A new day. Full of so many possibilities. What will it bring?

AnnaLeah and Mary, ,

It’s a new day.

New day 001New day 002

Full of possibilities.

Garden 001New day 003

 

What will it bring? What does He have in store for me?

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Looking forward to being a part of it.

Out-of-control. Regrettable actions. Broken lives. Irreversible tragedies.

Safety Advocacy, , , , , , ,

The recent widespread discussion in social media about the actions of a young man after partying  has triggered my distress at the thought of the regrettable actions by drunk, drugged, distracted, and drowsy drivers every day.

Do we really grasp the way that these things impair us and change our ability to act sensibly, responsibly–the way we might if we were “in our right mind”?

What does it lead to (whether intended or not)? Out-of-control. Regrettable actions. Broken lives. Irreversible tragedies.

Surely there are better ways for us to deal with the stress, pain, fear, frustration, and boredom in our lives.  I mean, what are we doing to ourselves? Has it become socially acceptable to mess up our own lives as well as those around us?

What can I do about it? What can you do about it? Surely we can work together to find ways to end these senseless, preventable tragedies–on and off the road.

 

Ex-astronaut charged with murder in car wreck that killed 2

Impaired Driving

Irreversible & Regrettable

Tell your legislators: Establish an Office of National Traffic Safety Ombudsman (Advocate)

Safety Advocacy

Tell your legislators to support the establishment of a Traffic Safety Ombudsman who will have a strong voice to advocate for genuine traffic safety measures. Enough of the political tug-of-war that does nothing to stop preventable crash deaths.

Contact your Senators

Contact your Representatives

I just wrote to a long list of legislators. This is what I said:

Don’t wait for 33,000 more crash deaths and 2.2 million crash injuries. Establish an Office of National Traffic Safety Ombudsman. Lead us toward zero crash deaths. Win/Win.
Read more here to find out why I want to see this happen:

Ombudsman for Traffic Safety

 

Obama (6/1/16): “We used to have really bad auto fatality rates. . .” And we don’t NOW?!

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety,

Dear President Obama,

I sat at my computer the other day and listened to you speak at a Town Hall on PBS News Hour (recorded June 1, 2016).

You said that crash fatalities were a major public health problem — as if they no longer are. You implied that we have already done, or are already doing, everything possible to prevent 33,000 people from dying on the roads of our country every year.

In fact, your attitude brushes off my daughters’ deaths as inevitable rather than potentially preventable.  It sounds like, to you, their deaths — their lives —  weren’t worth enough to put out the additional effort needed to decrease the fatality rate to the fullest extent possible. And not once have you acknowledged our petition for Vision Zero action.

Let me tell you, that makes me mad! Would you be any less so were your family in our shoes?! Would that change your tune about the acceptability of the current crash fatality rate? Would you suddenly speak out against the decades of political tug-of-war which delay — over and over — needed safety measures?

Would you go beyond talking about it and do what no one else can do: lead the way in setting our entire nation (and not just some programs in the USDOT or scattered efforts in states, cities, and communities) on a course of aggressively moving toward zero crash deaths & serious injuries?

Would you, in fact, make Traffic Safety a national priority–placing it on the list of important issues listed on whitehouse.gov and then do something about it, e.g.,:

  1. Set a National Vision Zero Goal?
  2. Establish a White House Vision Zero Task Force?
  3. Sign a Vision Zero Executive Order to allow Vision Zero Rulemaking?
  4. Get We the People involved in the action and the solution by promoting the development of a nationwide network of Traffic Safety/Vision Zero Community Groups?
  5. Appoint a Traffic Safety Ombudsman who would oversee all of this and be an  Advocate for vulnerable road users (which includes us all) —untainted by political pressures?

President, Obama, don’t be misled by DOT’s commitment to the TZD (Toward Zero Deaths) initiative. It is obviously not enough. I should know; I have spent endless hours engaged in a battle for safer trucking, and others have spent many more years doing so.

Take the bull by the horn, make use of the authority invested in you as the leader of this country, and end this public health travesty. And please, talk to me about this; show me that you are not ignoring our heartfelt, data-driven pleas.

On behalf of AnnaLeah & Mary (and countless others), who can no longer speak for themselves,

Marianne Karth

p.s. What is stopping you from taking this action which would benefit us all?

On the PBS News Hour, June 1, 2016, starting at 1:57 to about 3:05 on this video,  hear President Obama speak about the crash fatality rate:

https://www.facebook.com/newshour/videos/10154247237078675/

Obama: “We can’t accept this carnage” Let’s apply that sentiment toward preventable highway carnage.

CBA Victim Cost Benefit Analysis Victim

On D-Day, Monday, June 6, 2016, STARTING at NOON (EST), help me flood the media with this message in reply to President Obama (see the sharing links below):

America, are we doing all we can to save our loved ones? Before it’s too late. They never come back.

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, , , ,

Minolta DSCMinolta DSC

AnnaLeah. . . still waters run deep.

Crash Deaths

America, are we doing all we can to save our loved ones? Before it’s too late. Because they never come back.

Minolta DSCMinolta DSC

Mary. . . always a character.

There’s no one someone won’t miss.

Towards Zero Crash Deaths

“Stifled Grief: How the West Has It Wrong”

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, , ,

Stifled Grief: How the West Has It Wrong Huff Post (Common Grief) Michelle E. Steinke Founder/CEO – One Fit Widow, My 1 Fit Life,

It is my grief — my ongoing heartfelt loss —  which compels me to ask these questions.

CBA Victim Cost Benefit Analysis Victim

Is Cost/Benefit Analysis Appropriate for Life & Death Matters? Were their lives worth saving?

Send @POTUS a D-Day Message: End 33,000 crash deaths/yr. Make Traffic Safety a National Priority

Safety Advocacy,

I received an email from President Obama this week in response to a message which I sent to him in March on the whitehouse.gov Contact Form–asking him to read the Vision Zero Petition Book 3rd Edition which we had delivered to him. The news is not really that great. This is what he said:  Email from President Obama

He expressed sympathy and thanked me for writing, but he did not say that he would do anything about the problem or the requested solution/action/strategy. Please help me make sure that he knows that the people of this country want him to make Traffic Safety a National Priority.

On D-Day, Monday, June 6, 2016, STARTING at NOON (EST), help me flood the media with this message in reply to President Obama (see the sharing links below):

For more information, see previous post: I got an email from President Obama this week.

 

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President Obama, Do something to help us move more quickly toward zero crash deaths! Make Traffic Safety a National Priority. 

Last night, Pres. Obama referred in the past tense to crash fatalities as a public health problem.

And don’t forget about the crash injuries. In 2013, approximately 2.31 million people were injured in motor vehicle traffic crashes.

Last night, Pres. Obama referred in the past tense to crash fatalities as a public health problem.

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , ,

Apparently, President Obama is okay with the current state of traffic fatalities. Anyway it sounds as if he thinks that we have already done all we can to reduce crash deaths.

At least that is what it sounds like to me from last night’s PBS News Hour video of President Obama speaking at a Town Hall (June 2, 2016):

“We used to have really bad auto fatality rates. The auto fatality rate has actually dropped precipitously, drastically since I was a kid. Why is that? We decided we had seat belt laws. We decided to have manufacturers put air bags in place. We decided to crack down on drunk driving and texting. We decided to redesign roads so that they were less likely to have a car bank.

“We studied what is causing these fatalities using science and data and evidence. And then we slowly treated it like the public health problem it was. And it got reduced.”

See President Obama talking about this, starting at 1:57 on this video:  https://www.facebook.com/newshour/videos/10154247237078675/

Interesting. This is what I noticed about what he said:

  1. He identified auto fatalities as a public health problem.
  2. He referred to it in the past tense.
  3. He did not acknowledge that there is still a long ways to go and that there are still way too many preventable crash deaths occurring every year.
  4. He did not mention that 33,000 people — like AnnaLeah and Mary, real people, whom someone will miss — are still dying every year and that we should make it a national priority to work on them.
  5. He also did not mention that more than 2 million people are seriously injured in crashes each year.
  6. He did not take that opportunity to say let’s set a national vision zero goal and work on this together.

President Obama, are you aware that over 20,000 people have asked you to set a Vision Zero Goal and to sign a Vision Zero Executive Order. We need a Vision Zero Task Force to address specific traffic safety issues and we need Vision Zero Rulemaking policies and we need a Traffic Safety Ombudsman to over see this ongoing public health problem–in ways that are not now being done.

Could we please sit down and talk about this so we can get on the same page?

Marianne

p.s. I, for one, daily face the loss of my two daughters, AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13). And I know for a fact that more could have been done — but wasn’t — to prevent their deaths.

President Obama

“Growing Momentum for Self-Driving Cars Worries Safety Advocates” Fair Warning

Safety Advocacy, ,

Growing Momentum for Self-Driving Cars Worries Safety Advocates – See more at: http://www.fairwarning.org/2016/06/self-driving-cars/#sthash.V6EZIQZe.eVIkkjWL.dpuf

Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy ALMFTS facebook banner

Other related articles:

States Vie to Drive Autonomous Vehicles

NHTSA’s, Google’s War on Drivers

I got an email from President Obama this week.

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

I received an email from President Obama this week in response to a message I sent to him in March on the whitehouse.gov Contact Form–asking him to read the Vision Zero Petition Book 3rd Edition which we had delivered to him.  This is what he said:

Dear Marianne,

Thank you for writing. There are no words to ease the pain of losing a loved one, but I hope fond memories help temper the grief you must feel.
 
At this difficult time, please know I will keep fighting for people like you every single day I hold this office. You and your loved ones will be in my thoughts and prayers in the days ahead.
 
Thank you, again, for taking the time to write. I wish you all the best.
 
Sincerely,
Barack Obama

Email from Barack Obama White House.gov

On D-Day, Monday, June 6, 2016, STARTING at NOON (EST), help me flood the media with this message in reply to President Obama (see the sharing links below):

President Obama,

Thank you for your sympathy and kind words. But what I, and over 20,000 Vision Zero Petition signers, want is for you to do what no one else in this country can do: Make Traffic Safety a National Priority!

  1. Set a National Vision Zero Goal to move us toward zero crash deaths.
  2. Establish a White House Vision Zero Task Force.
  3. Sign a Vision Zero Executive Order; and
  4. Appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman to oversee our progress in making our  roads safer.

Looking forward to hearing from you again soon,

Marianne Karth

Please share this Traffic Safety Virtual Flash Mob Game Plan with others before Monday, June 6, D-Day:

  1. Read this post.
  2. Put this Virtual Event on your calendar.
  3. Share this blogpost with others who you think might want to help.
  4. On Monday, June 6, 2016, D-Day starting at noon EST, post this vital message –using every form of social media at your disposal:

 

On Monday, June 6, we will remember the sacrifice of the armed forces as they fought to bring an end to WWII.

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.”  https://www.army.mil/d-day/

President Obama, we will accept nothing less than a full-fledged, national effort to move toward zero crash deaths & serious injuries. Lead the way!

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Prayer on D-Day, June 6, 1944

Traffic Safety OmbudsmanPresident Obama Adopt Vision Zero

President Obama

In memory of AnnaLeah & Mary, precious ones whose lives were cut far too short: