Category Archives: Uncategorized

If more people drove stick shift cars, would they be more focused on driving & less distracted?

Interesting thought: I just read an article which made me think,  If more people drove stick shift cars, would they be more focused on driving & less distracted?

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/aug/18/cars-manual-transmission-stick-shift-automatic?CMP=edit_2221

Making the transmission automatic took a step out of the driving process, and in exchange, drivers lost touch with the reality of what driving is: shoving a 4,000 lb brick through space with consequences. Driving while doing something else isn’t like letting go of your handlebars while riding a bike. It’s like operating a missile without paying attention to where it’s going.

And while advances in car technology have made vehicles safer, those same advances have also made cars bubbles of infotainment with texting, calls and Facebook at hand. In 2013, 424,000 people were injured in “distracted driving accidents”, up from 421,000 people the year before, and 10% of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the accident.

People who “grew up in the automotive industry or have this passion for vehicles – those are the guys that are driving manuals,” says Petrovski. “Everyone else is more in tune with what’s happening on their iPhones. They’re texting and driving. That’s pretty tough to do on a manual.”

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Does manufacturer of limo, not equipped with seat belts for all riders, bear any responsibility for deaths?

4 women dead, 4 injured in limo T-boned by pick-up.

Does the manufacturer of the limo, not equipped with seat belts for all riders, bear any responsibility for their deaths?

ABC US News | World News

“On the Road: Routine Taps Performance Brings Town to a Halt”

Day is done, gone the sun
From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky
All is well, safely rest
God is nigh.

Fading light dims the sight
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright
From afar, drawing near
Falls the night.

Thanks and praise for our days
Neath the sun, ‘neath the stars’, ‘neath the sky’
As we go, this we know
God is nigh.

TAPS
words: Horace Lorenzo Trim
tune: Daniel Butterfield

May His peace that passes all understanding guard your hearts & minds. . .                              no matter what you are going through.

GWMemorial-12

(Photo courtesy The Karths: http://www.thekarths.com/blog/)

To Auto Industry: Consumers DO Care About Safety; Thanks, Scion, for choosing SAFETY over PROFIT!

The automotive industry has been saying for years that consumers don’t care about safety. What do they know?!

Read about this decision by one automotive maker to include a “precollision braking system worthy of a pricey German sedan” in one of their new affordable cars.  http://ht.ly/PeGOb

“The prevailing wisdom is that ‘young people don’t care’ about safety, said Murtha. ‘But surprisingly when we researched this stuff, they did glom on to [precollision technology]. They saw value in it.'”

Thank you, Scion, for choosing SAFETY over PROFIT!

Michael Lemov challenges the myth that consumers do not care about safety which has been perpetuated since the beginning of the automotive industry:

Car Safety Wars book cover

Progress in Truck Driver Training Requirements

I have not written much thus far about CDL training requirements, but I am glad to report that there seems to be progress in improving standards.

http://tinyurl.com/qxhxuqr

Who would not want the truck drivers, who spend their working hours on the road with us all, to be adequately trained?

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Should an owner of a Toyota Camry be worried about a repeat episode of SUA?

So, if you own a Toyota Camry and you had a problem with sudden unintended acceleration, should you be worried that it might happen again–even though you paid $1,300 to have it repaired?

No recall listed for that problem for a 1996 Toyota Camry. . .

http://www.safetyresearch.net/blog/articles/sudden-unintended-acceleration

https://annaleahmary.com/2015/06/tonight-my-sons-toyota-camry-had-unintended-acceleration-safe-but-frazzled/

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/RunawayToyotas/toyota-acceleration-problems-new-evidence-imprisoned-minnesota-toyota-camry-owner/story?id=9903455

http://www.arfc.org/complaints/1996/toyota/camry/

http://www.arfc.org/complaints/1996/toyota/camry/vehicle_speed_control/problem.aspx

Peter and family

Will my son and his family

be at risk for future episodes of sudden unintended acceleration?

Give NHTSA $ it needs to oversee auto safety efforts; & Value of a Statistical Life

Care for Crash Victims shared this perspective on whether NHTSA needs more money to do its job in auto safety oversight:

June 17, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The Detroit News reports:

“In a notice sent to Senate offices late Tuesday, the Senate Commerce Committee said it will hold a June 23 hearing titled, “Update on the Recalls of Defective Takata Air Bags and NHTSA’s Vehicle Safety Efforts.”….
The committee’s chairman, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said in a Detroit News interview last week he is considering legislative proposals to reform NHTSA, but said he is still not convinced the auto safety agency needs more funding.

Thune said “the White House has not been very visible” on the NHTSA request for more funding.

In an interview Tuesday, Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he hasn’t made any decisions about whether he will propose auto safety legislation. He backed an amendment to the House Transportation budget last week that would add $4 million to NHTSA’s budget.

“We want to make sure that (NHTSA) is able to deliver,” Upton said.”  See

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2015/06/16/senate-panel-set-hold-hearing-defective-airbags/28846129/

How does $4 million compare with the DOT Policy Guidance value of a statistical life?  [In 2013, that value was $9.1 million.  VSL Guidance-2013-2 DOT value of life  As of June 17, 2015 it was $9.4 million.  https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/VSL2015_0.pdf ]

How does $4 million compare with 32,675 Americans dying of crash injuries in 2014?  That value would be nearly $300 Billion in 2014.  And that includes zero dollars for an estimated 2 million Americans injured each year.  See http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812139.pdf

Hopefully, the American people will make sure that Congress delivers safety — not just a few more dollars.  Here in America, please!

Lou Lombardo

Tonight my son’s Toyota Camry had unintended acceleration: safe but frazzled

My son was on his way to Durham tonight– a 1 1/2 hr. drive–for a professional meet-up with other programmers. His wife got a call to come and help him. Before he made it out of town, his accelerator went out of control. Fortunately his brakes functioned well and he was able to stop–in the middle of the street in busy rush hour traffic.

We are thankful it happened before he got on the expressway and that there was no crash involved, no injuries.  But, despite many other 1996 Toyota Camrys which have experienced similar problems, there are apparently no recalls listed prior to 1999 for that model with that problem.

As soon as I heard what had happened, I started searching for his model online:

That reminded me of the book which I recently finished, Car Safety Wars by Michael Lemov:

“Car Safety Wars is a gripping history of the hundred-year struggle to improve the safety of American automobiles and save lives on the highways. Described as the “equivalent of war” by the Supreme Court, the battle involved the automobile industry, unsung and long-forgotten safety heroes, at least six US Presidents, a reluctant Congress, new auto technologies, and, most of all, the mindset of the American public: would they demand and be willing to pay for safer cars? The “Car Safety Wars” were at first won by consumers and safety advocates. The major victory was the enactment in 1966 of a ground breaking federal safety law. The safety act was pushed through Congress over the bitter objections of car manufacturers by a major scandal involving General Motors, its private detectives, Ralph Nader, and a gutty cigar-chomping old politician. The act is a success story for government safety regulation. It has cut highway death and injury rates by over seventy percent in the years since its enactment, saving more than two million lives and billions of taxpayer dollars.

But the car safety wars have never ended. GM has recently been charged with covering up deadly defects resulting in multiple ignition switch shut offs. Toyota has been fined for not reporting fatal unintended acceleration in many models. Honda and other companies have—for years—sold cars incorporating defective air bags. These current events, suggesting a failure of safety regulation, may serve to warn us that safety laws and agencies created with good intentions can be corrupted and strangled over time.

This book suggests ways to avoid this result, but shows that safer cars and highways are a hard road to travel. We are only part of the way home.”

http://www.amazon.com/Car-Safety-Wars-Technology-Politics/dp/161147745X

Having read Michael Lemov’s book, Car Safety Wars, I am not the least bit surprised–just all the more motivated to share what I have learned from this book and to do my part in speaking out for decisions and actions reflective of a safety-minded perspective.

In fact, you have not heard the last from me about this book.

Car Safety Wars book cover

Note: I temporarily made this post private until I could verify with my son what his mechanic told him. Apparently, something (possibly an oil leak or some damage due to a blown tire a month or so ago) caused the sensor for the accelerator to go awry and thus the Sudden Unintended Acceleration that he experienced. The mechanic was able to repair the throttle. (I don’t fully understand this.)

We were thinking that it sounded like it was maybe a different issue than what we have been reading about. But is it? My son was on a city street and not going very fast so that he was able to brake safely (though the accelerator was still trying to keep going). Perhaps if he had been on the expressway and going faster, he might not have been able to stop safely. ?????

My son said that maybe there was a design flaw in that the accelerator flaw was perhaps too easily impacted by oil leaking, etc. Is that a manufacturing defect? I don’t know. What if he had died as a result or killed someone else?

Marianne Karth, June 17, 2015

Update: I continue to see news reports of cases of SUA, e.g., http://www.streetsblog.org/2015/10/01/cab-driver-who-ran-over-kids-on-bronx-sidewalk-blames-car/ What if things had turned out differently with my son? What is the truth of the matter?

October 1, 2015

How Many Recalls Does It Take to Fix a Toyota?

Update (May 19, 2016): This article just posted:

Speaking Out at a Press Conference Today in Raleigh: Standing Up For Safer Roads

press release may 11

As I am preparing to speak at a press conference in Raleigh today at 11 a.m. in support of needed actions on truck safety, I am reflecting on my morning Bible reading. I ran across the word exceedingly and it reminded me of two other places where I recall reading that word:

  • Today reading in Jonah…he went to prophesy to the city of Nineveh, which was exceedingly great.
  • Also in Ezekiel 37:10, where God was fixin’ to raise up an exceedingly great army of His people.
  • And also in Ephesians 3:20 where God says that He will use His people by His power to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or even think.

The problems in truck safety are exceedingly abundant and the opposition against safety measures are also exceedingly powerful, but I have an exceedingly great God that I am calling upon to bring about needed changes to make the roads safer for us all.

Looking for an exceedingly great outcry. . .

IMG_4465with petitions outside DOT

 

Time is Short: Comment Now on Proposed Rule to Raise Minimum Liability Insurance for Trucking

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(Photo courtesy Georgia State Patrol, May 4, 2013)

Don’t take my word for it (alone); examine the issue and decide for yourself. Time is short to make a  public comment on a federal regulation to raise the minimum liability insurance for trucking companies. FMCSA already has the responsibility and authority to set these limits; they simply have not raised them (for inflation) for over 30 years.

See what you think of this comment on the Federal Register:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FMCSA-2014-0211-1596 :  I am a 1 truck leased Owner Operator. I have over a million miles safe driving without a single recordable accident.

It appears greed is trying to enter into my life again, by means of greedy lawyers trying to get more money from insurances that myself and my company pay for. All the companies I’ve ever worked with and worked for have ALWAYS requested and received safety and driving records prior to hiring or leasing me or my equipment. So if I was unsafe or going to be a large financial risk I would be turned down for employment. I don’t see any reason to raise current insurance coverage. Being there is a very very small percent of incidences that would require anymore insurance than I already have. The needless financial burden this would put on myself and my company would more than likely put me out of business and out of the trucking industry for good. I have no way to pass this extra cost on to my customers. For they would not understand or agree to pay for a rate increase do to my liability costs. My trucking business relationships don’t and never will function this way. This goes back to my previous statement of being employed because I’m safe and not a huge financial risk. The second I have astronomical rate increases will portray me to be a larger financial risk.

Also, who would pay for something they will never come close to using. The shear amount of destruction that would have to occur to even come close to using such a policy amount is very small. So small that it would never happen to and never does happen to the very large majority of trucking operations.

Please use knowledge and good sense to turn down these proposed increases.

In contrast, read these comments:

According to our research, the fears of astronomical increases in premiums are unfounded. In addition, the attitude shown in these comments is disturbing to someone who knows all too well the devastation that comes from being part of that small percentage of tragedies that you never really thought would touch you.

The changes which this rule would bring about will not have any bearing on our truck crash which occurred on May 4, 2013. But I am convinced that this rule is vitally important for countless truck crashes which will occur in the days and years ahead.

Public Comments must be submitted by February 26, 2015. Go here and click the Green Button, Submit a Formal Comment:  https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/11/28/2014-28076/financial-responsibility-for-motor-carriers-freight-forwarders-and-brokers

Public Comments 002

You can read all of the Public Comments here (and can search for your own comment with the Search function, after it gets posted):  http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketBrowser;rpp=100;so=DESC;sb=docId;po=0;dct=PS;D=FMCSA-2014-0211

Public Comments 006

headstone