I am thankful for the progress which has been made in traffic safety and underride protection. And I am asking you all to hang in there with us and keep pushing for more.
How would Mary have celebrated her 17th birthday today? Well, I don’t know for sure. But I know that she would have enjoyed making her own homemade pizza with us tonight. (Or would she have chosen something else for her birthday meal?)
I know that she would have been glued to the TV or her computer watching the Olympics. She loved watching the 2012 Summer Olympics!
Whatever she would have chosen to do on her special day, Mary would have made the most of it because “every day’s a holiday with Mary” and she knew how to live joyfully — when she wasn’t grumpy, that is.
I just discovered that the photos below were ones that Mary took on August 6, 2012 — the day she became a teenager and the last birthday she would ever celebrate:
I also just noticed from these photos from her camera that Mary gave her beloved Gertie a bath on her 13th birthday (the beloved stuffed toy given to her by AnnaLeah so many birthdays before).
Notice the photos Mary took that same day of some of her favorite books (probably her birthday presents from AnnaLeah, whom I can’t ask to be sure) — including an American Girl one about a gymnast!
And I most definitely would not have launched a new petition on Mary’s birthday to ask NHTSA to mandate SIDE GUARDS on trucks so people wouldn’t die from going underneath the sides of trucks:
Good news for those of us who travel on the roads. . . There will soon be a safety product on the market: a side guard to prevent passenger vehicles — as well as pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle riders — from riding under the sides of large trucks upon collision.
Airflow Deflector already supplies a line of truck side guards — aimed mainly at pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle riders — and has been installing them on city-owned trucks in Boston and New York, two cities committed to Vision Zero.
As a result of opportunities to network with others at the May 5 Underride Roundtable, Robert Martineau has teamed up with Perry Ponder of Seven Hills Engineering to manufacture and market his side guard invention, Angel Wing. Robert recently shared this good news with me:
“We are excited to launch this product which will be ready for market by the early fall. We will be communicating with different people as to get it tested, certified and tried on trucks as part of a fleet valuation. Still some details to work out but we are now in production.
“We believe this is a very good start and will fit the business model that the transportation industry knows and understands as it does address the issues that face the transportation market both from an economization of fuel and underride safety.“
Another side guard designer, Aaron Kiefer, continues to develop his invention with the goal of making it a viable alternative for protecting people from the deadly side underride which he sees in his work as a crash reconstructionist. His guard actually attaches to the rear guard on trucks thereby strengthening the underride protection for collisions at the back of the truck as well as providing protection on the sides.
Given the vast number of trucks without side guards and the potential for horrific underride deaths and injuries just waiting to happen, I am encouraged to see this progress and look forward to more of the same.
Now what we need is a federal mandate for side underride protection on all large trucks. (Stay tuned for an online petition for Side Guards.)
August 7, 2016 UPDATE We just launched an online petition at Care2 petition site calliing on NHTSA to Mandate Side Guards On Large Trucks To End Deadly Side Underride Crashes.
Yes, parking for trucks is a problem that needs to be addressed. And I am recommending that it be included in the agenda at a Tired Trucker Roundtable.
Even though our efforts to improve underride protection are far from being finished, I would like to also tackle the project of organizing a Tired Trucker Roundtable. The only problem is that I have not yet identified any sponsoring organizations or potential facilities for holding such an important event.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Truck Safety Coalition were the co-sponsors with AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety of the Underride Roundtable on May 5, 2016. However, at this time, they are not in a position to participate in a similar fashion with a Tired Trucker Roundtable.
Exactly what am I envisioning with this Tired Trucker Roundtable? Let me try to summarize the highlights:
Over and over, truck crash tragedies occur which seem to involve tired truckers.
Of course, it is harder to measure driver fatigue than DUI — after the fact.
Some of the solutions to this problem have included logging driver hours in paper log books (too often unreliable and, in our crash, never seen by us or our attorney or DA) and more recently rulemaking (currently in a lawsuit) has been issued to require electronic log books.
These log books are to be connected to the official Hours of Service (HOS) requirements for truck drivers regulated by DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
There has, of course, been ongoing debate about what is appropriate for the details of these HOS. A virtual and ongoing political tug-of-war which leaves the truck drivers in a confusing muddle and truck crash victims in the grave.
I have read comments from and had “discussions with” many truck drivers who are convinced that these HOS rules need to have the input of truck drivers who are experienced with what works for them.
Of course, the problem that should probably involve other players than DOT agencies — like the Department of Labor and the Department of Health & Human Services (CDC/Public Health) — is that it is to a great extent a problem of how truck drivers are normally compensated (by the mile) and their great difficulty in making a living wage without a great toll on their health.
And it must definitely include various sectors of the trucking industry–carriers, shippers, brokers, independent owner-operators.
Government regulators.
Sleep apnea may also be a factor for many.
In general, their occupation involves long hours of monotonous driving which can lead to not just falling asleep but microsleep which can be as bad or worse than driving DUI.
Trucks take longer to brake but are traveling along with the rest of the traffic — posing a hazard to us all, especially when you add in the factor of the geometric mismatch (not merely a weight difference) of the height of the crush zone of the front of passenger vehicles vs the height of the lower edge of trucks. Underride protection (even what is currently legislated) is too weak and ineffective.
And really, driver fatigue is not just a trucker problem — now is it?
Fatigue, of course, is not the only problem; distracted behavior needs to be discussed as well, and other factors of what might make a truck driver inattentive and not ready to react in a timely manner to avoid tragedies.
Let’s not forget the road system and things like electronic signs to alert drivers of upcoming traffic back-ups or law enforcement actions to divert traffic or teaching drivers how to respond, etc.
And, of course, safety technology — to alert drivers when they are in microsleep or crash avoidance systems (but still, then the driver has to react to the surrounding circumstances) and DON’T FORGET underride protection, parking for truck drivers who do need to take breaks but so they don’t create hazards in their parking location, conspicuity, side mirrors.
Lack of truck parking options causes a big problem.
I’m sure that I have forgotten something; but I hope that you get the idea!
Now all I need is for some others (in addition to truck drivers) to catch the vision and help me out with planning this thing — finding sponsors, a facility, speakers, resources, etc.
Let’s collaborate together. Let’s make it happen. Let’s be amazed at the results.
17 years ago, I was great with child: Mary Lydia Karth. Her due date had come and gone and I was more than ready to meet her & hold her.
Little did I know that 17 years later — instead of getting ready to celebrate her birthday — I would be relentlessly working to keep others from facing the same kind of truck crash tragedy which took Mary (13) and her older sister AnnaLeah (17) on May 4, 2013.
Photos: Very pregnant with Mary, Newborn Mary at the hospital, Mary meets her 8 older siblings at the hospital, AnnaLeah holding newborn Mary, Mary at 9 holding her newborn niece, May 4, 2013/The End of Their Earthly Journey, the girls’ headstone
In Christ Alone
(last verse)
No guilt in life, no fear in death, This is the power of Christ in me; From life’s first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man, Can ever pluck me from His hand: Till He returns or calls me home, Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.
I know that AnnaLeah and Mary are “safe” in His hands forever. But that does not stop me from working where I can to reduce preventable needless deaths.
By following a facebook group Work Zone & Truck Safety, I have learned about the countless deaths which occur in those areas. Can we and should we do better at protecting workers & travelers on our roads?
See this NHTSA Report on TRAFFIC SAFETY FACTS 2014. Go to page 112 for stats on 2014 fatalities in Work Zones. It shows that there were 669 fatalities of which 260 were in the largest subcategory.
I have mentioned many times that our crash was not an accident and that many factors contribute to crashes and traffic fatalities — including drowsy & distracted truck drivers who are driving death machines — which is why I proposed a Tired Trucker Roundtable.
Don’t you think that we really need to do something about these senseless, preventable tragedies? I have proposed that the President and Congress work together to appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman.
Please sign, share & promote this needed action. Stand up with us & help us work to bring about effective strategies to address this problem which touches us all.
End Preventable Crash Fatalities: Appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman
Appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman To End Preventable Crash Fatalities
Petition Created by M.K. on August 02, 2016
We propose that the President establish an independent Office of National Traffic Safety Ombudsman to be an advocate to eliminate preventable crash deaths and serious injuries.
Every average day in the U.S., 100 of our loved ones die in crash deaths and 400 more suffer serious crash injuries–along with $2 Billion in crash losses.
We need someone who has a mandate to advocate on behalf of the victims, someone who is not compromised by competing interests. We call on the President to take this action to protect our families and loved ones from one of the leading causes of preventable death.
Traffic Safety has not been a national priority. Without this Presidential action, too many lives will continue to be lost to vehicle violence.
