Experts available to discuss safe holiday driving and the new airport full-body scan

University at Buffalo faculty experts are available to comment on the following topics: Safe driving tips for the holiday and the uphill battle of a possible legal challenge to the body scans.

The thoughts of the UB faculty members are summarized below. For more information or to search the university's Newstips blog, go to the Newstips Web site.

Avoid a "back-seat bullet" this Thanksgiving

Dietrich Jehle, MD and UB professor of Emergency Medicine is an expert in auto injuries and behaviors that increase their probability.

These are some safe driving tips based on a series of studies on transportation patterns funded by the Center for Transportation Injury Research, conducted by Dr. Jehle:

Avoid a "back-seat bullet."

Stay with the traffic flow on interstates and highways.

If you are driving a "high-profile" vehicle, be careful on curves.

"Buckling the seat belt is crucial - including every passenger. The odds of death are 2.6 times greater for an unbelted driver, and an unbelted back seat passenger is a potential "back seat bullet." An unbelted back seat passenger increases the odds of killing a person in the front seat in a head-on crash by 2.3 times.

"The Thanksgiving holiday is one of the busiest times on roadways, and distracted and drowsy driving, always a danger, are even more of an issue when there is more traffic on the roads," says Jehle.

Jehle can be reached by phone at (716) 898-4431 or cell at (716) 472-4094 or by email at Dietrich Jehle.

Challenge to full-body scans will be tough

R. Nils Olsen, Jr., professor in the UB Law School specializes in federal post-conviction remedies and environmental policy.

With regard to anyone challenging the new full-body scan used at airports, he says, "More than likely, federal authorities have the ability to require reasonable security. Short of suing to get it declared illegal, it is a condition of using this transportation mode."

"As long as there is a compelling justification for these searches, which there probably is—having recently flown on an international airline—and the means of employing those searches are the least intrusive while still effective," Olsen says, "I'd be surprised if it would ultimately run into any fourth amendment or legal infirmities. I don't see any challenge being successful."

Olsen can be reached by phone at (716) 645-3193 or by email at R. Nils Olsen Jr.