Category Archives: Safety Advocacy

Super Single Tires Could Offset Cost of Side Guards: Save Weight/Cost/Lives!

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , ,

Super single tires (in place of the more common dual tire set-up) on semi-trailers could actually save weight, cost, and — when combined with side guards — lives! Sounds like a Win/Win scenario to me! But don’t take my word for it, read about the potential benefits in this truck driver blogpost:

Essentially, instead of having eighteen tires to support the trailer and truck, only ten will be needed because of the improved design of the tire itself. The super single truck tires can withstand the weight of the trailer and vehicle over the same time period as their dual counterparts. A study performed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory showed that trucks could save an average of almost 3% on gas or diesel fuel. While 3% may not sound like much, over 125,000 miles and averaging five miles per gallon that results in a savings of 728 gallons per year.

In addition, the new tires actually offer more stability with a wider truck frame. However, the most interesting advantages are that these tires can hold up for about 200,000 miles as opposed to the standard 160,000 miles for the conventional tires. This means that money is saved on replacement as well since the fewer number of super singles which actually last 40,000 miles longer.

However, the main advantage that super singles offer is that they are stronger, yet lighter in weight than their standard counterparts by roughly 1,000 pounds in total. While this weight savings may translate to better fuel mileage, trucking companies see this as being able to add 1,000 more pounds to the cargo. This means that more can be hauled on a single trip which can earn the company even more money than before.

Read more here: http://truck-driver-blog.blogspot.com/2014/10/advantages-of-super-single-truck-tires.html?m=1

Possible Drawback (as mentioned in the video below) is what could happen when there is a tire blow-out.

Additional Citations To Check Out:

Motor carriers consider many factors — and come to different conclusions — as they evaluate wide-base tires versus standard duals for their tractors and trailers Fleets Weigh Benefits, Drawbacks of Wide-Base Tires Versus Duals Transport Topics, April 13, 2020

www.eurekalert.org › pub_releases › drnl-stf080117
Story tips from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National …Aug 1, 2017 – Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory/Dept. of Energy … derived from old rubber tires, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led research team … Scientists found that single gallium cations are the key to increasing production of …Missing: super ‎| Must include: super

www.greencarcongress.com › 2006/06 › single_widebase
ORNL: Single Wide-Base Truck Tires Improve Fuel Economy …Jun 30, 2006 – Replacing the standard two thinner tires per wheel with a single wide-base tire improves the fuel … Interstate tests by ORNL’s National Transportation Research Center show… … We drive a new truck with super singles.books.google.com › books

Review of the 21st Century Truck Partnership, Second ReportNational Research Council, ‎Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, ‎Board on Energy and Environmental Systems – 2012 – ‎Technology & EngineeringNational Research Council, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, Board on Energy and … ORNL. 2009. Effect of Wide-Based Single Tire on Class-8 Combination Fuel Efficiency. … High Efficiency Clean Combustion for Super Truck.

www.greencarcongress.com › 2006/10 › ornl_launches_n
ORNL Launches Nationwide Heavy-Duty Truck Efficiency Test …Oct 23, 2006 – Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has launched a nationwide test of … Heavy-Duty Truck Efficiency Test; Single Wide Tires a Prime Focus … Earlier interstate tests by ORNL’s National Transportation Research Center … I have seen a few of these trucks pass me, recently, with the super single wheels.

AnnaLeah’s Too-True Story

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, , , ,

True Stories Well Told recently published this all too true tale of AnnaLeah. . .

AnnaLeah was a particularly avid reader with a colorful imagination. She had a myriad ideas written down on random pieces of paper tucked into drawers, filling notebooks, or emailed to herself. She had, in fact, already created in her own mind numerous literary worlds peopled by characters with names and personalities. . .

Read more here: https://truestorieswelltold.com/2019/12/18/annaleahs-too-true-story/

AnnaLeah ever-creative wordsmith.

Daily Glimpse of Underride Death Toll Posted on My Twitter

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , ,

I’m sure that I don’t get alerted to every underride crash in this nation. But I see enough of them to frequently re-kindle my frustration with the lack of significant action on this issue. Apparently, no one person feels the burden resting squarely on their shoulders. Hence, we are left with a disturbing absence of a sense of urgency to solve the problem.

You can catch a dismal glimpse of the daily Underride Death Toll (certainly not an exact count) on my Twitter Profile.

Supplemental Underride Rulemaking Can Create Loophole In New DOT “Rule On Rules” Just Signed By Secretary Chao

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , , , , , , ,

When supporters of the STOP Underrides! Act of 2019 first hear the news about DOT’s new “rule on rules,” they might moan and sigh and scramble to figure out what next. On December 5, Transportation Secretary solidified the Trump administration’s approach to rulemaking:

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced she has signed a “rule on rules” that will ensure the department’s regulations aren’t too complicated, out of date or contradictory.

When it comes to investigating suspected wrongdoing and enforcing its regulations, the new rules also require the department “where feasible, foster greater private-sector cooperation in enforcement.”

“This effort enhances the Department’s regulatory process by providing greater transparency and strengthening due process in enforcement actions,” Chao said in a statement. Transportation Department cements Trump administration’s deregulatory policies with a ‘rule on rules’

On the one hand, there are hints of good things there in calling for rules that are not out of date, cooperation from the private sector, and greater transparency. But those who have been around the block in safety advocacy are right to be skeptical and devoid of hope for future traffic safety rulemaking.

Yet I remain hopeful knowing that the STOP Underrides Act fits the bill by calling for a Committee On Underride Protection (COUP), whose role is to gather a diverse group of stakeholders to collaboratively keep DOT truly transparent and progressing in underride rulemaking. Will the COUP be included in the upcoming FAST Act language? I’m doing everything that I can to make it a reality.

Now, understandably, it could cause concern that, “The new Transportation Department action formalized a Trump administration requirement that for each regulatory step a department takes, it has to undertake two deregulatory moves.” However, I’m not worried because I know that it would be procedurally acceptable for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to remove the existing 1996 rear underride rules, (two of them — FMVSS 223 & 224), which would satisfy that requirement.

Then, NHTSA could issue a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPRM) as a revision of the December 2015 NPRM underride rulemaking, which was intended to update the 1996 rear underride guard rule. In fact, SNPRMs are a valid means of improving a NPRM — based on Public Comments and new information received subsequent to the initially issued proposed rule.

No one can argue that there has not been plenty of new information on underride which has come to the surface in the last seven years. In fact, the STOP Underrides! Act nicely packages straightforward rules, based on performance standards, to address every form of deadly underride and can easily lead to an Underride SNPRM — all with the help of the Committee On Underride Protection to mold it into the best possible underride protection.

So, in this season of expectant hope, let us eagerly continue a national conversation on the elimination of preventable underride tragedies. Let our goal be to change the face of the trucking industry by making truck crashes more survivable, thus promising a better chance that more people will be home for the holidays.

Members of Congress, Secretary Chao, trucking industry, eager engineers, and families of underride victims, let’s do this together.

(p.s. Let’s also appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman so that motorists and vulnerable road users — victims of every form of traffic violence — can count on a strong voice to authoritatively advocate on their behalf.)

What Will Come Next in the Timeline of Underride Regulatory History?

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , ,

People have died under trucks since passenger vehicles and trucks have shared the road. What changes have we seen in underride protection? Here is a Timeline put together by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety for the first Underride Roundtable on May 5, 2016.

What’s next? What will the future hold for underride rulemaking? More of the same or significant progress in preventing underride tragedies?

Underride-timeline

Rear Reinforcement Attachment: an aluminum device installed at outer edges of a trailer’s rear underride guard to strengthen it

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , , , ,

Aaron Kiefer readies his Rear Reinforcement Attachment, an aluminum device installed at the outer edges of a trailer’s rear underride guard to strengthen it — preventing underride to make truck crashes more survivable & save lives.

Making plans for an upcoming crash test in North Carolina. Stay tuned as we work hard to #STOPunderrides!

Why is this needed? See the difference between a weak and strong rear underride guard:

Can we extrapolate citizen support for a federal mandate based on Fairgoer response after learning the disturbing truth about truck underride?

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , ,

On October 26, 2019, we set up a STOP Underrides! Booth at the North Carolina State Fair as part of the Governor’s Highway Safety Program Safety City. Over 90% of the people, who learned from us about the underride problem, decided to sign a paper copy of the STOP Underrides! Petition. Those 270 people are asking Congress to pass legislation which would end these preventable tragedies.

This chart assumes that our observation of overwhelming support from 90% of the fairgoers could be extrapolated to the population of the United States. It provides an estimate of how many people would want action taken to prevent underride if they knew the facts. I calculated the number of projected signers for each state (look for yours) and then added up the total for the entire United States: 277,930,023!

State Petition Signers Estimates By Population

Next week, we’ll be delivering over 8,000 paper petitions (printed from signatures garnered online) to four Congressional Offices in Washington, D.C. (and letting other offices take a peek).

Do you think that they’ll take note of this message from their constituents? Will they do anything as a result? Maybe not, but I’m going to make sure that I do what I can to disturb their sleep.

Hundreds of North Carolina State Fairgoers Sign STOP Underrides! Petition

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , ,

The fabulous Fall weather brought out thousands of people to the North Carolina State Fair on Saturday, October 26. At the Governor’s Highway Safety Association (GHSA) SAFETY TENT, we were ready for the hundreds of people who stopped at our booth. We seized the opportunity to share with them underride stories, photos, and crash test videos.

We didn’t actually keep track, but I would venture a guess that well over 90% of those who took the time to listen to us, and often ask questions, were glad to hear that there was a specific action which they could take after hearing about the horror of underride and how they and their families are vulnerable to this preventable traffic safety problem.

In fact, after they learned that Congress could take action to mandate that available engineering solutions be installed on all large trucks, 263 people were more than willing to sign a paper copy of our STOP Underrides! Petition.

One young woman got tears in her eyes as she was gazing at our poster:

We learned that some years ago, when she was 12, she and her mom crashed into the side of a trailer and were spared complete underride when a piece of the trailer floor somehow lodged into their car preventing it from going any further. She had no idea that underride happens to others and found it a relief to be able to sign the petition.

She wrote in a comment on her petition: The most important piece of legislation!

North Carolina U.S. legislators would do well to pay heed to this clear call from their constituents:

We Want You To STOP Underrides!

Toyota Sudden Unintended Acceleration Death Settlements: Another Reason to Have a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman

Safety Advocacy, ,

My son is one of those who experienced sudden unintended acceleration while driving his Toyota Camry on a city street. Thankfully, the circumstances were such that he was not killed or injured. But he could have been.

I was worried about him continuing to drive the car. Would it happen again – only this time with a more dire outcome? Posts I wrote at the time:

Read this Fair Warning just-published article: In Echo of a Notorious Safety Scandal, Toyota Has Settled Hundreds of Sudden Acceleration Cases

Without admitting liability, Toyota since 2014 has settled 537 claims blaming sudden acceleration for crashes that killed or seriously injured people, according to a court document Toyota filed last month. Many, but not all, of the lawsuits asserted that electronic defects were the cause of sudden acceleration.

“Toyota has settled most of them, because there is some indication of something going wrong that doesn’t seem to be explained,” Don Slavik, a plaintiff attorney appointed by U.S. District Judge James Selna to assist in the litigation against Toyota, told FairWarning.

How much Toyota has paid in settlements is not publicly known because the company requires plaintiffs to sign a non-disclosure agreement as a condition of each settlement.

Automotive safety advocates see the complaints as a sign that Toyota and federal regulators failed to properly address the root of the problem when they had the opportunity years earlier. . .

Kane, the car safety consultant, says he continues to field calls from drivers who describe their Toyota or Lexus cars suddenly surging in parking lots.  He says that most of these events occur when cars are initially traveling at lower speeds. The cases aren’t serious enough to take to court, but he says that the events make people afraid to drive their own cars and can raise insurance rates if the crashes resulted in property damage.

“It is unbelievable how many sudden unintended acceleration events continue to occur post recall,” Kane told FairWarning. “There are very few high-speed sudden unintended acceleration events, but the lower speeds are a dime a dozen.”

Victims of traffic safety issues clearly need to be represented by an advocate in a position to take significant action to ensure that problems are appropriately addressed. A National Traffic Safety Ombudsman.

We Have Never Before Had a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman

Safety Advocacy, , , ,

On September 3, 1969, according to the Congressional Record from that day, Congress discussed plans to fund and expand the National Traffic & Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966. Although we have made progress since that time, still today there are way too many people dying on our roads. We have not made it a national priority to address these deaths and serious injuries.

A National Traffic Safety Act of 2019 would provide a framework for a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman to oversee a Towards Zero Traffic Safety Task Force of diverse stakeholders to collaborate for Safer Vehicles, Safer Trucks, Safer Streets, and Safer Drivers to address the national public health and traffic safety crisis in order to make a significant reduction of the 36,560 annual traffic-related deaths in the United States (2018).

Russell Mokhiber, Corporate Crime Reporter, published an interview on this proposed strategy on October 29: Marianne Karth Calls for Creation of National Traffic Safety Ombudsman.

Congress, the ball is in your court: Will you act now to end these deaths?

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

National Traffic Safety Act of 2019 Brochure inc. LINKS

GAO & CRS Analysis on Ombudsman

National Traffic Safety Act (Ombudsman) DRAFT 3

National Traffic Safety Act of 2019 DRAFT 11