Tag Archives: NHTSA

I survived an underride crash, but only because our car went backwards under the truck.

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , ,

I am able to be an advocate — a vocal spokesperson on behalf of truck underride victims — only because our car was hit by a truck which spun us and then hit us again and thereby pushed us backwards into the rear of another truck.

The underride guard on the back of the truck did not withstand the crash (which is, in fact, the norm because current federal standards are ineffective) and neither did my two daughters, AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13), who were in the back seat of the car which went underneath the truck. AnnaLeah died at the scene and Mary survived with horrific injuries–dying a few days later.

After finding out that it has already been proven that these underride guards are weak and ineffective, I have been thrust into the role of speaking up for improving the standards to provide stronger more effective underride protection to those who share the road with large trucks.

After we were joined, in the Spring of 2014, by over 11,000 people to petition Secretary Foxx to — among other things — improve the rule for underride guards, our petition was granted and a notice of rule making was issued for tractor-trailers:

We are waiting for this rule making to move forward to the next stage when we will be able to make Public Comments. This will be an important step and we will put out a call for support for this life-saving measure.

Recently, on June 12, 2015, the groundwork for a separate rule making on single unit trucks (currently not required to have underride guards, but responsible for countless crash fatalities) was sent to the Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs (Office of Management & Budget) for review:

Many advocates have worked hard before us to bring it to this point and together we need to continue forward until we have reached the goal of The Best Possible Protection.

Rebekah photo of crash

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

Uncategorized,

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

Underride Conversation with David Friedman, NHTSA Deputy Administrator

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , , ,

Shortly after we delivered the 11,000+ AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up For Truck Safety Petitions to Washington, DC, we were invited to tour the research & design center of a tractor-trailer manufacturer. After doing so, my immediate reaction was to wonder what would ever bring about a major improvement in underride guard strength. And I wished that I could just sit down with the trailer manufacturers and hammer out a solution.

An underride (or rear impact) guard is required by federal law for some large trucks to prevent a vehicle from sliding underneath a truck in the event of a collision. Too often, these guards–as in our crash–even if they meet specifications, are properly installed, and are maintained, do not withstand the crash and the smaller vehicle slides under the truck. As a result, life-saving technologies are not put into effect and there is intrusion into the passenger compartment.

In other words, the back of the truck comes into contact with people in the smaller vehicle who then experience horrific injuries and–too often–death.

IMG_4465

I emailed many people–hoping to drum up some interest in addressing this issue jointly. When I found out that there was going to be a new administrator, Mark Rosekind, at NHTSA, I wrote to him and asked that NHTSA host an underride roundtable discussion.

After exchanging a few emails, I was contacted by his scheduling assistant, who said that we would have a phone call in mid-February. As it turns out, that conversation never took place. Instead, Mark Rosekind arranged for me to speak on the phone with David Friedman, Deputy Administrator at NHTSA, on March 27, 2015.

When we met with DOT on May 5, 2014, David Friedman was the one who told me that he would let me know when a rulemaking was announced for underride guards. And he did so on July 9, 2014 (after promising that they would make a decision in two months, he was very close!): https://annaleahmary.com/2014/07/nhtsa-has-initiated-a-rulemaking-process-to-evaluate-options-for-improving-underride-guards/ . So, it was fitting that he would be the one to let me know about any progress on meeting our petition requests.

We discussed my hopes for an underride roundtable–to bring together those who could do something about improving underride guards. David told me that–while NHTSA would like to host such events–a discussion of underride would likely not occur until 2016. And, even then, it would probably be only one part of a broader truck safety conference.

That would definitely be a good thing but, in my mind, not give adequate attention to the underride issue. In fact, as we talked, it became clear that if an underride roundtable were going to occur, we would have to spearhead the effort.

So, after thanking him for the update, I scheduled a quarterly phone call for June–at which time he promised to provide me with information on the progress of the truck safety issues in our petition. Then I began brainstorming ways in which we could actually work to organize an underride roundtable–with NHTSA as potential participants.

Earlier,  I had spoken about that possibility with John Lannen, Director of the Truck Safety Coalition. So, after speaking with David Friedman, I resumed that conversation. John and I came up with some initial steps to get the process underway. I made a few contacts, and so did he.  As a result, we have had some interesting developments and hope to unveil the details soon.

Perhaps we are closer to seeing improvements in underride protection. Perhaps our loss can serve as a catalyst to encourage the development of The Best Possible Protection for preventing future losses from truck underride crashes.

Washington DC 129

 

 

A Low Tolerance For Crash Fatalities

Truck Safety, , ,

I was up late last night reading a lengthy article about the engineering perspective on automotive safety issues. It was worth the read to find out how “they” think.

From The New Yorker‘s May 4, 2015 edition:

The Engineer’s Lament

Two ways of thinking about automotive safety.

BY

http://ht.ly/MyBz8

I could quote lots of things from that article, but I will start with this one from David Friedman, Deputy Administrator of NHTSA:

“I would argue that our nation has a low tolerance for fatalities associated with airplanes, the N.H.T.S.A.’s David Friedman told me, when we spoke late last year. In part because of that, fatalities are very, very low from aircraft. Also in part because of that, the F.A.A. has close to fifty thousand employees—an order of magnitude more employees than we do. We have six hundred. To deal with ten thousand people who are dying from drunk driving or ten thousand dying because they didn’t wear a seat belt, or the three thousand dying from distracted driving, or the four thousand dying because they are pedestrians or bicyclists and they are hit by a car. That’s why the Administration has been asking Congress for more resources for us. With more resources, we could save more lives. And each time the answer from Congress has been no. Zero.”

(Don’t forget the four thousand dying per year from truck crashes.)

That’s what I would like to become prevalent in our nation: A Low Tolerance For Crash Fatalities. An Outcry at the Rampant* Carnage on our Roads.

* Flourishing or spreading UNCHECKED

gertie 132

New NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind Speaks at the Consumer Federation of America

Truck Safety, , ,

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s new Administrator Mark Rosekind spoke on March 13, 2015 at the Consumer Federation of America’s Consumer Assembly.

His Keynote Address was entitled, “NHTSA Priorities and Opportunities: A Two Year Sprint”. Read it here: Mark Rosekind Speech at CFA .

What Came After The AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up For Truck Safety Petition?

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , , , ,

Last year at this time, our family was intensely involved in preparing to launch The AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up For Truck Safety Petition.  After our truck crash and tragic loss of the Mary and AnnaLeah, we learned about many things that needed changing to prevent other families from facing similar grief.

When Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx promised that we would see tangible progress in a short time on truck safety issues, and 6 months later we had not, we decided to take our request to DOT on the first anniversary of our crash and invited other people to join us by signing our petition.

Last March, after brainstorming with our family, two of our sons were designing a website for the petition, but as time was getting short to launch the petition and we wanted to make sure that everything would go without a hitch, we changed course and applied all that hard work to an existing site, Care2 The Petition Site. And on March 19, we launched the petition.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/957/501/869/stand-up-for-truck-safety/

And we shared our story: https://youtu.be/I-WQBEDpTVw

We were amazed as the numbers started rising and quickly surpassed our hopes. By the time May rolled around, we had over 11,000 signatures on our petition. We printed each signature as an individual petition and stuffed it in an envelope and delivered these envelopes in person on May 5, 2014, in Washington, DC.

Here is a graph showing the number of signatures by state:

petition signatures by state

Eight members of our family, including our grandson and granddaughter traveled to Washington, DC and sat down with administrative officials from NHTSA and FMCSA. We were well received, presented our concerns, heard from them on their efforts, and had a productive discussion. And here are the “notes” which our 4 year-old granddaughter, Vanessa, took at that meeting:

Vanessa DOT notes

We are proud of our family and thankful for the many people who stood with us to voice these vital concerns.

What came out of our petition and the meeting we had with DOT that day? Did it make a difference? Here are the three requests which we made in the petition and what has come about:

  1. First Request: Raise minimum levels of insurance required for truck drivers–which has not been done for over 30 years.
  2. Result: In November 2014, the FMCSA  issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM) announcing that they are considering a proposed rule to increase the minimum liability insurance coverage for motor carriers.   https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/11/28/2014-28076/financial-responsibility-for-motor-carriers-freight-forwarders-and-brokers   https://annaleahmary.com/2014/12/good-news-fmcsa-announces-first-step-toward-increasing-minimum-liability-for-trucker-insurance/  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/741290079286842/
  3. The period for Public Comments ended on February 26. The 11,391 signatures from our petition were added to these Public Comments. This will be followed by a review of these comments and a decision about whether to actually proceed with a rulemaking process.  Public Comments 002Public Comments 003
  4. Second Request: Decrease driver fatigue and monitor their hours on the road with Electronic Logging Devices.
  5. Result: The Petition’s 11,000+ signatures were also added to the Public Comments for the Electronic Logging Device Rule.  The comment period ended May 27, 2014. “In a departure from a report issued in mid-February, the Department of Transportation has changed its expected publication date for a Final Rule mandating the use of electronic logging devices, according to a supplemental report issued by the DOT last week.   It now expects the rule to be published Sept. 30.”  http://www.overdriveonline.com/fmcsa-alters-course-on-e-log-mandate-shoots-for-sept-30-rule-publication/#
  6.   Public Comments on ELDs and Levi leaving for Camp 032Public Comments on ELDs and Levi leaving for Camp 026
  7. Third Request: Take needed steps to improve underride guards, which prevent vehicles from sliding under trucks–causing horrific injuries and tragic deaths.
  8. Result: On July 9, I posted the good news that NHTSA had initiated a rulemaking process on underride guards:   https://annaleahmary.com/2014/07/nhtsa-has-initiated-a-rulemaking-process-to-evaluate-options-for-improving-underride-guards/
  9. The Rulemaking Process is lengthy and often fraught with delays. It is a miracle that anything gets done. This is what the Federal Register posting says at the end:  “The agency notes that its granting of the petition submitted by Ms. Karth and the Truck Safety Coalition does not prejudge the outcome of the rulemaking or necessarily mean that a final rule will be issued. The determination of whether to issue a rule will be made after study of the requested action and the various alternatives in the course of the rulemaking proceeding, in accordance with statutory criteria.” https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/07/10/2014-16018/federal-motor-vehicle-safety-standards-rear-impact-guards-rear-impact-protection  Here is an outline of that process:  https://www.federalregister.gov/uploads/2011/01/the_rulemaking_process.pdf
  10. Underride guards and our story were featured in the Fall 2014 IIHS Status Report:  https://annaleahmary.com/2014/10/iihs-reports-on-new-crash-testing-for-improved-underride-guards/

The AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up For Truck Safety Petition is still open. People are still finding it and signing it (without our doing a thing to promote it). People care about this issue and we want you to know that we are being heard and that we are continuing to advocate for safer roads.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/957/501/869/stand-up-for-truck-safety/

Petition 002

At some point, we hope to send out a final update to all of the petition signers (now at 11,530 plus the 150 people who sent a paper petition to us)–letting them know about the progress made and encouraging them to stay in contact.

When we were getting ready to go to DC last year, one of our sons asked what we would do after the petition was over–would we still do truck safety advocacy? I said I didn’t know. . . but here I still am–continuing to keep track of what is going on, writing, writing, writing, and speaking up for all of us who are vulnerable on the roads, calling for action in matters of life & death.

We Rescue Jesus Saves 018

 

Help Us Design the Best Possible Underride Guard

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, ,

I sent an email out yesterday to the University of Michigan Injury Center–asking them to consider helping to design an underride guard which would provide the best possible protection.

This morning I decided to put out a wider call for assistance — both in expertise and financial backing — for this worthy lifesaving endeavor. Surely we could put our heads together and make this happen! I’d like to see this done to enhance the efforts of NHTSA to develop an improved rule on underride guards.

Let’s stop talking and take some action! Spread the word.

Marianne

AnnaLeah writing

IMG_4467May 8, 2014 from Kathryn

HERE IS MY EMAIL WITH  DETAILS OF OUR STORY & THE NEED FOR AN IMPROVED UNDERRIDE GUARD DESIGN:

“I would like to ask that you consider taking on the goal of developing an underride guard design which will prevent vehicles from riding under trucks in rear-impact collisions to a greater extent than the current federal standards provide protection–thereby preventing horrific injuries and unnecessary deaths.

I am a 1979 Health Behavior/Health Education graduate of the University of Michigan School of Public Health and received your recent email with information about the Research Centers, including the Injury Control Research Center. In addition, I am the mother of nine children and was driving the three youngest from North Carolina to Texas on May 4, 2013, to attend four college graduations and the wedding of their older siblings, when a truck hit us twice spinning us around and sending us backward under the tractor trailer in front of us.

AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13) were in the back seat. AnnaLeah died instantly from mechanical asphyxia and Mary died a few days later from injuries (including severe head trauma, carotid artery dissection, and LeFort fractures of her face) she sustained in the crash. I was in the hospital for almost a week but am totally healed physically, and my 15 year-old son in the front passenger seat had a mild concussion and was released that same day from the Emergency Room. The girls, in the back seat, experienced underride; we did not.

In the days, weeks, and months following that crash, our family discovered many things about truck safety.One of the things which we learned about were underride guards, steel bars on the back of a trailer mandated by federal regulations following the national attention gained by the death of actress Jayne Mansfield due to an underride crash in 1967.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-16/dead-girls-mom-says-100-truck-fix-may-have-saved-them.html

Unfortunately, the specifications have been shown to be inadequate in many circumstances; many of the underride guards on the road today too often fail to prevent underride–whether it be due to the design, installation, or maintenance of the guards. This has been seen both by review of the Large Truck Crash Causation Study and through research done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)–among others.

https://annaleahmary.com/2014/10/iihs-reports-on-new-crash-testing-for-improved-underride-guards/

Following our crash, we initiated an online petition requesting DOT to make improvement in three truck safety areas, including underride guards. After delivering the 11,000+ petitions to DOT in Washington, DC, we met with top administrative officials from FMCSA and NHTSA on May 5, 2014–one year after the crash. We were able to meet for an hour–sharing our concerns and hearing what their plans were relative to our three requests.

After hearing that NHTSA was not able to let us know if they were going to initiate a new rulemaking process on underride guards, my husband Jerry asked several times when we might expect that they would decide whether to go ahead with such a process. Finally, David Friedman, deputy director of NHTSA, replied that we could expect a decision in two months. I then asked him to email me as soon as the decision was made. And he did so–emailing me on July 9, 2014 — almost exactly two months later — to let me know that they had issued a rulemaking to study this issue.

Unfortunately, this is a very lengthy process which is frequently subject to setbacks due to opposition from the trucking industry. In addition, there is controversy about whether the guards could be made “too rigid” and result in unintended consequences due to deceleration forces.

Yet, the IIHS has told us in person that, “It is safer to run into a brick wall than into the back of a truck.” This is due to the fact that if you run into a brick wall with a vehicle equipped with a crush zone, that crush zone is able to go into effect and protect the occupants. However, if a vehicle hits the back of a truck and the underride guard fails, the vehicle goes under the truck so that the passenger compartment is intruded upon and the crush zone (air bags and seat belts) is not allowed to operate as designed.

We have also written letters to trailer manufacturing companies asking them to voluntarily improve their guards–as did Manac, Inc. IIHS has continued to communicate with manufacturers to let them know that they would be glad to test any new designs. They have gotten some response.

https://annaleahmary.com/2014/07/making-progress-on-improving-underride-guards-just-in-time-for-someone-else/

The bottom line is that NHTSA is hoping to issue a new rule mid-2015 and whatever they propose, if passed, will likely have an impact on road safety for years to come. It is my hope that there would be cooperative efforts taking place to come up with the best possible protection for travelers so that others will not have to go through what our family has had to and lives will not unnecessarily be abruptly brought to an end.

https://annaleahmary.com/2014/12/underride-guards-lets-move-forward-in-2015/

Please consider how you might be involved in this along with the School of Engineering and whatever other resources could be harnessed. Surely, by working together, we can make a difference.

In memory of AnnaLeah and Mary,

Marianne Karth”

See Underride Research Reports listed by NHTSA :  http://www.nhtsa.gov/Research/Crashworthiness/Truck%20Underride

A Helpful Guide to Understanding the Rear Underride Guard Rulemaking:  http://www.underridenetwork.org/CurrentIssues/UnderrideGuards/RearGuard.aspx

Underride Guards; Let’s Move Forward In 2015

Truck Safety, ,

I heard back tonight from David Friedman, deputy director of the NHTSA. (See previous post for my email to him earlier today. https://annaleahmary.com/2014/12/trucking-fatalities-increase-for-fourth-year-in-a-row-hours-of-service-rules-rolled-back/ )

This is what he said, “Thank you for reaching out.

“We are heartened to see overall progress, but as Secretary Foxx said today on a call with reporters, ‘32,719 lives were lost on our roads in 2013. And even one is far too many.’

“And as I noted, ‘As we work each day at NHTSA, these are tragic reminders of the importance of our efforts and how we must build on our many successes and continue to work even harder to protect the American public.’

“And yes, fatalities involving large trucks is one of the areas of disappointment because we saw an increase. We are working hard on multiple steps to turn that around, from electronic stability control, speed limiters, vehicle-to-vehicle technology and more. And, as you know, another area we are trying to make progress is on underride guards.”

On the matter of underride guards, he said, “The schedule is for an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on rear impact protection for straight trucks to tentatively move forward around the beginning of the year and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on rear impact protection for trailers to tentatively move forward around the middle of the year.”

Here is the recent Bloomberg News article on our story & underride guards: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-16/dead-girls-mom-says-100-truck-fix-may-have-saved-them.html

I hope that 2015 will bring vast improvement in preventing ghastly deaths from underride.

 IMG_4467

IIHS Reports on New Crash Testing for Improved Underride Guards

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , , , ,

IIHS October 2014 Status Report Article First Page

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has just released a report on recent crash testing for one trailer manufacturer’s improved design for their rear underride guard. Vanguard has now passed the 50% overlap test–with testing still needed for the more narrow overlap test at the edges of the trailer’s guard.

Additional companies have plans to get their guards tested in the future.

Our story is featured in this fall’s edition of the organization’s Status Report. We are thankful for their efforts to research and report on this vital truck safety issue. Their previous reports helped us to better understand the weakness of the current federal regulations for underride guards.

Read the report here: IIHS Status Report October 2014

Also, the Truck Safety Coalition has issued a press release on this issue:  http://trucksafety.org/press-release-industry-makes-improvements-while-rule-for-better-underride-languishes/

Link to IIHS Status Report Issues: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/sr

November 2015 IIHS Status Report with an update on Single Unit Truck Underride Rulemaking:  http://www.iihs.org/iihs/sr/statusreport/article/50/9/2

 

IIHS October 2014 Status Report Cover

Investigative Report on Underride Guards in Atlanta

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , , ,

Underride guards Great Dane trip 012

Jim Strickland, consumer investigator with WSB-TV in Atlanta, looked into underride guard problems in November 2013 in the Atlanta area and reported on them: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/youll-never-look-tractor-trailers-same-way-again/nb4Kf/

Here is his newscast in April 2014 after the National Transportation Safety Board issued their recommendations to NHTSA to improve underride guards:http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/ntsb-recommending-safety-device-big-rigs-after-cha/nfZYM/

When he found out that NHTSA had initiated a rulemaking process for underride guards, he wanted to do an update. He called me yesterday at 11 a.m. for a phone interview.

His report on underride guards,  our crash, and the AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up For Truck Safety Petition was on WSB-TV Atlanta’s evening news yesterday in two parts first at 4:45 p.m. and the second part at 6:15 p.m.: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/families-seek-reduce-fatal-tractor-trailer-acciden/ngtnD and http://bcove.me/vfrhezzh

Petition Photo Bags at DOT, best