering the additional stress that is placed every time there are construction projects going on involving bridges.

When the bridge span of the Interstate 35W in Minnesota collapsed last week, there was a construction work going on involving a crew of 18 persons. The work was being done during the rush hour of the early evening.

Consequently, the collapse caused the death of five people and injured around 100 others.

Peters stated on Wednesday that the states should be mindful of the additional weight that construction projects cause on bridges.

As an update to their investigations, NTSB announced that their helicopter inspection found out that the superstructure at the northern side of the bridge have some "tensile fractures." Still, they have found nothing that would lead them to clues on where the collapse started or began.

The investigators assigned are continuously probing and verifying the stresses and loads present in the bridge's beams and the materials used in making the plates.

Furthermore, they are looking into previous reports regarding the bridge's wobbling before its actual collapse on August 1.

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