I follow the dad of a distracted driving victim on Twitter. And on December 15, at the Road to Zero Coalition meeting in Arlington, VA, I met someone from North Carolina who has been working with Vijay Dixit to reach some of his goals — like making distracted driving taboo. Over and over, he shared with me how he has been inspired by Vijay.
After losing his daughter, Shreya, due to distracted driving, Vijay has been actively working toward that goal and now has a book in print to make that point: One Split Second.
“Building Distraction-free Driving Communities, One Driver at a Time”
I would echo that mission statement and add the other traffic safety issues as well –including driver behaviors, vehicle safety, crash avoidance technologies, and safer infrastructure — which could all contribute to preventing tragic loss of life.
“‘He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy;
Then it was well.
Is not that what it means to know Me?’ declares the LORD.
“For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help,
The afflicted also, & him who has no helper.
He will have compassion on the poor & needy,
And the lives of the needy he will save.
He will rescue their life from oppression & violence;
And their blood will be precious in his sight.”
Jeremiah 22:16 and Psalm 72:12-14
Lou Lombardo relates the story of his important work on airbags which showed that “tragic political deregulatory decisions – sometimes – can be overturned to restore life saving regulations.”
Lombardo begins by talking about how,
The safety and happiness of the people is now suffering violence on many fronts: inequality, injustice, medical and social insecurity, failing schools, terrorism, war, homelessness, hunger, unemployment, vehicle violence, unsafe products and services, unsafe air, unsafe water, unsafe working conditions, failing infrastructure, corporatized media, policy makers and scientists for sale, insecure elections etc. Our planet is in human existential danger. . .
The American people remember President Reagan for saying in Berlin: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” I remember President Reagan’s policy to tear up the airbag regulations in Washington, DC thereby condemning many thousands of Americans to suffer preventable tragic deaths and injuries – and their terrible consequences – that will haunt us forevermore right here in the U.S.A.
In Lombardo’s recent email to the Care for Crash Victims Community Members, he makes these observations:
Presidential Power Failure
The record of Presidential failures to protect people dictates that we the people have to step up and use our power.
The Power of People was written as Americans approach the end of 8 years of one Administration with a tragically disappointing auto safety record with a NHTSA estimated 251,647 deaths due to vehicle violence under President Obama from 2009 through the first six months of 2016.
NHTSA data shows that the number of motor vehicle related deaths is accelerating and estimated to increase an additional 10% approaching an Obama legacy of 270,000 vehicle deaths. See https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.g ov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/ 812332 Nader and Ditlow told us so. See https://www.nytimes.com/2014/ 10/29/opinion/weak-oversight- deadly-cars.html
President Obama failed year after year to adopt a Vision Zero Goal despite petitions of the American people. The Swedish Parliament adopted Vision Zero in 1997. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_Zero
Powers of People – Needed Now More Than Ever
Daily losses due to vehicle violence in the U.S.A. today:
* 100 deaths
* 400 serious injuries
* $2 Billion
This is at a time when we have more technologies available to achieve an end to vehicle violence in or by new vehicles in a decade than ever before in human history.
Now as we face an incoming Administration that is talking more about the problems of regulations on business than about the problems of deaths and injuries to people, we need to begin anew conversations about what people can do to protect people.
People like Lou Lombardo have been able to make a difference and save untold lives in years past. Will the Power of People to Protect People prevail in the coming months and years? That is what I would like to know.
Equal Justice For All, Legal Reader, artist Neal Angeles
Note: Lou Lombardo says of the Lady Justice Graphic – “Lady Justice, while blind folded for fairness, can still smell the stench of money and hear the pleas of millions of injured people – past, present, and future.”
Let’s face it: despite numerous laws and regulations designed to protect our safety on the road, many of them too often are not enforced. How often is a lack of priority to address the safety issues and/or inadequate resources to enforce the rules the problem? Or maybe there are simply more of us non-law enforcement drivers who are able to observe those who defy the laws.
How about if we, as citizens, identify, acknowledge, and address deadly traffic safety problems by taking matters into our own hands when possible? For example, we could deputize citizens to issue citations for texting while driving or for large trucks with underride guards which are in need of maintenance (it’s the law!).
. . . like pretty much everyone, Hillesland is fed up with the rampant texting and driving out there. A few weeks ago, as he entered a tricky Y-intersection near Southeast Portland’s Mount Tabor, a pickup blew through its red light. The woman behind the wheel was thumbing away on her cellphone, obviously lost in Xanadu.
After noting all of the information required by ORS 153.058 – driver and vehicle details, plate number, location – Hillesland went home and called the city’s non-emergency number to say he wanted to file a citizen citation.
The NYC’s Taxi & Limousine Commission proposed rules regarding taxi driver fatigue focus primarily on controlling the hours of service for taxi drivers — much like the trucking HOS. That is all well and good, but I hope to organize a Tired Trucker Roundtable which will take a more comprehensive look at solving the widespread and deadly problem of driver fatigue.
Now this is an innovative way to protect cyclists. . .
Volvo Cars presents LifePaint. Road safety shouldn’t be for the few. It should be for everyone. The ones not driving our cars, and the ones who prefer two wheels to four.
LifePaint is a unique water based reflective safety spray. Invisible by daylight, it glows brightly in direct glare of car headlights. Making the invisible, visible. LifePaint washes off, and will not damage the colour or the surface of your chosen material, lasting more than a week of normal usage. Volvo Life Paint
Crash reconstructionist/forensic engineer Aaron Kiefer continues to develop his ideas for an innovative side/rear underride guard to protect all vulnerable victims from deadly truck underride.
Aaron has identified new materials to make his design stronger, more effective at preventing underride, and user-friendly for the truck drivers. The only thing is that he is doing this work on his own time aside from his regular job of reconstructing crash scenes. He turned to us to ask if we could help him raise some money for his upcoming side guard crash test so that he can prove that his invention will save lives.
You can help Aaron purchase the necessary materials for his next crash test. Our current goal is to raise$3,000* by early next year.
Donate at the ALMFTS website here which our family set up for traffic safety research through our 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety.
$500 would buy the necessary polyester webbing (12,000 lb/in), which gives Aaron’s invention unusual strength.
$500 more would buy the car to crash — a Malibu
$500 more would buy the rear reinforcement aluminum plate and water jet cutting
$500 more would allow Aaron to purchase the aluminum extrusion for reinforcement/rear guard connector
$500 additional would pay for the FRP panel (2 x 190 ft rolls). Just today, Aaron had a sample of this plastic panel successfully sewn together with the polyester webbing — a good sign that this design, with these materials, could provide a strong innovative option for side underride protection on large trucks for pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, and passenger vehicles.
$3,000TOTALwould allow Aaron to purchase the entire CRASH TEST SET: Panel/webbing/aluminum/assembly/labor (industrial sewing)
Please share this post so others can join in this vital effort to make affordable and effective side guards available to the trucking industry. Thank you!
We humans are innately creative. Surely we can come up with innovative ways to prevent permanent devastation from vehicle violence. Here’s a perspective which embraces that idea:
“If you know what tactical urbanism is, tactical transit is the same principle applied to transit. So it means something like this: Don’t just fight for giant infrastructure projects that take many years to fund, approve, and complete. Try things now, with what you have, in ways that (a) make a measurable improvement and/or (b) inspire people to see what’s possible. And often: Use temporary materials, as appropriate, to present things as experiments, so people can experience them before passing judgment on them. “
HOW TACTICAL TRANSIT COULD SHIFT TRANSPORTATION PLANNING In Everett, Massachusetts, a pilot project recently transformed a parking lane in a heavily congested portion of Broadway/Route 99 into bus-only lane during rush hour. Requiring no engineering investment, the project merely relies on orange safety cones and temporary signage to demarcate the lane. Initial data indicates that commute times have been reduced anywhere from 4-8 minutes, and both bus riders and car commuters have embraced the project because it has improved traffic flow overall. According to City transportation planner Jay Monty, Everett has decided to extend the pilot indefinitely and is exploring ways to expand the route. Why Tactical Transit is the Next Big Thing
What would be some ways that this principle could be applied more specifically to preventing vehicle violence tragedies?
Wikipedia on Road Traffic Safety: Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, and passengers of on-road public transport (mainly buses and trams).
Best-practices in modern road safety strategy:
The basic strategy of a Safe System approach is to ensure that in the event of a crash, the impact energies remain below the threshold likely to produce either death or serious injury. This threshold will vary from crash scenario to crash scenario, depending upon the level of protection offered to the road users involved. For example, the chances of survival for an unprotected pedestrian hit by a vehicle diminish rapidly at speeds greater than 30 km/h, whereas for a properly restrained motor vehicle occupant the critical impact speed is 50 km/h (for side impact crashes) and 70 km/h (for head-on crashes).
— International Transport Forum, Towards Zero, Ambitious Road Safety Targets and the Safe System Approach, Executive Summary page 19 {International Transport Forum (2008). “Towards Zero, Ambitious Road Safety Targets and the Safe System Approach”. OECD. Retrieved 26 January 2012. It recognises that prevention efforts notwithstanding, road users will remain fallible and crashes will occur.[dead link]}
Tactical:adroit in planning or maneuvering to accomplish a purpose
At the conclusion of the Road to Zero Coalition meeting in Arlington, Virginia, on December 15, 2016, National Safety Council (NSC) CEO, Debbie Hersman, announced the Safe System Innovation Grant program funded by NHTSA.
NSC, as the leader of the Coalition, will administer a $1 million per year (for 3 years) grant program. Details are available at their website and here:
