Face it: Fragmented Approaches To Transportation Safety Don’t Work & Public Health Needs To Be Included

Truck Safety, , , ,

I’m just a little voice in the cry for safer roads. But I will keep saying: Let’s work together to make roads safer for us all. Fragmented approaches don’t seem to be working effectively. And public health research and solutions need to be included in the overall plan.

So now my question is: How can we make this happen and on a large scale?

Is anybody listening?

gertie 2947

These are some of my ideas on this: Establishing a White House Task Force to Protect Travelers From Truck Crashes (1)

Wake up, America: Let’s make our roads safe–together!

https://annaleahmary.com/2014/06/wake-up-america-lets-make-our-roads-safe-together/

Driver Fatigue Needs To Be Recognized As A Public Health Problem

https://annaleahmary.com/2014/07/driver-fatigue-needs-to-be-recognized-as-a-public-health-problem/

Articles on the topic:

Other posts related to this topic: https://annaleahmary.com/tag/driver-fatigue/

“Opponents of white collar criminal prosecutions argue that corporate managers should not be charged criminally for regulatory violations”?

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , ,

“’Opponents of white collar criminal prosecutions argue that corporate managers should not be charged criminally for regulatory violations because health, safety, and environmental rules are too complex to understand and violations of such arcane requirements do not cause real harm,’says Rena Steinzor, author of Why Not Jail? Industrial Catastrophes, Corporate Malfeasance, and Government Inaction.

“’Both arguments are revealed as hypocritical by the criminal prosecutions of three drivers who had fatal accidents as a result of a defect that the manufacturers’ executives covered up. All of these accidents caused fatalities and the drivers were charged with versions of vehicular manslaughter or reckless driving. Only after suffering through great hardship and, in one case, two years in prison, were they exonerated by belated disclosure of corporate malfeasance. The cases are just the latest example of the double standard that prevails between street and white collar crime.’”

– See more at: http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/vehicular-homicide-and-manslaughter-convictions-being-reversed-as-drivers-blame-corporations-for-auto-defects/#sthash.fPVqpLAk.dpuf

I wrote about this in a previous post, and I will repeat it here:

https://annaleahmary.com/2015/05/how-a-truck-crash-changed-the-month-of-may-or-what-happens-when-nobody-takes-responsibility/

My grief is complicated by the many things which I have learned about highway safety and the growing awareness that, way too often, nobody really takes responsibility for the countless and potentially-preventable deaths which occur on the roads of our country year after year.

Until that May, I had never heard of an underride crash–too often due to an underride guard that did not prevent a car from riding under a truck and resulting in horrific injuries and deaths. Recently I have read many reports of the problems with defective cars and the fatal crashes which have occurred as a result. Who takes responsibility for these deaths? And when will they come to an end?

For example, here is a report on recent activity with GM recalls:

“. . . the company took its taxpayer-funded bailout agreement and turned it around on millions of consumers unlucky enough to own compact cars with ignition switch defects who had accidents before July 10, 2009, the date when the agreement became effective. Invoking a liability shield negotiated by the Obama administration,GM won a ruling from a bankruptcy judge that is now on appeal, avoiding billions in damages for injuries, deaths, and the lost resale values of vehicles with the defect. The judge took the view that when the ‘old GM’ went bankrupt, the ‘new GM’ got a fresh start, even though all but 15 of the executives and managers involved in the ignition switch fiasco remain ensconced in the company’s iconic skyscraper in Detroit. GM won this counter-intuitive relief even though areport it commissioned from former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas revealed that senior executives knew about the problem as early as 2005 but dragged their feet on notifying consumers until 2014. ‘Although everyone had responsibility to fix the problem, nobody took responsibility,’ he wrote.”  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rena-steinzor/gm-and-its-no-good-very-bad_b_7191124.html

“Why Not Jail? makes a compelling argument for criminal prosecutions of executives who tolerate noncompliance and endanger public health and the environment.’”  http://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/white-collar-crime-and-justice

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“Courage, dear heart.”

AnnaLeah and Mary, , , ,

Susanna gave me this lovely bracelet for my birthday. Such a wonderful word of encouragement for those moments when dark thoughts find their way in to disturb my peace:

http://simplyputstudio.com/products/courage-dear-heart-chronicles-of-narnia-c-s-lewis-bracelet

http://emmagayle.blogspot.com/2011/03/courage-dear-heart.html

Mary loved the Chronicles of Narnia. For many years before she read the books herself, her older brothers and sisters read them out loud to her. And she watched the BBC videos for hours on end.

GWMemorial-147 GWMemorial-149

Isn't she beautiful

Minolta DSC

I just found this video which someone made  of Lucy and Aslan to the song Wrapped in Your Arms. It makes me think of AnnaLeah and Mary. I am so glad that they knew the comfort of His loving arms. “Courage, dear heart.”

 

Beach photos by The Karths (Naomi & Sam)

Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association brochure of services

Truck Safety, ,

This OOIDA brochure describes their benefits and services. I picked it up at a truck stop while on a road trip. Note the truck driver insurance & minimum liability.

OOIDA brochure

Celebrating Life. Figuring out how old they would have been–year after year. Minus 40, then minus 4.

AnnaLeah and Mary, ,

When I was taking a walk this morning and wishing that AnnaLeah and Mary could have been with me to celebrate my 60th birthday, I realized that it won’t be as hard as I thought to figure out each year how old they would have been.

As their siblings get older and leave AnnaLeah and Mary behind in their dust, I was worried that as I age I would have to work hard to calculate their would-have-been ages. It will be easy though. AnnaLeah was born when I was 40 (she liked to use her age to figure out how old I was!). And Mary was 4 years younger than her. So I simply have to take my age, subtract 40 for AnnaLeah and then 4 more for Mary.

I would have been 62 when Mary turned 18. My baby. Whom I was counting on to take care of me when I got older.  (The rest of them will have to take up the slack.) She would have liked the walk I took in the woods today and the frisbee golf course.

Walking stick 01012 Picture 724Driftwood 0018 Picture 657

Trip North 2015 Wisconsin 542family portrait Susanna's dance recital 002baby AnnaLeah and family1bb at the hospital to see MaryI am thankful for my family and the wonderful memories I will always have.

 

 

You can do it! Ignore your phone until you can safely answer it.

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety,

You can do it! Ignore your phone until you can safely answer it. Mary recorded herself for my ringtone. She wanted to be famous. While she might not have died from distracted driving (we don’t know what made the truck driver crash into our car), I think that she would have liked to be known for helping others to drive more safely.

(Photos taken from various stages of Mary’s life.) https://annaleahmary.com/about/

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

Uncategorized, ,

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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It is this “conspiracy of silence” surrounding death as it relates to crash fatalities that I would like to shatter.

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , ,

Some time ago, I wrote a lengthy post. Very lengthy. With the thought in mind that some might not have read to the end, I am reposting it in a different fashion: the end comes first:

“I will be eternally grateful that Mary and AnnaLeah were ready when death knocked at their door on a day when they did not suspect it. I am comforted by a letter we found after their funeral which Mary had written to herself (meant to be read ten years later) a few weeks before our crash. One of the things she said–and which I will never forget–was that she hoped that she was living every day as if it were her last.

The Bible says that, Death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.(Ecclesiastes 7:2) Why is it that Too Often we do not do so? Why do we live and think and act as if we were invincible and invulnerable?

According to Rod Lensch, ‘One good explanation is that death is like the law of gravity. We recognize its reality but rarely think about it. People generally tend to walk into life with hope and confidence but back into death with uncertainty and fear. So the conspiracy of silence surrounding death continues unabated.’

And, it is this “conspiracy of silence” surrounding death as it relates to crash fatalities that I would like to shatter. I would like to shine a spotlight on these countless unnecessary and preventable deaths and call for change–for safety to become much more than a word that is flippantly tossed around without any real and lasting impact.

Let’s be bold and decisive and circumspectly do the sensible and compassionate thing. Let’s do our part–each one of us–to protect those around us from all harm and danger that they might love and laugh and live their life fully.

This morning, as I was taking a shower, I began singing Amy Grant’s song, Thy Word Is A Lamp Unto My Feet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs-aiQ9NZ1g

Normally, that song is an encouragement to me. But as I got to the phrase, ‘Please be near me to the end,’ I ‘lost it’ as the memory returned of my girls’ abrupt and premature end to their lives. At one and the same time, it was a comfort that He was indeed near them ‘to the end’ and a great sorrow that their ending had to come in such a way and at such a time–so unnecessarily for me to see and bear in my own lifetime, and for them to miss out on so much more of life, not to mention all the lives now bereft of the love and gifts they so freely shared.

It is at such moments that I cry out, ‘May there be an end to Too Often, Too Little, Too Late. And may it come quickly.’”

25 AnnaLeah Jesus Loves Me 052Rebekah photo of crash

Who are no more with photo

You may read the rest of that post here: https://annaleahmary.com/2015/03/too-often-too-little-too-late-a-conspiracy-of-silence/

“The Trucks Are Killing Us”: Interesting Op-Ed by a former exec. at the American Trucking Associations

Truck Safety, , , , , , ,

Just read this Op-Ed in today’s New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/22/opinion/the-trucks-are-killing-us.html?emc=edit_tnt_20150821&nlid=37926955&tntemail0=y&_r=0

Face-to-face with our congressman, George Holding, to discuss truck safety concerns

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , , , , , , ,

photo with George Holding

Earlier this month, I met with Congressman George Holding’s Constituent Services Representative, Doug Wegman, in Sharpsburg, North Carolina. I was the only one at the “Town Hall meeting” and was able to share the story of our truck crash and some of our concerns about truck safety. It seemed like a productive meeting.

I had emailed Congressman Holding’s office in June asking for an opportunity to meet with him while he was in recess in North Carolina. That never came about until I emailed my contact again early this week and repeated my request. I was then asked if I could meet with him in Raleigh on Friday, August 21, at 11:00 a.m.

Actually, that worked out very well (couldn’t have planned it better myself) because I was dropping our son off at the airport to go back to college in Texas that morning and then proceeded to the meeting with Holding. Doug Wegman was also there along with Holding’s District Director, Alice McCall.

I shared with Congressman Holding that I had grown up as a Republican and was quite surprised after our crash to find out that, in general, the Republican party line related to truck safety legislation consistently appeared to be pro-trucking industry and anti-safety. I am puzzled why there cannot be bipartisan solutions to these issues.

https://annaleahmary.com/2014/07/truck-safety-needs-bipartisan-support-protecting-its-citizens-is-one-of-the-basic-purposes-of-government/

His response — a typical one — was that Republicans generally oppose government involvement and regulation. The problem I have with that is the reality which I have painfully discovered that “safety is not an accident” — it doesn’t just happen by itself. Without rules and regulations and enforcement and justice and requirements, chaos and injury and death are more likely to occur.

At least I have not seen a better alternative. Have you?

However, thankfully, I came away from the meeting feeling that it was productive — a thought echoed by another son who attended with me. We had the opportunity to raise several truck safety concerns, including driver fatigue (electronic logging devices and hours of service), underride guards, and the minimum liability insurance for truckers.

We concentrated on the minimum insurance issue — which has not been raised — for 30 years and therefore certainly has not kept up with inflation. (Is that any surprise?!) The current level, $750,000, set in in the 1980s — adjusted for inflation — would now be more like $3.2 million for  the medical CPI adjusted level according to p. 11 from this document:  http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/Financial-Responsibility-Requirements-Report-Enclosure-FINAL-April%202014.pdf .

And the statistical value of life is $9.2 million: VSL Guidance-2013-2 DOT value of life

I had a binder put together to leave with Congressman Holding. It had numerous articles about the insurance issue, including what the opposition (the trucking industry) has been saying about premiums skyrocketing if the minimum liability is raised — from $5,000 to $20,000. I showed him what I had found out from a couple of insurance companies which indicates that it would be more likely to go up to maybe $9,000. A bit of a difference.

This kind of potentially inaccurate and misleading information has been publicly disseminated and has influenced many truckers (most vociferously by representatives of OOIDA, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which by the way happens to sell insurance to truckers,  http://www.ooidatruckinsurance.com/) and legislators. In fact, I showed him the House Roll Call in which he had voted to freeze the funding for FMCSA to study this issue — even though Congress had previously authorized them to do so.

I was gratified that Holding took the time to look over the roll call and examine the 10 Republicans who had supported the need to allow FMCSA to proceed with rulemaking on this issue. He indicated that he intends to make some contacts for us, asked Doug to write down some of the names and the people both in the Senate and House with whom he is willing to connect us so that we can continue to shed light on this concern and ensure that the truth of the matter is uncovered.

I was also appreciative of the District Director’s input. When we discussed our pursuit of underride research to support the improvement of underride guards, Alice McCall mentioned that they could help with some contacts at universities, among other things.

In addition, she asked me how to pronounce AnnaLeah’s name (An-na-Le-ah) and said that it was beautiful. I told her that AnnaLeah loved her name and its uniqueness–although she had planned on publishing any written works under a pen name. I had showed them Mary’s braids and said that I was thankful that the nurse saved them and gave them to us. I had also brought along a shoulder bag which AnnaLeah had knit from a pattern in her head.

It reminded me of the many triggers which daily life brings of the loss we bear; as we drove to Raleigh I had seen a car on the side of the road. There was something sitting on top of the trunk of the car and for some reason that reminded me of our car after the crash — demolished with broken bodies inside. And it took my breath away once more to think of AnnaLeah’s life instantly snatched away. And the joy and creativity that were abruptly cut short.

https://annaleahmary.com/2015/05/my-favorite-memories-of-annaleah-well-some-of-them/

Alice also mentioned that she has several daughters. And, I had noted that Congressman Holding has 3 young daughters and a son himself. It is helpful to know that people understand that this is not just a matter of corporate profit but a life and death matter which could happen to anyone at any time.

Interesting articles, letters, and documents on the minimum insurance topic:

All in all, we felt that we were heard and are hopeful that Congressman Holding is likely to make decisions and take actions in the future to positively affect road safety as a result of the time which we spent with him.

p.s. Just read an Op-Ed (by a former executive of the American Trucking Associations) in today’s New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/22/opinion/the-trucks-are-killing-us.html?emc=edit_tnt_20150821&nlid=37926955&tntemail0=y&_r=0

p.p.s. Just scanned this OOIDA brochure–found at a truck stop while we were on a road trip.

OOIDA brochure

 

p.p.p.s. Mary’s braids: 49 Mary's braids 016

p.p.p.p.s. AnnaLeah knitting one of her many creations. AnnaLeah at Lake Michigan 11