I just watched a video of a young Canadian woman, Jessica Holman-Price, going on a skydiving adventure — not too long before she lost her life in a 2005 truck underride tragedy.
I was struck by the comment made before she went up (then down) in the air: “You’re going to be able to pull that ripcord and save your life!”
Saved for the moment only later to lose her life . Let’s make sure that this isn’t so for countless others because — just like someone invented a simple mechanism to release a parachute — there are solutions to prevent tragic truck underride.
I am convinced that the recently-launched and much-needed Road to Zero effort will fall short of its goals if it does not include a strategy to attain Vision Zero rulemaking.
That is why I continue to push for an audience to my Vision Zero requests and hope for a champion to make it come about.
What motivates me to keep asking for this near-to-impossible change in the way this problem is addressed? On top of the unbearable grief of losing two children — who did nothing to bring about their deaths — to preventable vehicle violence, I survived the same crash and have learned that it is not an insurmountable problem to prevent underride. And yet it continues to be neglected and underride victims pay the price. I have had the advantage of observing the work of other advocates who have gone before me, as well as the convincing research by IIHS.
I have also observed the many victims and advocates who keep pushing for change — year after deadly year — and wonder why nothing much is different.
Furthermore, I think that it is important that the victims of vehicle violence — past and future — be given a powerful and independent voice through the establishment of a National Office of Traffic Safety Ombudsman. Please read why I think that this is necessary: http://
