Law Commons^™

The Automobile Manufacturer's Liability To Pedestrians For Exterior Design: New Dimensions In "Crashworthiness", Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Each year approximately twenty per cent of all traffic fatalities in the United States are pedestrians. Of the 54,700 people killed in traffic accidents in 1971, 10,600 were pedestrians. Cyclists made up another 850 fatalities. In addition to the over I 1,000 pedestrians and cyclists killed, an estimated 150,000 pedestrians were injured in 1971. This Note concerns the liability of automobile manufacturers for injuries caused by the exterior design of their products. The plaintiffs in most cases will be pedestrians, but exterior design defects may also injure motorcyclists, bicyclists, and, more rarely, occupants of other vehicles. For convenience, the term …

Motor Vehicle Air Pollution: State Authority And Federal Pre-Emption, David P. Currie

Michigan Law Review

The problem of state authority over motor vehicle air pollution was recently highlighted when the Illinois Air Pollution Control Board, for the first time, adopted regulations to deal with vehicle emissions. Those regulations are disappointingly feeble. Except for outlawing visible smoke and for making it unlawful to dismantle pollution control devices, the new rules do nothing but state that the Board may decide to do something in the future about pollution from automobiles.

In attempting to improve upon these regulations, however, one is struck with a sense of considerable futility. Given the present limits of technology and the necessarily legislative …

Driver Behavior And Legal Sanctions: A Study Of Deterrence, Roger C. Cramton

Michigan Law Review

This Article considers first the general understanding of legal scholars and criminologists regarding the deterrent effect of legal sanctions; a second part summarizes current knowledge concerning the effects of legal sanctions in controlling driver behavior; and a concluding section evaluates briefly the methods available for the development of needed new knowledge.

Interstate Commerce - Motor Carrier Act Of 1935 - Power Of States To Regulate Interstate Carriers As To Sizes And Weight, Spencer E. Lrons

Michigan Law Review

The Motor Carrier Act of 1935 provides, in section 204 (a) (1) and (2), that the Interstate Commerce Commission, in performing its duty of regulating interstate motor carriers, shall have power to "establish reasonable requirements with respect to . . . safety of operation and equipment." In section 225, the act authorizes the commission "to investigate and report on the need for Federal regulation of the sizes and weight of motor vehicles. . . ." These two sections, when read together, indicate that Congress felt that sizes and weight regulations deserved consideration apart from general safety regulations. The former are …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.