Meanwhile, as the discussion continues, people all over the world die every day because their vehicle is not prevented from riding under a truck. Just like AnnaLeah. Just like Mary.
There will be a meeting on June 24, at IIHS in Arlington, VA, with some of the participants from the Underride Roundtable, attempting to hammer out a better solution.
I’m getting very close to finishing my second quilt from squares of AnnaLeah’s and Mary’s clothes. I am looking forward to seeing it all done and being able to use it and the good memories it will hold. But then it will be done and what will I do that will give me that same catharsis?
I looked at it today and thought about how beautiful it will be when all the individual pieces come together and wished that there was not a reason to create such beauty.
I still have difficult moments periodically when I beg God to make it not be true — because how can it be that AnnaLeah and Mary are really and true not alive anymore?
Jerry and 3 of his daughters, Christmas 2012Jerry, Father’s Day 2016
Dawn King, a friend-because-she-also-lost-a-loved-one-to-a-truck-crash, wrote about the hard time she has had with Father’s Day this year. She wrote about her dad,
I should be able to give him a call, send him a card, even go for a visit. A couple weeks ago I did an interview and at the end the reporter asked me to send her pictures of me and dad. I realized I didn’t really have any of him and me together, just the two of us. I thought to myself that I should get a few taken next time I was home.
That’s exciting. I woke up to a comment on our website related to my post about the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations.
Here’s the comment:
The United States has been involved with WP.29 since its inception; however, the Forum originally focused on developing standards for Europe. It has only been a truly global effort since the late 1990’s. The US (NHTSA and the EPA) has been a major contributor to international research and development efforts, but when it comes to specific regulations, the US legal system operates under different principles from Europe.
The US was the first nation to set up a regulatory system for vehicle safety. Ralph Nader and others saw the issue as one of consumer protection and product liability while Europe later addressed safety more as an engineering and product certification issue. As a result, we have two main approaches (self-certification and type approval) and there are two international agreements (1958 and 1998) to allow for uniform regulations. Under the 1998 Agreement, WP.29 establishes Global Technical Regulations (GTR) that can be used under any system. (UN Regulations can only be used under a type approval system.) So at the international level, a state-of-the-art standard for rear underrun protection would involve looking at the current regulations in use around the world to see if the harmonization of requirements through a GTR would be practicable and beneficial. John Creamer, globalautoregs.com
John Creamer is the founder of GlobalAutoRegs.com and a partner in The Potomac Alliance, a Washington-based international regulatory affairs consultancy. In his client advisory role, Mr. Creamer is regularly involved with meetings of the UN World Forum for the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29). Previously, he has held positions with the US International Trade Commission and the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (representing the US automotive supplier industry), as the representative of the US auto parts industry in Japan, and with TRW Inc. (a leading global automotive safety systems supplier).
I just emailed John to see what else I can find out from him about this possibility for world-wide collaboration on improving protection against deadly underride. Stay tuned.
(Just so long as it does not get in the way of forward progress meanwhile!)
In memory of AnnaLeah and Mary (and so many others). . .
As we walked through Battle Park on January 21, 2013, Mary took many pictures with her camera. I recently made a Youtube video with her photos. Not until I watched that video just now did I look more closely to read what was written on one of the headstones which we passed by:
Blessed are the early dead
Oh, Mary! I wonder what you were thinking when you saw that. Tenderhearted girl.
Mary loved to capture every moment on her camera–from the mundane to the amazing. That included our walk on the trails of Battle Park on a beautiful day in January 2013 in her new home of Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
Mary’s photo story of the walk with her sister, AnnaLeah, dad, and mom is set to Horatio Spafford’s well-known hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul.” Fitting in so many ways. Peace like a river attendeth my soul.
Photography by Mary Lydia Karth (with a few by her mom as well):
I received an email from President Obama this week in response to a message I sent to him in March on the whitehouse.gov Contact Form–asking him to read the Vision Zero Petition Book 3rd Edition which we had delivered to him. This is what he said:
Dear Marianne,
Thank you for writing. There are no words to ease the pain of losing a loved one, but I hope fond memories help temper the grief you must feel.
At this difficult time, please know I will keep fighting for people like you every single day I hold this office. You and your loved ones will be in my thoughts and prayers in the days ahead.
Thank you, again, for taking the time to write. I wish you all the best.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
On D-Day, Monday, June 6, 2016, STARTING at NOON (EST), help me flood the media with this message in reply to President Obama (see the sharing links below):
President Obama,
Thank you for your sympathy and kind words. But what I, and over 20,000 Vision Zero Petition signers, want is for you to do what no one else in this country can do: Make Traffic Safety a National Priority!
Set a National Vision Zero Goal to move us toward zero crash deaths.
Establish a White House Vision Zero Task Force.
Sign a Vision Zero Executive Order; and
Appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman to oversee our progress in making our roads safer.
Looking forward to hearing from you again soon,
Marianne Karth
Please share this Traffic Safety Virtual Flash Mob Game Plan with others before Monday, June 6, D-Day:
On Monday, June 6, we will remember the sacrifice of the armed forces as they fought to bring an end to WWII.
On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” https://www.army.mil/d-day/
President Obama, we will accept nothing less than a full-fledged, national effort to move toward zero crash deaths & serious injuries. Lead the way!
