Tag Archives: National Traffic Safety Ombudsman

Time Change Safety Messages: Don’t put your feet on the dashboard & Be Safe/Be Bright

Safety Advocacy,

How much impact could a nationwide network of Traffic Safety/Vision Zero community groups have on the death toll of vehicle violence? How could a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman be instrumental in bringing this about?

I continue to hear about safety factors which need to be brought to the attention of everyone. But probably won’t be without this kind of national focus and advocacy effort. . .

Just heard about these two today:

  1. Don’t put your feet on the dashboard: A deployed airbag inflates at about 320 km/h, and you don’t want your legs to be in the way when it does (Check out the photo of the car in this crash which collided with the rear of a tractor-trailer; was underride involved?) Not to mention the importance of emergency medical services in detecting internal injuries in passengers protected by air bags. Invisible disabilities can result.
  2. The color of your car and your clothes (when a pedestrian) could impact your safety: Years ago the Federal Highway Administration published a poster for the public with the statistic that 60% of pedestrian fatalities occur between the hours of 6:00pm and 6:00am. The “Be Safe, Be Bright” poster shows distances at which pedestrians can be seen wearing clothing of different colors – and retro reflective materials.

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

You can increase your safety by 10%.

In 1961, my wife was in a white VW Beetle. She stalled coming out of a shopping center at night and was struck on the driver side by a car coming over a hill. The driver swerved to the right and struck the VW just behind the driver side door. Luckily, my wife was not physically injured but she was badly shaken. I had picked white as the color because it would be cooler (no air conditioning). I was not thinking safety back then.

During all my years working on safety I could not get NHTSA to do analyses on fatality rates by car color. Only after I left NHTSA did researchers in Australia do such research and found that white cars were 10% safer. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-daylaightsavings.php

In 2015, I was pleased to learn that white had become the most popular car color on the planet. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-whitecarsnews.php

For the year 2015, no one can be pleased to learn that NHTSA recorded:

* The Nation saw 2,348 more fatalities from motor vehicle crashes in 2015 than in 2014—a 7.2-percent increase.

For pedestrians and cyclists color is also important for safety.

* Pedestrian fatalities increased by 466 (a 9.5-percent increase) and are at their highest number since 1996.
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* Pedalcyclist fatalities increased by 89 (a 12.2-percent increase), and are at their highest level since 1995.

See https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812318

Years ago the Federal Highway Administration published a poster for the public with the statistic that 60% of pedestrian fatalities occur between the hours of 6:00pm and 6:00am. The “Be Safe, Be Bright” poster shows distances at which pedestrians can be seen wearing clothing of different colors – and retro reflective materials. See

http://www.careforcrashvictims.com/besafe.php

Be brighter and be safer.

Lou Lombardo

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NTSB truck crash hearing reflects endless stalemate. Could a Natl Traffic Safety Ombudsman end it?

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety,

NTSB Board hears reports on deadly 2015 TN truck crash. October 4 at 9:30 a.m.

Livestreaming

Same issues over and over with no resolution. Could a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman work to more effectively end the continuing needless, senseless bloodshed on our highways? Why are we letting people like Mary and AnnaLeah anyway?

Tangled states & federal responsibilities.

1a85etLife & DeathTalkin together Unsafe Trucks

Barack Obama Op-Ed: “Self-driving, yes, but also safe” Would he be willing to discuss this with me?

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, ,

President Obama wrote an Op-Ed about the role of government in overseeing the development of self-driving cars. I find one of his comments very interesting:

There are always those who argue that government should stay out of free enterprise entirely, but I think most Americans would agree we still need rules to keep our air and water clean, and our food and medicine safe. That’s the general principle here. What’s more, the quickest way to slam the brakes on innovation is for the public to lose confidence in the safety of new technologies.

Both government and industry have a responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen. And make no mistake: If a self-driving car isn’t safe, we have the authority to pull it off the road. We won’t hesitate to protect the American public’s safety.

See more here: http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2016/09/19/Barack-Obama-Self-driving-yes-but-also-safe/stories/201609200027

Well then, President Obama, I would like to discuss with you the unsafe trucks driving on the road which, at any moment, could kill an unsuspecting member of the American public  — as one did my two daughters, Mary and AnnaLeah — due to inadequate underride protection.  Are you ready to exercise that authority and take decisive action?

  1. Set a National Vision Zero Goal.
  2. Establish a White House Vision Zero Task Force.
  3. Sign a Vision Zero Executive Order to authorize the Department of Transportation to adopt a Vision Zero Rulemaking Policy.
  4. And then appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman to advocate for the victims of vehicle violence, to protect the American public, and to mobilize citizens to act on their own behalf through a nationwide network of Vision Zero/Traffic Safety Community Action Groups.

Let’s have a serious talk about this. I’ll be in DC next week. Give me a call.

Unsafe TrucksViolence

TRAFFIC SAFETY OMBUDSMAN [Advocate] Petition to White House: Citizens & gov’t working together

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety,

August 3 UPDATE: The petition on the White House site is expired. Please sign our new Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition at Care2;  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/384/321/600/end-preventable-crash-fatalities-appoint-a-national-traffic-safety-ombudsman/

We are asking for 100,000 Americans to sign our new Traffic Safety Ombudsman petition on WhiteHouse petition site. Once we get 150 signatures, it will become searchable on their website.

If we are able to get 100,000 signatures in 30 days — by July 31, then the White House has promised that they will respond to our new petition, which calls on President Obama to appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman, who will be an Advocate for Safer Roads.

Why on earth am I asking for another government-funded worker — a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman? And whatever would that person do anyway? Read more here: Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition calls for a Visible, Vigilant Voice for Vulnerable Road Users (Us)

SIGN  & SHARE the TRAFFIC SAFETY OMBUDSMAN Petition:  https://wh.gov/i6kUj

PLEASE NOTE: If you sign the petition, be sure to go to your email. We the People will send you an email which you have to reply to in order to confirm your signature is valid.

Their email will say this in the subject line:

“Almost done! Verify your Petitions.WhiteHouse.gov account”

This is what the email will say:

You’re only one step away from creating your Petitions.WhiteHouse.gov account. Just click on the link below or cut and paste it into your web browser to confirm this is a working email address:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/user/reset. . .  (DO NOT CLICK ON IT IN THIS POST–JUST IN YOUR EMAIL)

IMPORTANT: If you created your account in the process of signing a petition on We the People, you still need to click on the “Sign this Petition” button on the petition’s webpage.

Here is your WhiteHouse.gov account information:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/user
e-mail: ____________________
password:__________________

Once you’ve verified your email address, click on [THE LINK THEY GIVE YOU] or copy and paste it into your web browser to update your profile or change your password.

Then, FINALLY, once you click on it a Pop-Up will appear saying that your signature has been counted.

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What the Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition says:

Every average day in the U.S., 100 of our loved ones die in crashes and 400 more suffer serious crash injuries–along with $2 Billion in crash losses.

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.

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.

Please SIGN the Petition: https://wh.gov/i6kUj. Then, SHARE this post. We have to get 100,000 in 30 days! July 31 is the target date. (Check your email for a verification email from We the People. See instructions above.)

Read this post for Memes & Videos to help you raise awareness & promote this petition: Memes & Other Tools to Spread the Vision of a Traffic Safety Ombudsman to Advocate for Safer Roads

Stay tuned for a D-Day Vision Zero Virtual Flash Mob calling for a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety,

Next 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/

On June 6, 2016, let us also remember the countless victims of traffic crashes in our country. Michael Lemov has written an eye-opener, Car Safety Wars: One Hundred Years of Technology, Politics, and Death in which he tells us that in the more than 110 years since the first traffic crash in 1898, more than 3.5 million Americans have been killed and more than 300,000,000 injured in motor vehicle crashes [p.9]. This, I learned, is 3x the number of Americans who have been killed and 200x the number wounded in all of the wars fought by our nation since the Revolution [p.10]. Imagine.

And, beyond that, let us seize the moment to send out a loud message to President Obama and members of Congress:

Move Us Toward Zero Crash Deaths: Create an Office of National Traffic Safety Ombudsman (Advocate)

Despite the 33,000 people who die annually on the roads each year, our country does not currently have a reliable means of addressing the problem. These people cannot cry out in protest. And there is no one who has been granted the responsibility and authority to speak on their behalf.

I think I have a way to change that unfortunate oversight.

Let’s appoint an ombudsman to stand in the place of vulnerable road users (each one of us). Let’s create a National Office of Traffic Safety Ombudsman (or Advocate or Ombuds), who would serve to advance a National Vision Zero Goal–acting to oversee the process of moving us toward zero crash deaths and serious injuries.

An indigenous Danish, Swedish and Norwegian term, ombudsman is etymologically rooted in the Old Norse word umboðsmaðr, essentially meaning “representative” (with the word umbud/ombud meaning proxy,attorney, that is someone who is authorized to act for someone else, a meaning it still has in the Scandinavian languages).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ombudsman

Stay tuned for a way to participate in a Virtual Flash Mob on June 6, 2016, to send this life & death message to our country’s leaders.

Let this be, a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.”

CBA Victim Cost Benefit Analysis Victim

More here:  Move Us Toward Zero Crash Deaths: Create Office of National Traffic Safety Ombudsman (Advocate)

Traffic Safety Ombudsman (Advocate); Missing piece of Vision Zero Strategy