Less than a week ago, I woke up thinking, “I need to start a petition on the White House website asking President Obama to appoint a Traffic Safety Ombudsman.” The idea of such a position/role had come to me a month earlier, but nobody was responding to my request to appoint one.
Now it seemed like I needed to take action. Since the petition site indicated that if we got 100,000 signatures in 30 days, then they would respond to it, it seemed like good timing to start July 1–with July 31 as the target date.
The first step was getting the ball rolling and it has been torturous watching the number of signatures slowly creep up. Once it reaches 150, then the petition will become searchable on their website. Meanwhile. . .
Maybe we’ll get a boost from an article published today on treehugger.com by managing editor, Lloyd Alter. I had commented on his article last weekend on the Tesla crash and Tweeted a message to him.
Could Tesla crash fatality have been prevented if trucks were required to have #sideguards? https://t.co/Vcmba7wBO8 https://t.co/EUFphqnCzR
— Marianne Karth (@MaryandAnnaLeah) July 2, 2016
Today he published an article about our crash story, our advocacy efforts, and our Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition and Vision Zero goals. Perhaps this will give us a good jumpstart on the way to our 100,000 goal–and ultimately our goal of SAVING LIVES.
Victims of underride collision demand Vision Zero and an independent Traffic Safety Ombudsman
SIGN & SHARE the TRAFFIC SAFETY OMBUDSMAN Petition:
August 3 UPDATE: The petition on the White House site is expired. Please sign our new Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition at Care2; http://www.thepetitionsite.com/384/321/600/end-preventable-crash-fatalities-appoint-a-national-traffic-safety-ombudsman/
Sign this petition like I did for a first-ever US traffic safety Ombudsman, https://t.co/4lyvSvwxbu, @MaryandAnnaLeah
— Neil Arason (he/him) (@neilarason) July 5, 2016
