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.
Read the full story here: Power of People to Protect People, by Lou Lombardo, Legal Reader, December 27, 2016
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.
Ralph Nader warns us of the Trump people and policies that we face. See http://www.eurasiareview.com/27122016-ralph-nader-tripwires-for-the-trumpsters-oped/
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.
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.”
