All posts by Marianne

EOBR: Preventing Truck Driver Fatigue through use of Electronic Logging Devices

Truck Safety,

What is an EOBR? It is an electronic logging device, otherwise known as an Electronic On-Board Recorder. What is its purpose? To keep track of a truck driver’s hours of service on the road. The goal is to prevent driver fatigue by making sure that truck drivers get enough sleep and time off of the road.

The current system in place for recording drivers’ hours is a paper logbook. Too often, these are not even checked in the case of accidents because they can too easily be falsified.

“Regulatory requirements for EOBRs have been established by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and are covered in the FMCSA’s rule 395.15. It requires devices to automatically record a driver’s duty status and any changes in status, as well as the amount of time they operate the vehicle. If requested by law enforcement, drivers must be able to immediately deliver the required display information for the previous 7 days, plus the current day.”

Quoted from this website: http://eobr.com/what-is-an-eobr/

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The Best Possible Protection

Truck Safety, ,

Studies have been done which show that trucks, even if they are equipped with rear underride guards, do not pass all of the crash tests. In fact, out of 8 truck companies tested, only one passed all of the tests: http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr031413.html.

So, it may be a true statement, according to The American Trucking Association, “that many manufacturers are producing trucks with better than required safety underride guards.” http://myfox8.com/2013/08/13/families-push-for-tractor-trailer-regulations/ Nonetheless, the bottomline is that there are many trucks which are NOT equipped with the best possible protection, which means that someone somewhere sometime might crash with one of those trucks and not live to know it.

Why would there be resistance to providing the best possible protection? Is it money? Quite possibly… Yet, according to Manac President Charles Dutil, the Manac underride guard “doesn’t weigh 200 pounds more than anybody else’s; it doesn’t cost $200 more,” estimating the difference to be at most 20 pounds and $20.

“If trailer manufacturers can make guards that do a better job of protecting passenger vehicle occupants while also promising lower repair costs for their customers, that’s a win-win,” says David Zuby, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s chief research officer. http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4802.pdf

What I want most of all, in this situation, is to help reduce the number of families who open their mail to find a death certificate for a family member because of a preventable death…

        certificates and pens 010

IIHS Report: http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4802.pdf

IIHS Videos: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-941654 ;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT3G-kcKN70&list=PL9F34CB1B15585ED6

Why Are We Writing About Truck Safety Advocacy?

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, ,

Why are we writing about truck safety advocacy? Because we miss AnnaLeah and Mary so much and would like to help make sure that other families are not devastated the way we were.

According to the traffic crash report, on May 4, 2013, our Crown Victoria car was hit by one truck, spun around, hit again by that same truck, and then pushed backwards into the back of another truck. So the rear of our car went under the truck resulting in the deaths of AnnaLeah and Mary, who were in the back seat.

If the standards for underride guards for truck trailers had been strengthened and enforced, then AnnaLeah and Mary might have come home from the hospital with Caleb and me. Maybe not. And nothing will change our circumstances; we will never see them again in this life (so we wait eagerly for the life to come). But certainly, someone else could be spared this grief and untimely death–because we know there is a better design out there.

To get a better understanding of the inadequacy of the current federal regulations for underride guards, please watch these short videos:

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-941654

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7358087n&tag=related%3Bphotovideo

Encouraging Words

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , ,

It is so good to see how people are responding and signing our petition for truck safety. And it is encouraging to read all of the Comments on ThePetitionSite. People care. People are supporting our efforts to improve the safety of travelers on the roads. And, unfortunately, many people have seen the problems firsthand.

I hope to look back at this time in years to come and think: together we made a difference.

AnnaLeah, Mary at Muskegon

(Photo courtesy http://www.thekarths.com/)

SIGN OUR PETITION: Ask DOT To Protect Our Families

Truck Safety,
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     AnnaLeah & Mary were so full of life and had so much of it left to live when they were killed, at 17 & 13, in an accident involving 2 semi trucks on May 4, 2013. Their lives—like so many others—might have been spared if changes were made in truck safety regulations.

     On May 5, 2014, we will be driving to Washington, D.C. and delivering signed petitions, each one put in an individual envelope—purple (remembering AnnaLeah) and orange (remembering Mary), to the Department of Transportation.
     We will be letting Secretary Foxx know that he is receiving these petitions as a reminder of lives lost in truck-related crashes, and also of his statement, “I can promise you tangible progress within a short period of time,” which he made to the Truck Safety Coalition, when we met with him regarding vital truck safety issues on September 12, 2013.
     We are specifically asking Foxx to:

  1. Raise minimum levels of insurance required for truck drivers–which has not been done for over 30 years.

  2. Decrease driver fatigue and monitor their hours on the road with Electronic Logging Devices.

  3. Take needed steps to improve underride guards, which prevent vehicles from sliding under trucks–causing horrific injuries and tragic deaths.

Please sign and then share this petition! http://bit.ly/1gN3jQf

Show our government we want safe roads.

 
For more information on truck safety issues and to sign up for Truck Safety Coalition’s newsletters and updates, please visit the TSC website: http://trucksafety.org/

 

 

Road Trip Conversations

Truck Safety,

underride guards trip to RDU 005

These days, when we are traveling on the expressway, our conversations are interspersed with periodic comments like:

“Look at that one! It’s all rusty and bent!”

“Can you believe that one?! It’s all broken off on one side!”

“That one doesn’t even have anything in the middle!”

What are we talking about? Underride guards.

Before May 2013, most of us did not even know what an underride guard was. Now we know that the condition of an underride guard can sometimes mean the difference between life and death.

An underride guard is just what it says it is:  a piece of equipment fashioned into the back of a semi-trailer which can help to guard against a vehicle riding under the truck in the event of a crash—thereby preventing horrific injuries and death.

Meet AnnaLeah & Mary

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , , , ,

       

Mary and AnnaLeah at Battle Park, Rocky Mount, NC
Mary and AnnaLeah at Battle Park, Rocky Mount, NC

On May 4, 2013, AnnaLeah and Mary Karth were in a truck-related car accident. AnnaLeah died at the scene of the accident. Mary died a few days later due to her injuries.

This website is dedicated to preventing more deaths in truck-related accidents from happening. Specifically, the Karth family is working to raise awareness about three issues related to truck safety: minimum liability insurance levels, driver fatigue, and underride guards. More information can be found on the pages specific to those issues.

The family has also created a Facebook memorial page where they share memories, photos, and videos of the girls.  https://www.facebook.com/pages/In-Memory-of-AnnaLeah-1995-to-2013-and-Mary-Lydia-Karth-1999-to-2013/464993830249803

And the Facebook posts from the first few years after the crash can be accessed in chronological order through our Journey Through Grief Page on this website: Journey Through Grief.

AnnaLeah, full of peace, forever 17, and Mary, full of joy, forever 13.  We are thankful for  the years that we had them in our lives. We know that, by faith, they believed in Jesus as their Savior & Lord. And because of that, we have the sure hope that we will see them again—and be with them forever.