Tag Archives: road safety

NHTSA Defends Itself to Congress – Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , , ,

Last week, I was surprised to learn that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration {NHTSA) had published a self-analysis of their progress — dated June 2024. NHTSA responded with an 8-page explanation to Congress after a federal advisory committee condemned the safety agency for 55 years of inaction on underride crash protection in a scathing 410-page report published last month.

The committee, called the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP), was created by Congress in 2021, and established by a NHTSA charter in 2022, to assess NHTSA’s progress at advancing public safety and make recommendations to the Secretary of Transportation. The ACUP’s report documented a long history of agency reluctance to regulate the trucking industry’s safety practices, exposed allegations of misconduct by senior officials, and called for the reversal of recent rulemaking that the committee believed made “no substantial progress” to improving public safety. The report concluded, “[V]ery little has changed regarding side underride guard advancements in the last 50 years and no substantial progress has been made by DOT to prevent these horrific crash fatalities and injuries.”

All I can say is that NHTSA’s apologia to Congress is woefully inadequate. In a nutshell, “Woulda, coulda, shoulda.”* It further documents that the agency continues its disturbingly long history of inaction. Safety delayed is most certainly safety denied.

The ACUP report can be found here. NHTSA’s report can be found here.

* Put another way, “Spare me the useless & endless excuses!”

Press Release

Public Health Supplement: Global Road Safety; Monitoring Risks and Evaluating Programs

Safety Advocacy, ,

A source of articles related to road safety and public health issues: Supplement: Global Road Safety: Monitoring Risks and Evaluating Programs, Public Health, March 2017
Volume 144, Supplement, S1-S70, Edited by David Bishai, Adnan A. Hyder

Neil Arason, a Canadian road safety expert, shares his thoughts on a Nat’l Traffic Safety Ombudsman

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, ,

I asked Neil Arason, a Canadian road safety expert, about his thoughts on the idea of a Traffic Safety Ombudsman. This is what he shared with me. . .

Hi, Marianne,

I think what you do right now is very close to that of an ombudsman.  I can’t tell you how critical it is to have safety advocates. Most changes happen because of them.

If I think of good examples of road safety advocacy, they include people like you, and also Clarence Ditlow.  Government needs to know people are watching them, and advocates do a good job of getting issues out into the mainstream media and that is extraordinarily powerful and important.

An office of the ombudsman would be similar to an advocacy centre except typically it is an arm of government, albeit one that has some independence.  We need to have safety advocates who are completely independent and powerful, and then on top of that as many other tools and structures for change.

I think that a traffic safety ombudsman would be one more thing that would help the overall cause. Because it is essentially an arm of government, however, it will likely be much more difficult to set up, whereas Ralph Nader just went ahead and set up the Center for Automotive Safety (directed by Clarence Ditlow), and that was that. (Although Nader had some startup capital from events that began in the late 1960s.)

Nonetheless, anyone can get into the business of advocacy and set up a centre or whatever they end up calling it.  Advocacy groups work toward wholesale change in the very way that road safety is treated, the priority given to it, etc.

The ombudsman type offices, I am aware of, exist so that folks can take complaints to them, and then the Ombudsman (and its paid staff) investigate those complaints with a view to resolving them. The ombudsman works to ensure “fairness” really in decision-making. I’m not aware of any examples of how an ombudsman would work in traffic safety because I am not aware of such a function today.

When people have complaints about some road safety failure, they largely take them to lawyers it seems. I am aware of examples of the role of the ombudsman in other government sectors like income assistance, where a citizen makes a complaint and goes to the ombudsman. This works well because the government agency really stands up and notices when they get a call from the office of the ombudsman, and they really make an effort to resolve the issue.

A traffic safety ombudsman could investigate complaints with a view to making large policy changes.  I would imagine that many victims’ families have no idea at first how to navigate the system. Access to an ombudsman could not just help to investigate their complaint for them, but could give them all manner of advice about where to go and what to do, e.g., use a lawyer, go to media, lobby directly, point them to various agencies for help, etc., etc.

Imagine if the ombudsman had people like you who could share with them what they know about how to get things done. The ombudsman could, I suppose, be a bit of an “information broker” in addition to its role as complaint investigator.  Such an office might help people to direct their energies in ways that will do the most amount of good.

I’m no expert on any of this, that is for sure, Marianne.  The only thing I know, from my own experience, is that almost all changes come from outside government and from advocates, lobbyists and the media.  These are the powers that governments all around the world seem to respond to. To follow then, we need as many mechanisms as possible to support more lobbyists, advocates, and media to focus on road safety.  An ombudsman would help enormously with that.

I hope some of this helps in some way.

Neil

Thank you

SIGN  & SHARE the TRAFFIC SAFETY OMBUDSMAN Petition:  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/384/321/600/end-preventable-crash-fatalities-appoint-a-national-traffic-safety-ombudsman/

What are we waiting for

Court case could spell end to corporate cover-up of deadly defects secrets.

Safety Advocacy, ,

“Corporations can no longer hope to prevent public access to court records simply by settling a case before a court gets a chance to make a final determination.” – See more at: http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/ninth-circuit-hands-safety-advocates-victory-over-chrysler/#sthash.QFwAJeKU.dpuf

That’s good news because corporations need to be held accountable for what they produce. If they aren’t held liable for safety defects in their products, then what reason do they have for being vigilant themselves to make sure that their actions are not resulting in death or serious injuries?

I have written more on this topic here: https://annaleahmary.com/tag/trailer-manufacturers/.

Car Safety Wars book cover

(Photo is cover of enlightening safety advocacy historical chronicle. . .                               written by Michael R. Lemov)

Does saving a few seconds or couple of minutes really worth doing? Is it worth the risk of possible collision & personal injury?

Uncategorized,

“So, does saving a few seconds or a couple of minutes really worth doing? Is it worth the risk of possible collision and personal injury? Are you really saving time? Give me a couple of seconds to think about it.”

https://safedriving.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/give-me-a-couple-of-seconds/

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WarsawINFilmPhotographer_MIMemoria_Film_082

Actions here & there throughout the U.S. chipping away at causes of traffic deaths

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety,

As far as I’m concerned,  decisions and actions to reduce crash fatalities are too often too little too late. So, while I’m thankful for the good things that are happening, as a mom of 2 girls who died too young, I think that there are too many delays and not enough priority assigned to Vision Zero activities.

Maybe if everyone working on these things had lost someone close to them (oh, I hope not), then they would be as tenacious and impatient as me.

And after reading some safety news today, I was thinking that perhaps things would also move faster if there were more opportunities for organizations throughout the country (and internationally) to share ideas so that no one would have to re-invent the wheel.

Wouldn’t that help things move along faster?

Some things I read today:

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“Just sayin’,” Mary might have said.

Sign our Vision Zero Petition: https://www.change.org/p/obama-adopt-a-vision-zero-goal-and-sign-an-executive-order-to-save-lives-not-dollars

Toward Zero Crash Deaths “…if there’s just one life we can save—we’ve got an obligation to try.” @BarackObama

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, ,

Across the nation, there are numerous individuals and organizations calling and working for Vision Zero goals and actions. What is the point? There are tens of thousands of people dying unnatural and preventable deaths each year due to crashes on our roads.

We are working tirelessly to call for President Obama and DOT Secretary Foxx to set a National Vision Zero goal and to change the traffic safety rulemaking  policies so that every life possible will be saved.

At present, we have two Vision Zero petitions which we will be delivering to Washington, DC, as soon as we can arrange for it:

  1. One directed specifically to President Obama asking him to set a National Vision Zero Goal and to sign a Vision Zero Executive Order, which will–among other things–give DOT the authority to make rules which will save more lives.   https://www.change.org/p/obama-adopt-a-vision-zero-goal-and-sign-an-executive-order-to-save-lives-not-dollars
  2. One directed to Secretary Foxx  (and OIRA/OMB) asking him to change rulemaking policy to move away from a cost/benefit model and adopt a more humanistic, rational Vision Zero safety strategy model which will impact all DOT safety regulations (with immediate impact on truck underride rulemaking).  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/417/742/234/save-lives-not-dollars-urge-dot-to-adopt-vision-zero-policy/

Please sign both of the above petitions now and spread the word that together we can save lives!

Petition screenshot 001

 

Truck Underride Kills: https://www.fortrucksafety.com/

Examining Ways to Improve Vehicle and Roadway Safety

Truck Safety, , , , , ,

Examining Ways to Improve Vehicle and Roadway Safety – See more at: http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/examining-ways-improve-vehicle-and-roadway-safety#sthash.F4YzqjVb.dpuf

Joan Claybrook, Consumer Co-chair of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) and former Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), spoke today to the COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE, SUBCOMITTEE ON COMMERCE, MANUFACTURING AND TRADE:

“It is essential that NHTSA, the agency charged with ensuring the safety of our vehicles and our drivers, be equipped with both the appropriate resources and personnel to confront the myriad of emerging issues presented by new technologies. It is almost incomprehensible that the entire vehicle safety program for the U.S. has a miniscule budget of only $130 million, and it has barely increased over the last six years. It is both unfortunate and unnecessary that this agency is chronically underfunded by Congress even while its critical importance to public health and safety continues to expand. Congress has a moral obligation in the safety title of the six year reauthorization bill to give NHTSA the ability to do its job and to do it effectively. Our lives and those of our families as well as yours literally depend on it.”

 

Victims testify:

Car Safety Wars book cover

Vision Zero: Zero Crash Deaths & Zero Serious Injuries

Truck Safety, , , ,

Let’s work together to implement every possible safety measure to prevent collisions and “second collisions.”

https://annaleahmary.com/2015/07/the-second-collision-does-not-have-to-be-so-prevalent-we-can-do-better-at-preventing-death-horrific-injuries/

Vision Zero*: Aim high for Zero Crash Deaths & Zero Serious Injuries

* “Vision Zero is a multi-national road traffic safety project which aims to achieve a highway system with no fatalities or serious injuries in road traffic. It started in Sweden and was approved by their parliament in October 1997.[1] A core principle of the vision is that ‘Life and health can never be exchanged for other benefits within the society’ rather than the more conventional comparison between costs and benefits, where a monetary value is placed on life and health, and then that value is used to decide how much money to spend on a road network towards the benefit of decreasing how much risk.”

Sign our petition to promote a U.S. Transportation Vision Zero Policy:   http://www.thepetitionsite.com/417/742/234/save-lives-not-dollars-urge-dot-to-adopt-vision-zero-policy/

Then, help us apply Vision Zero principles to underride protection.

Donate now to support underride research:  https://www.fortrucksafety.com/

Underride Research Meme

HOW YOU CAN HELP: https://annaleahmary.com/how-you-can-help/

It’s No Accident; the real story behind senseless death & injury on our roads by Lisa Lewis

Uncategorized, ,

Just saw this book by Lisa Lewis (1995), It’s No Accident: the real story behind senseless death and injury on our roads. I’ll have to check that out.

Always keep in mind that there are numerous reasons for crashes, crash fatalities and injuries. I am thankful for the many people who are addressing these problems from every which way.

https://annaleahmary.com/2014/07/our-crash-was-not-an-accident/

Brief description of the book: ” The author reveals that many dangerous behaviors are now promoted by businesses, and that drivers who kill often walk away with just a small fine. This expose is a must-read for anyone concerned about what’s happening on our roads and how to stop it.” http://tinyurl.com/pfcm9ca

Get it here:

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