Tag Archives: safety advocacy

Blindsided By Unexpected Loss; The many facets of grief

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

I recently returned from a trip to DC where Jerry, Isaac, and I joined with other families who had experienced unexpected loss by way of devastating truck crashes. At the Truck Safety Coalition’s Sorrow to Strength Conference we shared our stories with one another, attended workshops to learn more about truck safety issues and how to advocate for change, as well as participated in meetings on The Hill.

One of the workshops was on the topic of grief and I had made the comment that what we all experienced in our horrific, tragic losses made the grief more complicated because of the anger and frustration we all too often feel when too little is done too late to save (other) lives. It is sometimes hard to move on fully with, as they say, “a new normal” when you witness the seemingly calloused and indifferent attitude toward what should be preventable deaths.

Supposedly its a risk you take when you choose to get on the road, you know. Or, changes would not be “cost effective.”

In any case, I wanted to share an article which I read last year. It helped me process my feelings of grief at the unexpected loss I have felt after discovering in 2010 that many of our family members face challenges we had never anticipated with a progressive hereditary peripheral neuropathy (Charcot Marie Tooth or CMT). What they tell us is that it is not life-threatening, but it is a life-changer.

I had searched online and found this interesting article about the grieving of parents with disabled children, which could be helpful for any grieving person–no matter what their loss, The Impact of Childhood Disability: The Parent’s Struggle, by Ken Moses, Ph.D.:
http://www.pent.ca.gov/beh/dis/parentstruggle_DK.pdf

I just now re-read it and noticed this statement by the author:  After working with parents of the impaired for many years, I have come to believe that I was given bad advice. I have come to believe that pain is the solution, not the problem.

That reminded me of something my 5 year-old granddaughter said earlier this year:

One day, Vanessa asked me (out of the blue), “Does pain fix sadness?”

Me: “Well. . .?”

Vanessa: Runs off to play. . .

I don’t know. Will the pain which I am going through eventually “fix” my sadness? Is the pain a process–or at least a signal or indication that a process of healing is taking place? If I were not feeling the pain, would it be harder to complete that process? Will the pain ever lessen?

I have also known real peace in this season. It also comes and goes–seeming elusive. Comes mostly when I am focused on the promises of God–in word or song–like the song I sang at their funeral, In Christ Alone. I really believed it then and I believe it now. It just seems in stiff competition with the real pain.

Read more in that post, Real Pain, Real Peace: https://annaleahmary.com/2015/03/real-pain-real-peace/

I was glad to see that Jerry and Isaac had an opportunity to tell our story themselves for the preparation of videos which I just discovered are now posted on the Truck Safety Coalition’s website:

 

Other families share their truck crash stories here: http://trucksafety.org/get-involved/personal-stories/ .

Just yesterday, I read a facebook post and comments by some of the TSC family members. They were commenting on how hard it was to get back into things after the conference in DC and how they struggled anew with the grief and sadness. It reminded me of how thankful I was for the comment made several times at the conference that we will not tell each other, “Get over it.” It is such a complicated grief; we will never fully get over it.

But, with hope, we will carry on because we know that someday we will see their face again:

https://annaleahmary.com/2015/05/how-a-truck-crash-changed-the-month-of-may-or-what-happens-when-nobody-takes-responsibility/

JFK: The Passing of the Torch; Spontaneous combustion ignited by a petition signed by UM students

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

This morning, I was reminded of my early beginnings as an advocate for nursing home patients. My first job out of college was as the Chapter Director of a local advocate organization for nursing home patients. The position was as a VISTA Volunteer–a stateside version of the Peace Corps.

I have thought many times how that role prepared me to speak up on behalf of the defenseless–victims who could not speak for themselves. It taught me to be tough and diligent and thorough. It paved the way for me to be an advocate for crash victims.

Then, I read my email and found the latest edition of the University of Michigan digital newsletter, Michigan Today, which I receive as an alumni. One particular article caught my attention: the early beginnings of the Peace Corps which took place in October 1960 at the University of Michigan. I read it with great interest.

http://michigantoday.umich.edu/jfk-at-the-union/

President John F. Kennedy’s University of Michigan Speech

The birth of a movement
Over the next two weeks, events moved fast. [Alan and Judy Guskin] were contacted by Samuel Hayes, the professor who had written the position paper on a youth corps for Kennedy. Together, they called a mass meeting. Some 250 students came out to sign a petition saying they would volunteer. Hundreds more signers followed within days. . .

On Sunday, Nov. 6, two days before the election, Kennedy was expected at the Toledo airport. Three carloads of U-M students, including the Guskins, drove down to show him the petitions. “He took them in his hands and started looking through the names,” Judy Guskin recalled later. “He was very interested.”

Alan asked: “Are you really serious about the Peace Corps?”

“Until Tuesday we’ll worry about this nation,” Kennedy said. “After Tuesday, the world.”

Two days later, Kennedy defeated Nixon by some 120,000 votes, one of the slimmest margins in U.S. history. Some argue the Peace Corps proposal may have swayed enough votes to make the difference.

“It might still be just an idea but for the affirmative response of those Michigan students and faculty,” wrote Sargent Shriver, JFK’s brother-in-law and the Peace Corps’ first director, in his memoir. “Possibly Kennedy would have tried it once more on some other occasion, but without a strong popular response he would have concluded the idea was impractical or premature. That probably would have ended it then and there. Instead, it was almost a case of spontaneous combustion.”

I pray that our Vision Zero Petition and our truck safety advocacy efforts will likewise garner countless signatures and sway the hearts and minds of those who have the authority to make the difference in ways that will mean many saved lives for years to come.

Please sign & share our petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/417/742/234/save-lives-not-dollars-urge-dot-to-adopt-vision-zero-policy/

I was additionally intrigued by the mention of Kennedy’s campaign trip through Michigan because one of my vivid childhood memories was when he came through Grand Rapids when I was 5 on a train and went by at a spot which was a 10-minute walk from my home.

Senator John F. Kennedy’s motorcade rolled into Ann Arbor very early on the morning of Friday, Oct. 14, 1960. The election was three and a half weeks away. The Democratic nominee for president and his staff had just flown into Willow Run Airport. A few hours earlier, in New York, Kennedy had fought Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, in the third of their four nationally televised debates. The race was extremely close, and Michigan was up for grabs. Kennedy’s schedule called for a few hours of sleep, then a one-day whistle-stop train tour across the state.

My family still talks about it because his train was delayed and so we were gone from home longer than expected. My mother had put a batch of bread in the oven and it ended up being overbaked so that it had a very thick & dark crust. In the future, whenever bread got overdone, we called it “Kennedy Bread.”

Petition Photo Bags at DOT, best

“Automatic emergency braking in all new cars, a step transportation officials say could significantly reduce traffic deaths and injuries.”

Truck Safety, , , ,

“Ten automakers have committed to the government [NHTSA] and a private safety group [IIHS] that they will include automatic emergency braking in all new cars, a step transportation officials say could significantly reduce traffic deaths and injuries.”

But I am glad to see that those “watchdogs” plan on pursuing regulations for that technology.  http://tinyurl.com/oc4cqy2

What do safety ratings really mean? http://ht.ly/PlP4h

Michael R. Lemov in his book, Car Safety Wars, describes the impact of the passing of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Highway Safety Act in 1966:

“Detroit had lost its bid to prevent federal regulation of the safety of motor vehicles and highways. The companies promised to ‘live with the bill.’ But the industry continued its efforts to weaken key safety standards under the new act. It had only temporarily lost its political clout. It raised objections to the first standards issued by NHTSA in 1968 and later, to most things the safety agency proposed. Manufacturers sent their chief executives to the White House and to President Nixon. They pressed Secretaries of Transportation. They lobbied administrators of NHTSA. They argued, often successfully, to the House and Senate Appropriations committees for restrictions on the safety agency’s funding. The car safety wars did not end.

The enactment of strong federal motor vehicle and highway safety laws marked the single biggest milestone in the century-long fight for safer cars and roads. But the long struggle against death and injury on the highways was really just beginning.” p. 106

It is important for verbal commitment to safety to be followed up with regulatory provisions to ensure that it, in fact, becomes a reality.

A Twitter Conversation About Improved Auto Safety Compromised by Truck Safety Flaw  https://annaleahmary.com/tag/iihs/

Car Safety Wars book cover

If more people drove stick shift cars, would they be more focused on driving & less distracted?

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Interesting thought: I just read an article which made me think,  If more people drove stick shift cars, would they be more focused on driving & less distracted?

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/aug/18/cars-manual-transmission-stick-shift-automatic?CMP=edit_2221

Making the transmission automatic took a step out of the driving process, and in exchange, drivers lost touch with the reality of what driving is: shoving a 4,000 lb brick through space with consequences. Driving while doing something else isn’t like letting go of your handlebars while riding a bike. It’s like operating a missile without paying attention to where it’s going.

And while advances in car technology have made vehicles safer, those same advances have also made cars bubbles of infotainment with texting, calls and Facebook at hand. In 2013, 424,000 people were injured in “distracted driving accidents”, up from 421,000 people the year before, and 10% of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the accident.

People who “grew up in the automotive industry or have this passion for vehicles – those are the guys that are driving manuals,” says Petrovski. “Everyone else is more in tune with what’s happening on their iPhones. They’re texting and driving. That’s pretty tough to do on a manual.”

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To Auto Industry: Consumers DO Care About Safety; Thanks, Scion, for choosing SAFETY over PROFIT!

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The automotive industry has been saying for years that consumers don’t care about safety. What do they know?!

Read about this decision by one automotive maker to include a “precollision braking system worthy of a pricey German sedan” in one of their new affordable cars.  http://ht.ly/PeGOb

“The prevailing wisdom is that ‘young people don’t care’ about safety, said Murtha. ‘But surprisingly when we researched this stuff, they did glom on to [precollision technology]. They saw value in it.'”

Thank you, Scion, for choosing SAFETY over PROFIT!

Michael Lemov challenges the myth that consumers do not care about safety which has been perpetuated since the beginning of the automotive industry:

Car Safety Wars book cover

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

Help us pick a name for our non-profit in memory of AnnaLeah & Mary

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety,

Rebekah photo of crash

We are excited to let you know that we are hopeful about possible improvements in underride prevention. We are also continuing to be involved in other truck safety issues with the goal of safer roads.

Toward that end, we are in the process of setting up a non-profit organization in memory of AnnaLeah & Mary Karth and, in light of their untimely death due to a truck crash on May 4, 2013, this corporation will seek to carry out the following purposes related to highway safety: charitable, educational, scientific, and testing for public safety.

Now, this is where you come in right now. We need to pick a name for our organization. This is what we have come up with so far:

  • AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up For Truck Safety
  • A &M for Safe Roads
  • AnnaLeah & Mary for Safe Roads
  • Mary & AnnaLeah for Safe Roads
  • Stand Up For Truck Safety.

The first one is probably too long. And I think that I want to keep it connected to them to help us remember that it is about real people and real lives. But I am open to new ideas.

Please let us know what you think. We are eager to get this process underway to help us be more effective in our efforts.

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Tonight my son’s Toyota Camry had unintended acceleration: safe but frazzled

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My son was on his way to Durham tonight– a 1 1/2 hr. drive–for a professional meet-up with other programmers. His wife got a call to come and help him. Before he made it out of town, his accelerator went out of control. Fortunately his brakes functioned well and he was able to stop–in the middle of the street in busy rush hour traffic.

We are thankful it happened before he got on the expressway and that there was no crash involved, no injuries.  But, despite many other 1996 Toyota Camrys which have experienced similar problems, there are apparently no recalls listed prior to 1999 for that model with that problem.

As soon as I heard what had happened, I started searching for his model online:

That reminded me of the book which I recently finished, Car Safety Wars by Michael Lemov:

“Car Safety Wars is a gripping history of the hundred-year struggle to improve the safety of American automobiles and save lives on the highways. Described as the “equivalent of war” by the Supreme Court, the battle involved the automobile industry, unsung and long-forgotten safety heroes, at least six US Presidents, a reluctant Congress, new auto technologies, and, most of all, the mindset of the American public: would they demand and be willing to pay for safer cars? The “Car Safety Wars” were at first won by consumers and safety advocates. The major victory was the enactment in 1966 of a ground breaking federal safety law. The safety act was pushed through Congress over the bitter objections of car manufacturers by a major scandal involving General Motors, its private detectives, Ralph Nader, and a gutty cigar-chomping old politician. The act is a success story for government safety regulation. It has cut highway death and injury rates by over seventy percent in the years since its enactment, saving more than two million lives and billions of taxpayer dollars.

But the car safety wars have never ended. GM has recently been charged with covering up deadly defects resulting in multiple ignition switch shut offs. Toyota has been fined for not reporting fatal unintended acceleration in many models. Honda and other companies have—for years—sold cars incorporating defective air bags. These current events, suggesting a failure of safety regulation, may serve to warn us that safety laws and agencies created with good intentions can be corrupted and strangled over time.

This book suggests ways to avoid this result, but shows that safer cars and highways are a hard road to travel. We are only part of the way home.”

http://www.amazon.com/Car-Safety-Wars-Technology-Politics/dp/161147745X

Having read Michael Lemov’s book, Car Safety Wars, I am not the least bit surprised–just all the more motivated to share what I have learned from this book and to do my part in speaking out for decisions and actions reflective of a safety-minded perspective.

In fact, you have not heard the last from me about this book.

Car Safety Wars book cover

Note: I temporarily made this post private until I could verify with my son what his mechanic told him. Apparently, something (possibly an oil leak or some damage due to a blown tire a month or so ago) caused the sensor for the accelerator to go awry and thus the Sudden Unintended Acceleration that he experienced. The mechanic was able to repair the throttle. (I don’t fully understand this.)

We were thinking that it sounded like it was maybe a different issue than what we have been reading about. But is it? My son was on a city street and not going very fast so that he was able to brake safely (though the accelerator was still trying to keep going). Perhaps if he had been on the expressway and going faster, he might not have been able to stop safely. ?????

My son said that maybe there was a design flaw in that the accelerator flaw was perhaps too easily impacted by oil leaking, etc. Is that a manufacturing defect? I don’t know. What if he had died as a result or killed someone else?

Marianne Karth, June 17, 2015

Update: I continue to see news reports of cases of SUA, e.g., http://www.streetsblog.org/2015/10/01/cab-driver-who-ran-over-kids-on-bronx-sidewalk-blames-car/ What if things had turned out differently with my son? What is the truth of the matter?

October 1, 2015

How Many Recalls Does It Take to Fix a Toyota?

Update (May 19, 2016): This article just posted:

Trucking Minimum Liability Insurance; A facebook conversation with truckers continues

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , , ,

To follow my facebook conversation with some truckers, go here:  https://www.facebook.com/TruckersUnitedUSA/posts/1575533959380841

Feel free to jump in the conversation. I think that I will need to chew on this one for awhile and figure out where to go next with this.

Check out Tilden Curl’s (an independent owner-operator trucker) thoughts on Minimum Liability Insurance and see what you think:  Tilden Curl Paper on Trucker Insurance

46 Mary 10.41 am May 4 2013

Mary selfie at 10:41 a.m., May 4, 2013

Crash was at 1:58 p.m., May 4, 2013

47 Mary's braids 006

Mary’s braids, saved by a nurse

Thanks, Phil & WNCN, for shedding light on truck crashes. It can happen to anyone at anytime.

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , ,

http://www.wncn.com/story/29036149/mother-who-lost-2-daughters-raises-concerns-about-bigger-trucks

Preventable, though-unforeseen, inconceivable, unimaginable, irrevocable. . . all these words describe too many truck crash tragedies year after year–as a result of numerous factors which have been argued over too many times.

WNCN: News, Weather, Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville