“Power of People to Protect People” Lou Lombardo, Legal Reader

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.

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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.”

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety – Underride Test Protocol

Update on December 24, 2016: the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Underride Test Protocol is now published on the Federal Register at this link: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety – Underride Test Protocol

Underride Roundtable May 5, 2016 080

Thank you, IIHS, for all of your work to make our roads safer.

Deputize Citizens to Issue Traffic Safety Citations

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!).

I just read an article which talks about how Oregon is the only state in the union that allows citizens to write DIY traffic tickets. For real.

. . . 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.
texting

NYC Taxis–“Proposed Driver Fatigue Prevention rules – bringing our Vision Zero goals closer to reality”

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.

TLC’s Proposed Driver Fatigue Prevention rules – bringing our Vision Zero goals closer to reality

NEW YORK CITY TAXI AND LIMOUSINE COMMISSION Notice of Public Hearing and Opportunity to Comment on Proposed Rules What are we proposing? The Taxi and Limousine Commission is considering changing rules that address the risks of fatigued driving and adding trip reporting requirements for for-hire vehicle bases. When and where is the Hearing? The Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed rule. The public hearing will take place at 10:00 a.m. on January 5, 2017. The hearing will be in the hearing room at 33 Beaver Street – 19th Floor, New York, NY 10004.

creative-solutionsTired Trucker Roundtable

Trucks.com examines why “Driving a Truck is Among Deadliest Jobs in the U.S.”

Trucks.com article examines why, Driving a Truck is Among Deadliest Jobs in the U.S.:

Unlike many occupations, drivers don’t have total control of their work environment – public roads and highways – so there’s always danger, said Steve Viscelli, an economics sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream.”

“Nobody wants to be safer than truck drivers,” Viscelli said.

But because of the way drivers’ compensation is structured, they’re often asked to choose between productivity and safety, a tug of war that leads some to keep driving when they should be taking a rest break, Viscelli said.

Long hours, low pay and tough working conditions contribute to annual turnover that hovers around 100 percent and puts inexperienced drivers on the road. Read more here

Talkin together

Tired Trucker Roundtable: If we plan it, they will come. Can we pull it off?

Merry Memories of Christmas Past Bring Comfort & Joy

Mary happily sung and danced her heart out, while AnnaLeah was content to be helpful in the background. Both full of life and laughter in their own ways. Both knew who was the best present of all.

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Mary (dressed in a white pinafore with a blue scarf wrapped around her head and her long, long hair) was one of the chorus youth in Midland Community Theatre’s 2009 production of A Christmas Carol:

Mary as an angel singing Away in a Manger:

Mary (as an angel again) singing and signing Away in a Manger in a Christmas program the year before:

Mary, quite a few years, earlier singing, Jesus is the Heart of Christmas:

Mary singing and dancing in I Saw Three Ships Go Sailing By:

Mary singing and dancing in God Rest, Ye Merry Gentlemen:

And more tidings of comfort & joy:

Volvo Life Paint; An innovative way to protect cyclists

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 Test of Innovative Large Truck Side Guard Could Advance Side Underride Prevention

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.

We received our IRS letter of approval in 2015 and are listed as a non-profit with Guidestar: http://www.guidestar.org/profile/47-4379503

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* Crash Test Materials Include the Following:

  • $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.
  • $3,000 TOTAL would 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!

“Tactical Transit: A Fast Path to Transit Infrastructure”; How about Tactical Traffic Safety?

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. “

Read more here: Tactical Transit: A Fast Path to Transit Infrastructure

Here’s an example:

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

creative-solutions

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]} 

protect-innocent-lives

Tactical: adroit in planning or maneuvering to accomplish a purpose

“Managing Critical Truck Parking Case Study – Real World Insights from Truck Parking Diaries” ATRI

Hot off the press. . . a study of the truck parking problem in this country — from the American Transportation Research Institute:

Managing Critical Truck Parking Case Study – Real World Insights from Truck Parking Diaries

About ATRI

 The American Transportation Research Institute has been engaged in critical transportation studies and operational tests since 1954.

ATRI, part of the American Trucking Associations Federation, is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit research organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

ATRI’s primary mission is to conduct transportation research with an emphasis on the trucking industry’s essential role in a safe, efficient, and viable transportation system.

Talkin together