Declarations

Kentucky Test Drives

“This is primarily set up for kids. There are 300 different driving scenarios we can put somebody through on this. When you put all of that together, it becomes more than a video game. It makes you pay attention to what’s going on.”

—Larry Roberts, Fayette County, Kentucky attorney, whose office bought an Ultra Interactive Driving Simulator for the county’s traffic diversion program. The simulator is comprised of a driver’s seat with a seat belt and a steering wheel; it even has turn signals an accelerator pedal, a brake pedal and a windshield. Among the scenarios shown on the screen are rainy and snowy conditions, complete with windshield wipers. Others include heavy downtown traffic, and a dark country road on which a deer seems to pop up from nowhere. Everyone in the traffic-diversion program must spend an hour watching videos and listening to a police officer talk about safe driving, and they must do four hours of community service. Participants who are ages 16 to 18 also are required to drive the simulated driving machine

Bad Habits in West Virginia

“We have an unhealthy population. We have the highest percentage of people with chronic disabilities, whether that’s disabilities that are incurred in the workplace or related to chronic diseases that have occurred because of unhealthy habits of one sort or another.”

—A state lawmaker attributes West Virginia’s high rate of disabled workers to smoking and other poor health habits. Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, says that the state’s high smoking and obesity rates contribute to other health issues, including diabetes, chronic lung disease, congestive heart failure and cancer. An August report by the Social Security Administration said more than 5 percent of West Virginia’s population is considered as disabled workers, the highest percentage in the nation.

North Carolina Weather

“In most cases the insurance is going to be higher. For those businesses, that can be a big consideration in coming here.”

—Jonathan Rowe, director of the Entrepreneurship Center at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, noting that businesses consider a state’s weather, including hurricanes and tropical storms, when deciding whether to locate there. The threat to data is a concern on the coast but Towe said the good news is that businesses can now can keep a lot of data off site, so hurricanes become less relevant. But companies with inventory on site feel the most insurance pain, he added.

Topics Virginia West Virginia