SAVE THE DATE for the Second Underride Roundtable: Tuesday, August 29, 2017
We will continue to discuss how to bring about
the BEST POSSIBLE UNDERRIDE PROTECTION.
IIHS will once again co-host this event, with the Truck Safety Coalition and AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety, at their Vehicle Research Center.
Washington — Traffic deaths surged about 8 percent in the first nine months of last year, continuing an alarming upward spiral that began in late 2014, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates released Friday. . .
Read more here: Traffic deaths surged in first 9 months of 2016,
The NHTSA Report with the statistics (but not the tears) is at https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.
Thus the Obama Administration is on track to record more than 250,000 deaths due to vehicle violence during 8 years in office. Lou Lombardo, Care for Crash Victims
Do it, President Obama, for We the People of this United States of America! #VisionZero
The Takata airbag inflator saga continues as GM tells NHTSA some Takata airbag safety risks are inconsequential. As surprising as that may seem, the company asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to relieve it of any notification and remedy obligations pertaining to some passenger-side airbag inflators in its GMT900 vehicle platform. If granted, GM will not have to tell vehicle owners and lessors about the defects in these airbag inflators, much less replace them.
Takata filed a Defect Information Report (DIR) with NHTSA in May of 2016 when it discovered a defect in some of its passenger-side airbag inflators. When a DIR is filed by an automotive supplier, it then becomes the vehicle manufacturers’ responsibility to file a DIR of its own regarding the affected models. GM filed two DIRs on May 27, 2016. However, GM’s DIRs came with an attachment in which the company called the recalls “preliminary” as it didn’t agree that a defect actually existed in the inflators used in the GMT900 platform. GM’s statement included its expectations of providing NHTSA with “additional test data, analysis or other relevant and appropriate evidence in support of our belief that our vehicles do not pose an unreasonable risk to safety.” Despite that stance, the company added that it “will conduct a recall of its airbag inflators covered by the May 2016 Takata DIRs, unless GM is able to prove to NHTSA’s satisfaction that the inflators in its vehicles do not pose an unreasonable risk to safety.”
The company followed up in November 2016 with a petition to NHTSA asking to be absolved of its obligations to inform owners/lessors of the defect and to replace the defective parts.
GM Tells NHTSA Some Takata Airbag Safety Risks are Inconsequential
Read this article and submit comments to NHTSA by September 14, 2017.
Great progress is being made in underride protection on the sides of large trucks in the month of January 2017. While Aaron Kiefer is preparing for a crash test of his innovative TrailerSafe System side/rear guard on January 20 in North Carolina, Airflow Deflector tested Perry Ponder’s Angel Wing side guard design in New York.
The Angel Wing crash test was declared a success: the side guard prevented the side of the trailer from going past the windshield thus promising protection from Passenger Compartment Intrusion (PCI). In other words, it is likely that, due to the side guard in combination with the crashworthiness of the car, no one would have been killed or seriously injured by the collision between the side of this truck and a smaller passenger vehicle.
Side underride is not a new problem. For too long, nothing has been done about it. Yet here are two unique and innovative solutions to protect us from deadly side underride. Two Life-Savers.
I count myself privileged to be cheering these innovative and compassionate engineers on in their important work which will save countless lives. Now, here’s to getting these marvelous inventions onto the trucks we all drive around each day. . .
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder recently signed legislation which:
. . . authorizes a 75 mph speed limit on 600 miles of freeways and a 65 mph limit on 900 miles of non-freeway roads. The bill also raises the maximum speed limit for trucks from 60 to 65 mph.
. . . the goal is to raise speed limits where 85 percent of drivers are already traveling at higher speeds and will protect motorists from being unnecessarily ticketed in “speed traps.”
It is also thought that less people exceeding the legal speed limit will allow law enforcement to focus on impaired, distracted or careless driving. . .
The bill will go into effect within one year if the study says it is safe. Michigan Approves Higher Speed Limits, Go By Truck Global News, Updated: January 10, 2017
Another article provides further insight:
“Ensuring that all Michiganders are safe while operating vehicles on our state’s roadways is critically important, and these bills allow for appropriately increased speed limits on certain roadways after safety studies are conducted,” Snyder said.
The main bill requires the Michigan Department of Transportation and Department of State Police to raise speed limits to 75 miles per hour on 600 miles of rural, limited-access freeways if a safety and engineering study deems it safe.
The bills also allow for speed limit changes in other areas, including:
Reading the comments to this article reminds me of my goal to revolutionize traffic safety advocacy by mobilizing the citizens of our country to get to the bottom of traffic safety issues and come up with solutions which show more concern for keeping people safe than saving corporate profit or protecting individual rights or relying solely on common sense and a sense of personal responsibility.
And I wonder what will happen when this engineering study is completed. What will Michigan do with the results? What will the rest of the states (and the cities therein) and the federal government do with the results? How will it be compared to traffic fatality statistics which show that speed is a factor in way too many crashes? Will we learn to intentionally design our roadways safer and set speed limits accordingly? Will this impact decision-making on truck speed limiters?
Is it possible that we could become a culture suitably enlightened and motivated to truly make safety a priority? Would a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman work to make sure that this was so?
Sometimes it seems like it is just too much to tackle — trying to do everything we can to protect our loved ones. But there is so much which can be done to prevent unnecessary tragedies — especially if we all pull together to do so. How could we walk away and leave anything undone?
Please pray for a multitude of details to come together to bring about Aaron Kiefer’s SIDE GUARD Crash Test on January 20, 2017. It seems like an insurmountable mountain and a shortage of time & resources. Time to speak to that mountain. . .
I don’t have the answer to this technical question; I hope someone figures it out before it is too late for someone else.
NHTSA has extended Public Comment Period to February 16, 2017 on the question of whether nonconforming model year (MY) 2013 and 2014 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta passenger cars (PCs) are eligible for importation into the United States.
On December 7, 2016, NHTSA published a notice (at 81 FR 88318) that it had received a petition to decide that nonconforming model year (MY) 2013 and 2014 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta passenger cars (PCs) are eligible for importation into the United States. The notice solicited public comments on the petition and stated that the closing date for comments is January 6, 2017.
This is to notify the public that NHTSA is extending the comment period on this petition, and allowing it to run until February 6, 2017. This extension is based on a request dated December 21, 2016, from Ferrari North America, Inc., and Ferrari SpA, (collectively “Ferrari”) the vehicle’s manufacturer. Ferrari stated that in its view an extension was needed because a portion of the comment period will be lost due to the holidays (during which time Ferrari SpA’s facilities will be closed), and because of the complexity of the technical analysis necessary to evaluate the petition and prepare any comments. Ferrari requests this extension especially with regard to FMVSS No. 208 conformance—in particular, the passenger-side airbag weight sensing system.
Ferrari also stated its view that an extension of the comment period will not prejudice the parties or cause undue delay, but will afford Ferrari the opportunity to fully evaluate the petition in order to determine the appropriate content of any Ferrari comments.
NHTSA has granted Ferrari’s request. All comments received before the close of business on the closing date indicated above will be considered, and will be available for examination in the docket at the above address both before and after that date. To the extent possible, comments filed after the closing date will also be considered. Notice of final action on the petition will be published in the Federal Register pursuant to the authority indicated below.
Make a Public Comment on the Federal Register before February 6, 2017: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=NHTSA_FRDOC_0001-1749
GM has petitioned NHTSA for Inconsequential Non Compliance on Takata Air Bags: General Motors LLC, Receipt of Petition for Inconsequentiality and Decision Granting Request To File Out of Time and Request for Deferral of Determination as posted on the Federal Register, 11/28/2016
What does this mean?
AGENCY:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Department of Transportation.
ACTION:
Notice of receipt of petition and decision granting partial relief.
SUMMARY:
On May 16, 2016, TK Holdings Inc. (Takata) filed a defect information report (DIR), in which it determined that a defect existed in certain passenger-side air bag inflators that it manufactured, including passenger inflators that it supplied to General Motors, LLC (GM) for use in certain GMT900 vehicles. GM has petitioned the Agency for a decision that, because of differences in inflator design and vehicle integration, the equipment defect determined to exist by Takata is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle safety in the GMT900 vehicles, and that GM should therefore be relieved of its notification and remedy obligations.
DATES:
The closing date for comments is September 14, 2017.
I’d hate to be the one to find out that GM’s Takata airbags really are defective. Wouldn’t you?
I just saw the schedule for the 2016 Protection of Children in Cars conference held in Munich every year. It sounds like an important event.
I wonder if they ever talk about the need to protect children from truck underride injuries and deaths. If they did, maybe improving underride prevention strategies would become a higher priority. Maybe it would tip the cost/benefit analysis scale a bit more decisively in favor of saving lives.
I just did my morning reading as I ate my breakfast and ran across the word expropriation. I decided to look it up and found its meaning peculiarly and disturbingly relevant to my passion for traffic safety.
Expropriation: (from Wikipedia) The process of expropriation “occurs when a public agency (for example, the provincial government and its agencies, regional districts, municipalities, school boards, post-secondary institutions and utilities) takes private property for a purpose deemed to be in the public interest“.
Is that what happens when a cost/benefit analysis is interpreted in favor of the economic interest of society/industry over the value of saving human lives: Our government (on behalf of We the People) sacrifices human lives for a purpose deemed to be in the public interest?
‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Enough, you princes of Israel; put away violence and destruction, and practice justice and righteousness. Stop your expropriations from My people,” declares the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 45:9
