It's been nearly a week since the Mayor of Los Angeles enacted the "Safer at Home" measures to help stop the spread of COVID19. The Governor of California shortly thereafter issued an executive order mandating that all Californians shelter in place for the foreseeable future.

Last year, pedestrian deaths across the United States reached an all-time high. Over six thousand--in fact, 6,590 pedestrians were killed in collisions with motor vehicles in 2019.

Why do the numbers keep going up, despite improvements in technology that are making cars safer? Possible factors include distractions by both drivers and pedestrians, and continued alcohol and drug impairment by drivers.

In 2018, Apple engineer Walter Huang was killed on the 101 freeway in Mountain View, California when his Tesla Model X slammed into the center median of the freeway. According to date analyzed by the NTSB, Huang’s Tesla was traveling at 71 miles per hour at the time the collision happened.

This past week, thousands of people saw in real-time how Nascar driver Ryan Newman had a horrific crash on the Daytona 500 speedway.

Videos of the 200 mph crash have been played and replayed. Luckily, Newman is recuperating well in the hospital, and photos of him leaving the hospital with his two young daughters are now circulating in the news. Experts are saying that some of the safety improvements made to the cars after Dale Earnhardt's crash death in 2001 might have saved Ryan Newman's life.