The View 38002 February 2014 | Page 2

Page 2 38002.com theview theview February 2014 Children’s Classes at the Arlington Library Focus on Being Creative By Alda Booster, Librarian Photo by Linda Ollio Jerry Borwick explains how to take an interesting photo to participants in “Let’s Be Creative: Photography” Saturdays at the Sam T. Wilson Public Library are full of fun and learning. Twenty children ages 7 to 13 years participated in one hour long sessions facilitated by Jerry Borwick of Jerry Borwick Photography. The first session introduced children to their cameras and the second session reviewed how to place a subject into the picture. The second session of the Let’s Be Creative: Photography series was just as fun as the first! The next Let’s Be Creative session will involve music and art. If your child is interested please contact the library for more information. The library is also looking for volunteers to help teach children how to be more creative. Contact Linda Ollio at 901-867-1954. The library still offers Story Time every Wednesday at 10:30 am. Arlington HS Student Injured in Wreck Recovering at Home By Terry Louderback On January 9, AHS Junior Rachel Hensley was on her way to work at Brad’s BBQ in Oakland when her vehicle left the roadway and wrapped around a tree. After being airlifted to The Med and emergency surgery, Rachel is now at home and hopes to return to school after Spring Break. Brandie Walls, Rachel’s mother, is touched by the outpouring of support and love for the family shown by the Arlington community. “People I didn’t even know were messaging me on Facebook and telling me that they were praying for us,” Walls commented. A fund has been set up at Triumph Bank, 5810 Airline Rd in Arlington. Please make all donations in the name of “Rachel Hensley”. Understanding Car Test Safety Ratings By David Peel, Peel Law Firm Cars are getting smaller, and as an injury attorney, this worries me. While safety systems are much improved, you just cannot beat basic physics. Small cars are cheaper to own and operate, as they get better mileage, and they are quite easy to get around parking lots. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety crashes millions of dollars of perfectly good new cars to gauge how well they might protect their occupants. They once simply crashed head on into barriers like most government tests still do. This spread the forces over a maximal area. However, to thei r credit, they have recently made some frontal impact crash tests slightly off center. These focus force on one front corner, at 40 m.p.h. I think this better indicates the real world case of a drunk crossing the centerline slightly. It has also revealed what I had predicted: small cars are generally more dangerous. The front end of a car usually has a “crush zone.” Often, small notches are cut into the frame that allow it to crumple. This dissipates the force more slowly, which is better for the occupants. However, the newer corner impact tests seem to mostly bypass this crumple zone, and this puts the passenger compartment at risk. I am not even familiar with many of the newest smaller models, all under 2,500 lbs. I still lope around in my immense, gas-guzzling 5,000 lb.+ Suburban. But out of almost a dozen cars, only one known as the “Chevy Spark” was even acceptable. None were ranked “good.” The subcompacts that did not even make the “acceptable” cut included subcompact cars from Toyota, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Fiat and Honda. Safety ratings can be deceptive. A large SUV and a small sedan might share identical safety ratings, but they are rating cars within the same size class. In general, occupants of heavy cars and trucks come out better in a crash. Large, heavy vehicles, like my behemoth SUV, long, wide crumple zones, and often shove the lighter car backward at impact. Thus, the rates of driver deaths are higher for the lighter vehicles. Midsize and large SUVs are safest, as SUVs are also not prone to underride another vehicle in a crash, while risk of roll over is still significant. And above all, drive safely.