We're in the midst of the holiday gift-giving season. No one enjoys giving gifts more than parents. No one enjoys receiving gifts more than children. However, dangerous, defective toys can turn this annual happy ritual tragic.

Each year, consumer safety organizations such as the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) publish lists of toys they consider hazardous to children, especially very young children. Illinois consumers were warned by the state's attorney general ...

The nation's trucking industry is once again seeking to put profits before people. And the U.S. Congress may comply.

On July 1, 2013, the U.S. Department of Transportation enacted new "Hours of Service" rules for the trucking industry. The rules limit the number of hours a commercial truck driver can work to likewise limit the number of tired truckers on the road. It has been shown that fatigued truck drivers are dangerous.

The new rules include:

• A commercial truck driver can work no more than 70 ...

The results of a national inspection effort of commercial vehicles held earlier this year were recently released. And the news is not good.

Roadcheck 2013 -conducted by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVA), a not-for-profit organization that promotes commercial motor vehicle safety - was held in June 2013. It included 73,000 inspections of commercial trucks and buses over a 72-hour period throughout North America.

The findings of the inspections were made public by the organization on September 11. Of the ...

After months of heightened public concern over the poisoning dangers of single-load laundry detergent packets, a 7-month-old boy in Florida tragically died last month after ingesting one of the products.

These detergent packets - also known as detergent pods - are relatively new, introduced in 2010. However, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, there were 6,231 cases of children 5 years old and younger being poisoned after ingesting a packet in 2012. And there ...

Despite a 5 percent spike in motor vehicle accident deaths from 2011 to 2012 - the first such increase in seven years - more Americans, it appears, are becoming less concerned about dangerous driving habits.

This alarming news comes from a recently released study conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a non-profit organization that seeks to promote safe driving through education and research. The group examined data gathered between 2009 and 2012 in surveys focused on changes in the ...

The tragic death of a 10-year-old child has led to a change in law for Illinois boaters who are drunk or on illegal drugs and get involved in an accident.

Beginning January 1, 2014, Illinois boaters suspected of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs face new, stringent testing. In essence, they will be treated like motor vehicle drivers suspected of being under the influence while behind the wheel. The new law applies to any motor boat operator involved in an accident that results in ...

In February 2012, a school bus carrying New Jersey students in kindergarten through the sixth grade stopped at a flashing red light then proceeded into the intersection. A truck traveling down the intersecting road hit the school bus as the bus entered the oncoming traffic. The school bus spun around and hit a pole. An 11-year-old girl on the bus died, and five other students suffered serious injuries.

Unfortunately, this tragic accident involving a school bus and a truck offers a textbook example of ...

Summertime brings the warm weather that allows both public and private swimming pools to be opened for fun and excitement. Unfortunately, pools often present the risk of serious injury and even death.

We know that drowning is the second leading cause of accidental-related deaths among children under the age of 15. Almost 7,000 young people a year are brought to the hospital because of diving related injuries, which frequently result in severe neurological disability ...

An improving economy may put more people in harm's way of commercial truck drivers; or more specifically, inexperienced commercial truck drivers.

According to a recent report from the American Trucking Associations, a leading advocacy group for the nation's commercial trucking industry, trucking companies in the first quarter of this year experienced a very large driver turnover rate. For trucking companies with at least $30 million in annual revenue, the driver turnover rate for January ...