Monthly Archives: August 2016

“KeepTruckin ELD now on FMCSA’s registry”

August 12, 2016Truck SafetyELDs, electronic logging devices, FMCSA Safety Regulations, HOS, HOS rules, hours of serviceMarianne

Take a look at one company’s option for an Electronic Logging Device app to satisfy requirements for electronic logging of truckers’ hours of service.

Makani notes the KeepTruckin ELD remains a $20/monthly subscription product, with an ELD Plus option at $30 that includes mostly automated IFTA collection and reporting. Other features, Makani notes, are coming to that package, from vehicle diagnostics to driver performance monitoring and other features.

KeepTruckin’s self-certification on FMCSA’s device registry means it joins three others also detailed in Overdrive‘s quick-glance comparison chart for a variety of ELD vendors old and new.

http://www.overdriveonline.com/keeptruckin-eld-now-on-fmcsas-registry/ from Overdrive, Todd Dills|August 10, 2016

More information on Electronic Logging Devices, Hours of Service, and Driver Fatigue: https://annaleahmary.com/driver-fatigue/

Will the public be safe from 9,000+ more trailers being recalled over parking brake issue?

August 11, 2016Truck Safetyauto safety defect, auto safety recall, parking brake failureMarianne

Another round of manufacturers are recalling trailers due to an issue with Bendix spring valves. More than 9,000 Manac, Polar Tank, Heil and Hyundai trailers are affected in this latest notice, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration documents.

– See more at: http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=31720#sthash.Kfb1BiaF.dpuf, Over 9,000 more trailers recalled over parking brake issue, by Land Line staff, August 10, 2016

Here’s a case of a pedestrian being killed by a failed parking brake: A member of the public was killed when he walked between two unattended trucks parked on a hill road. The hand brake failed on the uppermost vehicle, causing it to run into the lower, crushing the victim. http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/all-guidance-items/hazard-management-bulletin-trucks-spring-brake-failure-kills-pedestrian/haz81-truck-brake-failure.pdf

What other tragedies might occur from this manufacturing defect?

Will these trucks be fixed or taken off the road? Will the public be at risk? How can we be sure?

“When Will We Tackle Underride? – The Hidden Dangers in Trucks” Trucks.com Opinion Piece

August 10, 2016Safety Advocacy, Truck Safetyautonomous driving, NHTSA rulemaking, side underride, Tesla crash, underride guardsMarianne

I enjoyed working with Jerry Hirsch, the editor of Trucks.com, to prepare this fact-based opinion column on the truck underride issue.

When people learned of the recent fatal crash in Florida of a Tesla Model S running in its Autopilot mode, many started questioning the safety of autonomous driving features in the newest cars.

While this is a legitimate topic of debate, for now autonomous driving presents little threat to those on the road. It comes on just a handful of expensive luxury models, and there’s only a small chance that the car driving next to you will have a robot at the controls.

However, the tragic Tesla crash does highlight a real and present highway danger — cars sliding underneath large trucks when vehicles collide. Regardless of who was at fault in the Tesla crash, the driver might have lived if the truck had been required to have side guards that would have prevented the electric sports sedan from wedging underneath the trailer.

I know just how dangerous collisions like this can be.

My youngest daughters, AnnaLeah and Mary, died in 2013 in a truck rear underride crash.

Read more here: https://www.trucks.com/2016/08/10/trucks-underride-hidden-danger/, “When Will We Tackle Underride? – The Hidden Dangers in Trucks” by Marianne Karth, August 10, 2016, Trucks.com

You can help. Sign & share our petition asking DOT to mandate side guards on trucks: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/104/026/213/mandate-side-guards-on-large-trucks-to-end-deadly-side-underride-crashes/

“Rosekind says changing behaviors must be part of safety equation” Along with vehicle & environmental factors!

August 9, 2016Safety AdvocacyMarianne

Last week I read an article about NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind, who was speaking in my home state of Michigan (Traverse City).

“In the auto industry, we’re always looking at changing the technology, because changing the human would be really hard,” Rosekind said here today at CAR’s Management Briefing Seminars. “We’re not going to change us. We can change our behavior, but that is really hard.”

Rosekind indicated his belief that improvements in safety technology should go hand in hand with improving driver behavior in order to reach the goal of decreasing traffic fatalities.

“The technology doesn’t always work, and humans aren’t always perfect, but I think the combination of the two could get us to zero,” Rosekind said.

One of the things Rosekind talked about was, “developing cooperation between regulators and the regulated toward improving vehicle safety,” which is what we did with the Underride Roundtable, also including safety advocates, researchers, and law enforcement.

Read more here: Rosekind says changing behaviors must be part of safety equation, Automotive News, You can reach Larry P. Vellequette at lvellequette@crain.com — Follow Larry P. on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LarryVellequett

I’m glad to hear him say those things. I’m just not sure that we can reach the goals he has set out adequately unless we get out the message to the American people that it will take the involvement and commitment of them as well — in cooperation with government regulators and the automotive/trucking industries — if we expect to make tangible progress in reducing preventable crash deaths.

Why do I think that? Actually, I have written about these things before:

Moving toward zero preventable crash deaths and serious injuries requires both personal and social responsibility.
There is almost always more than one factor involved in a crash death.
The best strategy is one which takes into account that the problem doesn’t get solved by an either/or solution but rather one which looks at the broad picture and works on a both/and basis.
Crash deaths often involve not just the initial collision but also a second collision.

When I read the article about Mark Rosekind the other day, I was also trying to solve a problem in our household of nine. With so many people and so many different schedules, spoons were falling down into the garbage disposal unbeknownst to others who would later run the disposal and suddenly hear a grinding sound. Oops! There goes another spoon. When my husband offered to bring in a sink strainer from the shed, I said, “No, everybody just needs to get in the habit of putting their spoons on the counter or in the dishpan — not the sink.” Later, I thought, “Well, that’s silly. Why not make use of the available ‘technology’ to supplement the request for better human behavior?”

So, just because driver behavior contributes greatly to preventable crashes, let’s not put all of our eggs in one basket.

Because I strongly believe all of these things, I would like to see a Traffic Safety Ombudsman appointed to facilitate the broad picture strategy, including collaborative efforts and the mobilization of citizens through a nationwide network of Traffic Safety/Vision Zero community advocacy/action groups. Imagine the nation united to tackle this problem together!

Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition: End Preventable Crash Fatalities: Appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman

Underride Roundtable Led to Recommendations Submitted as a Consensus Public Comment to NHTSA

August 9, 2016AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck SafetyNHTSA rulemaking, underride guards, underride roundtableMarianne

The Underride Roundtable at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety on May 5, 2016, has led to a Consensus Document outlining recommendations for improvement in the federal standards for rear underride guards on semi-trailers. The following Public Comment was posted on regulations.gov/The Federal Register on August 8, 2016:

August 6, 2016

The Honorable Mark R. Rosekind, Ph.D. Administrator
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards 49 CFR Part 571, Rear Impact Guards, Rear Impact Protection; Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; Docket No. NHTSA-2015-0118

Dear Administrator Rosekind:

On May 5, 2016, almost 100 people participated in an Underride Roundtable hosted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety at their Vehicle Research Center in Ruckersville, Virginia, with co-sponsors Truck Safety Coalition and AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety. Participants included researchers, safety advocacy groups, the trucking industry, truck trailer manufacturers and government officials, including members of NHTSA staff. Discussions during the meeting ranged from descriptions of the nature and magnitude of the underride problem to potential solutions including better conspicuity, new rear underride guard designs and the potential for side guards to prevent run-overs of pedestrians and cyclists in urban environments. The information shared during our meeting clearly illustrated the need to do more to address underride crashes as well as the possibility of doing so.

During the meeting IIHS conducted a 35 mph 30 percent overlap frontal crash test of a midsize car into the new and improved rear underride guard available on trailers manufactured by Stoughton. The guard prevented underride and occupant compartment intrusion thereby becoming the 4th major trailer manufacturer to offer guards capable of preventing underride at 35 mph in all 3 configurations tested by IIHS – full overlap, 50 percent overlap and 30 percent overlap (press release). These 4 manufacturers – Manac, Stoughton, Vanguard and Wabash – represent nearly 40 percent of the truck trailer market in the United States. IIHS crash tests indicate that a higher level of underride protection is possible and the March announcement (press release) that J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. ordered 4,000 trailers with the new Wabash RIG-16 Rear Underride Guard System indicate that better guards are not an impediment to the service trailers provide.

Subsequent to the Underride Roundtable, all participants were invited to attend a follow-up meeting at the IIHS office in Arlington, Virginia. On June 24, 2016, thirteen people representing different points of view met to formulate updated recommendations for NHTSA’s consideration as it deliberates the proposed upgrade of FMVSS 223. Adopting the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 223 will do little to advance underride protection because trailer manufacturers already are fitting guards that meet this standard and IIHS testing illustrates that greater levels of strength are needed to address the full range of potential impact zones between the vehicle and rear of the trailer. We believe that incorporating the following recommendations in its final rule will help prevent the senseless loss of lives associated with crashes into the rear of heavy trucks.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1. The revised FMVSS 223 should require guards that are strong enough to allow the inherent crashworthiness of modern passenger vehicles to be realized. Specifically, guards should prevent underride and occupant compartment intrusion when struck by a typical passenger vehicle at 35 mph with overlaps ranging from 30 percent of the passenger vehicle’s width to full overlap between passenger vehicle and truck trailer. Tests of trailers from Manac, Stoughton, Vanguard, and Wabash illustrate the practicability of providing the level of underride protection described above.

2. It should be possible to prescribe a regulatory test procedure based on quasi-static loading and minimum force levels that will lead to guards capable of providing the same or better level of underride protection as demonstrated by guards on Manac, Stoughton, Vanguard and Wabash trailers.

3. The underride guard and trailer structure are a system. As such, compliance testing of rear impact guard strength should be conducted with the guard attached to the trailers and/or a portion of it that includes all structures to which the guard attaches.

This consensus document was signed by the following individuals:

Respectfully submitted,
David Zuby, Chief Research Officer
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

Gary Fenton, VP of Engineering
Stoughton Trailers

Aaron Kiefer, Consulting Engineer
Accident Research Specialists

Paul Hutson,
ECU engineering student & intern with Aaron Kiefer

Jared Bryson, SR Mechanical Systems Group Leader
Virginia Tech, Center for Technology Development

Perry Ponder, President
Seven Hills Engineering

Raphael Grzebieta, Professor of Road Safety & Australian Naturalistic Driver Study
Lead Chief Investigator (Maintains that dynamic crash testing is preferable to quasi-static testing)

Andy Young, Attorney
Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy Law Firm

Jerry Karth, AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety
Father of Underride Victims AnnaLeah & Mary Karth

Isaac Karth, AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety
Brother of Underride Victims AnnaLeah & Mary Karth

Marianne Karth, AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety
Mother of Underride Victims AnnaLeah & Mary Karth

Robert Martineau,
Airflow Deflector

Roy Crawford, PE, Forensic Engineer
Father of Underride Victim Guy Crawford

Stephen A. Batzer, Ph.D., P.E.
Batzer Engineering

Bruce E. Enz
Injury & Crash Analysis, LLC

Ashley McMillan
Girlfriend of Underride Victim Michael Higginbotham

Randy and Laurie Higginbotham
Parents of Underride Victim Michael Higginbotham

Tamara Brininger, Paralegal & Community Initiatives Coordinator
Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy

Austin Brininger, Engineering Student

Louis Lombardo
Care for Crash Victims

See a pdf of the recommendations here: Underride Roundtable Consensus Comment NPRM_ Docket No. NHTSA-2015-0118

Here is a link to the Underride Consensus Public Document on regulations.gov: Consensus Comment on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Proposed Rule: Rear Impact Guards, Rear Impact Protection

One more very important thing, please sign the just-launched petition requesting NHTSA to mandate SIDE GUARDS on large trucks: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/104/026/213/mandate-side-guards-on-large-trucks-to-end-deadly-side-underride-crashes/

” Start-Up Otto in Fast Lane to Test Self-Driving Trucking by Year’s End”

August 9, 2016Truck Safetyautonomous vehicles, self-driving trucksMarianne

Every time I turn around, there is more news about “self-driving” or autonomous vehicles. I hope that there is effective communication and collaboration among all the players involved to bring these latest and greatest technologies safely to the road.

Self-driving trucking start-up Otto is poised to put its software in the hands of long-haul truckers by the end of this year for testing, its co-founders said on Thursday.

Otto, co-founded by Google car and map project veterans Anthony Levandowski and Lior Ron, will also begin testing five retrofitted Volvo trucks at Northern California’s autonomous vehicle testing grounds, GoMentum Station, in coming weeks.

By the end of the year, small owner-operators and larger commercial partners will begin using Otto’s self-driving kit, Levandowski told Reuters at the facility in Concord, north of San Francisco, adding the company has a target of “thousands” of testers by 2017.

Otto has not yet announced when the technology will be ready for sale. . .

Read more here: Start-Up Otto in Fast Lane to Test Self-Driving Trucking by Year’s End, Insurance Journal, Alexandria Sage, August 8, 2016

IIHS does valuable work to advance vehicle safety through crash test ratings. Large trucks included.

August 8, 2016Truck Safety5-star crash rating, auto safety, IIHS, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, seatback failure, underride guardsMarianne

Here’s a recent article on the value of IIHS challenges to automotive companies: Safety institute seeks balance in frontal crash tests

The challenge mentioned here is for car companies to address the need for occupant protection on the passenger side as well as the driver side in frontal crashes. Duh!

As a mom of nine — although they are now grown — it seems commonsense to me to provide occupant protection throughout the entire vehicle! Including protection for passengers from seatback failures.

I am thankful for the valuable work which the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does to advance vehicle safety through their crash test ratings. That includes large trucks.

I hope to see a 5-star crash rating system for the underride protection system on large trucks soon. It could mean the difference between life and death for someone.

“Economics Will Push Adoption of Self-Driving, Electric Trucks” Trucks.com

August 8, 2016Truck Safetyautonomous vehicles, electric trucks, self-driving trucksMarianne

“Economics Will Push Adoption of Self-Driving, Electric Trucks”

Look for semi-trucks to become more intelligent and electric.

That’s the assessment of Morgan Stanley Research analyst Ravi Shanker.

While there are hurdles, Shanker argues in a recent report to investors that powerful economic and regulatory forces will push the trucking industry toward electric, self-driving trucks.

Look for autonomous trucks to be introduced in 2020, “around the time we expect to see the launch of electric semis, right as the new fuel economy and emissions regulations for commercial trucks gather steam,” Shanker said.

Established truck manufacturers and start-ups are already moving in that direction. . .

https://www.trucks.com/2016/08/08/self-driving-electric-truck-economics/

Petitions & Collaborative Efforts Are Making Progress In Ending Preventable Crash Deaths

August 7, 2016Safety Advocacy, Truck SafetySide Guard Petition, side guards, traffic safety, Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition, Vision ZeroMarianne

I am thankful for the progress which has been made in traffic safety and underride protection. And I am asking you all to hang in there with us and keep pushing for more.

Please sign and share these two petitions:

Just launched this petition directed to NHTSA calling on them to mandate side guards on trucks; they have been talking about it since 1969. Technology is available. Let’s get at it! Mandate Side Guards On Large Trucks To End Deadly Side Underride Crashes http://www.thepetitionsite.com/104/026/213/mandate-side-guards-on-large-trucks-to-end-deadly-side-underride-crashes/
Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition: We propose that the United States establish an independent Office of National Traffic Safety Ombudsman to be an advocate to eliminate preventable crash deaths and serious injuries. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/384/321/600/end-preventable-crash-fatalities-appoint-a-national-traffic-safety-ombudsman/

Reports on Past Petitions:

Collaborative Effort: Media Coverage of the first Truck Underride Roundtable held at IIHS on May 5, 2016

Together, we are indeed making the roads safer — one step at a time. Thank you.

A Very Mary Birthday: What Mary would have done & what I did without her on her birthday

August 7, 2016AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck Safetybittersweet memories, complicated grief, enduring grief, grief, joie de vivre, side guardsMarianne

How would Mary have celebrated her 17th birthday today? Well, I don’t know for sure. But I know that she would have enjoyed making her own homemade pizza with us tonight. (Or would she have chosen something else for her birthday meal?)

I know that she would have been glued to the TV or her computer watching the Olympics. She loved watching the 2012 Summer Olympics!

Mary would have played with her dog which she was going to get when we moved into our new house three summers ago. She loved dogs!

Video of Mary with Django (October 2012, Warsaw Indiana): https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/videos/574678849281300/

Whatever she would have chosen to do on her special day, Mary would have made the most of it because “every day’s a holiday with Mary” and she knew how to live joyfully — when she wasn’t grumpy, that is.

I just discovered that the photos below were ones that Mary took on August 6, 2012 — the day she became a teenager and the last birthday she would ever celebrate:

I also just noticed from these photos from her camera that Mary gave her beloved Gertie a bath on her 13th birthday (the beloved stuffed toy given to her by AnnaLeah so many birthdays before).

Notice the photos Mary took that same day of some of her favorite books (probably her birthday presents from AnnaLeah, whom I can’t ask to be sure) — including an American Girl one about a gymnast!

Mary had put 2012 Olympics gymnast Gabby Douglas’ December birthday on the 2013 calendar.

Mary would have held Oscar today.

A birthday post from Mary’s sister Rebekah

Mary’s dad shares a birthday post

Photo Album: Mary’s First Year of Life

Photo Album: Mistress Mary Quite Contrary by Susanna

Photo Album: Mary on Film by Susanna

I know that Mary would not have read my post from yesterday because I would have had no reason to post it:

New on the Market: Angel Wing Side Guard Solution To Prevent Truck Underride Deaths & Injuries

And Mary would not have checked to see how many people had signed the Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition because I would not have launched it:

End Preventable Crash Fatalities: Appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman

I would not have spent Mary’s birthday getting ready to post an Underride Roundtable Consensus as a Public Comment to NHTSA’s underride rulemaking at 11:59 p.m. on her birthday. (Link to it on the Federal Register)

And I most definitely would not have launched a new petition on Mary’s birthday to ask NHTSA to mandate SIDE GUARDS on trucks so people wouldn’t die from going underneath the sides of trucks:

Mandate Side Guards On Large Trucks To End Deadly Side Underride Crashes

Please sign & share these two petitions in memory of AnnaLeah and Mary, whom we miss more than we could ever say.