Monthly Archives: July 2016

Auto Safety Advocates Tell Obama To Stop Rush To Get Self-Driving Cars On Road

Safety Advocacy, ,

So, here’s a real-life scenario. What might a Traffic Safety Ombudsman do in this situation?

Auto Safety Advocates Tell Obama To Stop Rush To  Get Self-Driving Cars On Road; Pull Back Autonomous Vehicle Technology ‘Guidance’ Expected Next Week http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/newsrelease/auto-safety-advocates-tell-obama-stop-rush-get-self-driving-cars-road-pull-back-autonomo

A coalition of auto safety advocates today called on President Obama to stop his “administration’s undue haste to get autonomous vehicle technology to the road” until enforceable safety standards are in place.  They said the administration’s autonomous vehicle “guidance” expected next week should not be issued. . .

“If the manufacturers, including the high-tech companies, lack the confidence in their products to stand behind them and assume responsibility and liability when the systems they design are in control, and innocent people are injured or killed as a result, those vehicles do not belong on the road,” the letter said.

“The administration should not succumb to Silicon Valley hype about the miracles of autonomous vehicle technology. Autonomous vehicle technologies hold the promise of improving safety. But that promise can only be realized after thorough testing and a public rulemaking process that results in enforceable standards” the letter concluded. 

Consumer Watchdog Letter to Obama:  http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/ltrobamaav071316.pdf

Indeed. Make SAFETY a priority. Once someone dies in a crash, they never come back.

2 crash deaths

SIGN  & SHARE the TRAFFIC SAFETY OMBUDSMAN Petition:  https://wh.gov/i6kUj

PLEASE NOTE: If you sign the petition, be sure to go to your email. We the People will send you an email which will say this in the subject line:  “Almost done! Verify your Petitions.WhiteHouse.gov account.” Follow the instructions to verify your signature.

 

America, do we want a powerful voice to protect us from Death by Motor Vehicle, or not?

Safety Advocacy, ,

The federal government was established to protect its citizens. So why are we so reluctant to appoint a Traffic Safety Ombudsman to advocate for the safety of travelers on the roads of this country?

Needed: 6 people to catch the vision of a Traffic Safety Ombudsman and sign the petition to get us to 150. Only 144 (thank you to those people) have signed it thus far. Does everybody else not get it?

Endless traffic safety problems could be addressed by this person. Here are two more which I saw today:

SIGN & SHARE the TRAFFIC SAFETY OMBUDSMAN Petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/384/321/600/end-preventable-crash-fatalities-appoint-a-national-traffic-safety-ombudsman/

Mad Mary

FedEx denies request for underride safety research donation of decommissioned 53′ trailer

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , ,

The trucking industry needs to answer the same question which Senator Robert Kennedy posed to GM in 1965: “What was your profit in 2015? And how much money did you spend on safety research in 2015?”

GM’s answer was a safety expenditure figure that was below 1% of their total profit. Which, in my book, makes “safety” a meaningless word.

Yesterday, I received a reply from FedEx, after following their procedure for requesting a donation. Our non-profit, AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety, completed a FedEx charitable assistance application in which we asked them to donate a used, decommissioned 53′ trailer to be used for underride research.

Like in the research undertaken this spring by Aaron Kiefer to crash test his innovative side/rear underride guard protection system. Like the kind of safety measure which could have prevented Joshua Brown from being killed when his Tesla underrode the side of a trailer.

They denied our request. What was FedEx’s reason for denying our request? FedEx email denying safety research trailer donation request

Good day Marianne,

Thank you again for contacting FedEx Freight for charitable assistance. We applaud the work AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety is doing.

After careful review, unfortunately, we must decline your request for the donation of a 53′ trailer.

FedEx Freight works directly with manufacturers and national organizations to support road safety for both our team members and the motoring public.

We wish you success with future endeavors.

Sincerely,

Iris

Iris Coetzee, Senior Communications Specialist

Bah humbug! I would like to know exactly how they work directly with manufacturers and national organizations to support road safety. Spell it out for me. Tell me exactly:

  • How much money they spend on safety.
  • and what percentage that amount is of their total profit.
  • and exactly what that money actually goes for.

I would like to know that information about the whole trucking industry which has opposed and resisted improved underride protection for decades resulting in countless dead people who didn’t have to die if only the trucking industry had acted in a timely and responsible way. And not just for 2015, but for every year since the underride problem was discovered.

I put together a chart for recording that kind of information juxtapositioned against some of the major life events which occurred for me during all of the years when — for the most part as far as I can see the trucking industry did practically nothing “to support road safety for both our team members and the motoring public” — at least in the area of underride prevention. And when they did, it was because we put pressure on their pocketbook.

I’d like to see some investigative reporter dig up this kind of information because I doubt that the industry would give it to me.

11wjd2

 

 

Corrected 2015 stats: 32,514 gun deaths & 35,514 crash deaths; Can we do something about this?

Safety Advocacy, , , ,

Earlier today, I posted that there were 12,942 gun-related deaths in 2015 in the U.S. Someone brought another website to my attention, and I am posting the figure indicated there: 32,514 gun deaths.

Whatever the exact, accurate estimated amount, both these deaths and the 35,214 reported crash deaths in 2015 deserve our attention and unified action to work to reduce preventable violent deaths.

So why does the drafted Democratic Platform Draft Dem. Platform: “Ensure Health & Safety…Gun Violence Prevention” But NOT Vehicle Violence?

Let’s end preventable violent deaths! Appoint a Traffic Safety Ombudsman to help us do that!

SIGN  & SHARE the TRAFFIC SAFETY OMBUDSMAN Petition:  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/384/321/600/end-preventable-crash-fatalities-appoint-a-national-traffic-safety-ombudsman/
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Violent Deaths

32,514 Gun Deaths in 2015; 35,215 Crash Deaths in 2015: Let’s End Preventable Violent Deaths!

Safety Advocacy, , ,

There were an estimated 32,514 gun-related deaths in the U.S. in 2015 (by homicide, unintentional shootings, murder/suicide). There were 35,215 reported crash deaths in 2015 (due to Death by Motor Vehicle).

So why does the drafted Democratic Platform Draft Dem. Platform: “Ensure Health & Safety…Gun Violence Prevention” But NOT Vehicle Violence?

Let’s end preventable violent deaths! Appoint a Traffic Safety Ombudsman to help us do that!

SIGN  & SHARE the TRAFFIC SAFETY OMBUDSMAN Petition:  https://wh.gov/i6kUj

PLEASE NOTE: If you sign the petition, be sure to go to your email. We the People will send you an email which will say this in the subject line:  “Almost done! Verify your Petitions.WhiteHouse.gov account.” Follow the instructions to verify your signature.
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Violent Deaths

Draft Dem. Platform: “Ensure Health & Safety…Gun Violence Prevention” But NOT Vehicle Violence

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , ,

See the latest road safety message from Lou Lombardo:

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

 The DRAFT Democrat Platform contains the following subjects:

“Ensure the Health and Safety of All Americans

  • Universal Health Care 
  • Community Health Centers
  • Prescription Drug Costs
  • Medical Research
  • Drug and Alcohol Addiction
  • Mental Health
  • Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice
  • Public Health
  • Violence Against Women and Sexual Assault
  • Gun Violence Prevention” 

On page 25 one can read:

“Gun Violence Prevention

 With 33,000 Americans dying every year, Democrats believe that we must finally take sensible action to address gun violence. While gun ownership is part of the fabric of many communities, too many families in America have suffered from gun violence. We can respect the rights of responsible gun owners while keeping our communities safe.

We will expand background checks and close dangerous loopholes in our current laws, hold irresponsible dealers and manufacturers accountable, keep weapons of war—such as assault weapons—off our streets, and ensure guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists, domestic abusers, other violent criminals, and those  with severe mental health issues.”

 Hmnn…. Both are important.

But NHTSA has recorded a 9.3 % increase in [crash] fatalities in early 2015 to a level of nearly 35,000 Americans dying every year now.

In addition, every day nearly twice as many Americans suffer serious injuries such as brain and spinal cord paralysis due to vehicle violence than to gun violence.  See
http://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-GunViolenceandVehicleViolenceThoughtsonFathersDay2016.php

So why are Democrats so silent on ending vehicle violence?

 Campaign finance money?

 Automotive (Dems & Reps): $15 million See https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/

Gun Control (Dems): $1.7 million in 2015   See  https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=Q12Gun Rights (Republicans): $11 million in 2015  See  https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=Q13

So what are Americans who are concerned with ending vehicle violence to do this election year?

 Lou Lombardo

So why am I not surprised? This has got to change!

See my previous post on President Obama’s apparent perspective on vehicle violence: Obama (6/1/16): “We used to have really bad auto fatality rates. . .” And we don’t NOW?!

Mad Mary

SIGN  & SHARE the TRAFFIC SAFETY OMBUDSMAN Petition:  https://wh.gov/i6kUj

PLEASE NOTE: If you sign the petition, be sure to go to your email. We the People will send you an email which will say this in the subject line:  “Almost done! Verify your Petitions.WhiteHouse.gov account.” Follow the instructions to verify your signature.

Vision Zero Nationwide Network of Traffic Safety Advocacy Groups: Communities Working to Save Lives

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety,

Vision Zero Nationwide Network of Traffic Safety Advocacy Groups:                  Communities Working to Save Lives

Well, that’s a mouthful. But it is, in a nutshell, a description of one of the strategies which a Traffic Safety Ombudsman could initiate, organize, and facilitate across communities in this country. The efforts of one person multiplied through a ripple effect — harnessing grief and awareness and outrage into a powerfully-effective force for change.

Fresh out of college, I was hired to be the director a local chapter of a statewide nursing home patient advocacy non-profit organization. I worked within the West Michigan community to mobilize families of nursing home patients and other interested community members and professionals to act on behalf of vulnerable nursing home patients. I consulted with and learned from the official Michigan Long-Term Care Ombudsman.

I envision a similar strategy for mobilizing  citizens and workers across the United States to effect traffic safety measures in a more consistent and timely fashion at the local, state, and federal level. MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) are organized in a similar manner. These groups would have as their purpose eliminating preventable crash deaths and serious injuries from ALL known (and currently unknown) causes.

Why do it this way? Because just about any other way is more likely to get dragged out in such a way that it will inevitably result in MORE DEATHS & SERIOUS INJURIES.

Time wasted = Tragedies

This is not, of course, the only strategy which the Traffic Safety Ombudsman would employ. But it is one which is not currently being undertaken by anyone else.

Other posts on community action groups:

Other strategies can be found in other posts on this website: Tag Archives: Traffic Safety Ombudsman

See what a Canadian road expert thinks that a Traffic Safety Ombudsman could do: Neil Arason

179438Irreversible & Regrettable

SIGN  & SHARE the TRAFFIC SAFETY OMBUDSMAN Petition:  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/384/321/600/end-preventable-crash-fatalities-appoint-a-national-traffic-safety-ombudsman/

 

AnnaLeah staged a photoshoot. (Unrealized Potential Another Cost of Preventable Crash Deaths)

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, ,

The colorful creativity of AnnaLeah was endless — except for the fact that a tragic truck crash brought it to an untimely end.

  •  AnnaLeah could have been a script/screen writer. We found an outline for a whole season of Dr. Who episodes in her email files.
  • She had recorded the rough ideas and characters for countless literary projects.
  • She was an avid reader and had a personal collection of over 600 books — all recorded at Library Thing.
  • Here is AnnaLeah’s 30 Category Book Challenge List.
  • AnnaLeah wrote the screenplay for A Short Film which she and Mary then acted out:

  • And here’s a 72 minute LEGO movie that AnnaLeah wrote the script for and then produced with two of her siblings in 2008. It definitely shows how creative she was:
    https://vimeo.com/7385266 (not accessible at present).
  • AnnaLeah staged a photoshoot of her sister Mary expressively “reading” a book which she had never actually read. AnnaLeah staged Mary reading a bookAnnaLeah staged Mary reading a book (1)AnnaLeah staged Mary reading a book (3)AnnaLeah staged Mary reading a book (4)AnnaLeah staged Mary reading a book (5)AnnaLeah staged Mary reading a book (6)AnnaLeah staged Mary reading a book (7)

179438

Each year in the U.S., around 33,000 people have their lives tragically ended.

SIGN  & SHARE the TRAFFIC SAFETY OMBUDSMAN Petition:  https://wh.gov/i6kUj

PLEASE NOTE: If you sign the petition, be sure to go to your email. We the People will send you an email which will say this in the subject line:  “Almost done! Verify your Petitions.WhiteHouse.gov account.” Follow the instructions to verify your signature.

 

One last AnnaLeah creation: The Giggling Mary… Here’s a tiny cartoon AnnaLeah drew about her sister Mary:  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/493874564028396/?type=1&theater

 

 

Simply Silly Sisters: A Short Film Starring Mary & AnnaLeah; Screenwriter, AnnaLeah Karth

AnnaLeah and Mary, ,

When we got back home after the crash and were looking through our photo and video files, we found some short video clips of a short story which AnnaLeah had apparently written and which she narrated as Mary acted it out and Susanna filmed it with her digital camera in our backyard in Midland, Texas (circa 2009).

Remembering AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13). Miss you every single day.

A Short Film Starring Mary & AnnaLeah; Screenwriter, AnnaLeah Karth

Somehow, this makes me smile and laugh every time I watch these two sisters in their silly, imaginative little film. It makes them seem so alive. How is it that they are gone from us?

Solid Rock

Neil Arason, a Canadian road safety expert, shares his thoughts on a Nat’l Traffic Safety Ombudsman

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, ,

I asked Neil Arason, a Canadian road safety expert, about his thoughts on the idea of a Traffic Safety Ombudsman. This is what he shared with me. . .

Hi, Marianne,

I think what you do right now is very close to that of an ombudsman.  I can’t tell you how critical it is to have safety advocates. Most changes happen because of them.

If I think of good examples of road safety advocacy, they include people like you, and also Clarence Ditlow.  Government needs to know people are watching them, and advocates do a good job of getting issues out into the mainstream media and that is extraordinarily powerful and important.

An office of the ombudsman would be similar to an advocacy centre except typically it is an arm of government, albeit one that has some independence.  We need to have safety advocates who are completely independent and powerful, and then on top of that as many other tools and structures for change.

I think that a traffic safety ombudsman would be one more thing that would help the overall cause. Because it is essentially an arm of government, however, it will likely be much more difficult to set up, whereas Ralph Nader just went ahead and set up the Center for Automotive Safety (directed by Clarence Ditlow), and that was that. (Although Nader had some startup capital from events that began in the late 1960s.)

Nonetheless, anyone can get into the business of advocacy and set up a centre or whatever they end up calling it.  Advocacy groups work toward wholesale change in the very way that road safety is treated, the priority given to it, etc.

The ombudsman type offices, I am aware of, exist so that folks can take complaints to them, and then the Ombudsman (and its paid staff) investigate those complaints with a view to resolving them. The ombudsman works to ensure “fairness” really in decision-making. I’m not aware of any examples of how an ombudsman would work in traffic safety because I am not aware of such a function today.

When people have complaints about some road safety failure, they largely take them to lawyers it seems. I am aware of examples of the role of the ombudsman in other government sectors like income assistance, where a citizen makes a complaint and goes to the ombudsman. This works well because the government agency really stands up and notices when they get a call from the office of the ombudsman, and they really make an effort to resolve the issue.

A traffic safety ombudsman could investigate complaints with a view to making large policy changes.  I would imagine that many victims’ families have no idea at first how to navigate the system. Access to an ombudsman could not just help to investigate their complaint for them, but could give them all manner of advice about where to go and what to do, e.g., use a lawyer, go to media, lobby directly, point them to various agencies for help, etc., etc.

Imagine if the ombudsman had people like you who could share with them what they know about how to get things done. The ombudsman could, I suppose, be a bit of an “information broker” in addition to its role as complaint investigator.  Such an office might help people to direct their energies in ways that will do the most amount of good.

I’m no expert on any of this, that is for sure, Marianne.  The only thing I know, from my own experience, is that almost all changes come from outside government and from advocates, lobbyists and the media.  These are the powers that governments all around the world seem to respond to. To follow then, we need as many mechanisms as possible to support more lobbyists, advocates, and media to focus on road safety.  An ombudsman would help enormously with that.

I hope some of this helps in some way.

Neil

Thank you

SIGN  & SHARE the TRAFFIC SAFETY OMBUDSMAN Petition:  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/384/321/600/end-preventable-crash-fatalities-appoint-a-national-traffic-safety-ombudsman/

What are we waiting for