Tag Archives: traffic safety

WethePeople, exercise your right to petition your gov’t to protect its citizens from vehicular violence

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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 exercising our right to petition the White House, via their petition website, to end preventable crash fatalities by appointing a National Traffic Ombudsman to act as advocate for all of us who are vulnerable to vehicular violence.

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

About the White House We the People petition website:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
—The First Amendment, United States Constitution

The right to petition your government is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. We the People is a platform that empowers the American public to take this action like never before – it’s a way for anybody, anywhere, to speak directly to the government and become an agent for change.

With We the People, you can easily create a petition online, share it, and collect signatures. If you gather 100,000 signature in 30 days, we’ll review your petition, make sure it gets in front of the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response.

Petitioning has the potential to enact real change – just check out some of our petition creator’s success stories – but it’s also your fundamental right as an American citizen, and an opportunity to connect with a community of like-minded people who are invested in making a change. Ideally, running a petition on We the People is just the start of something bigger — a long-term, robust form of civic engagement.

Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition

Be inspired to exercise your right as a citizen to petition the government. Listen to these kids sing their hearts out:

 

Out-of-control. Regrettable actions. Broken lives. Irreversible tragedies.

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The recent widespread discussion in social media about the actions of a young man after partying  has triggered my distress at the thought of the regrettable actions by drunk, drugged, distracted, and drowsy drivers every day.

Do we really grasp the way that these things impair us and change our ability to act sensibly, responsibly–the way we might if we were “in our right mind”?

What does it lead to (whether intended or not)? Out-of-control. Regrettable actions. Broken lives. Irreversible tragedies.

Surely there are better ways for us to deal with the stress, pain, fear, frustration, and boredom in our lives.  I mean, what are we doing to ourselves? Has it become socially acceptable to mess up our own lives as well as those around us?

What can I do about it? What can you do about it? Surely we can work together to find ways to end these senseless, preventable tragedies–on and off the road.

 

Ex-astronaut charged with murder in car wreck that killed 2

Impaired Driving

Irreversible & Regrettable

America, are we doing all we can to save our loved ones? Before it’s too late. They never come back.

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, , , ,

Minolta DSCMinolta DSC

AnnaLeah. . . still waters run deep.

Crash Deaths

America, are we doing all we can to save our loved ones? Before it’s too late. Because they never come back.

Minolta DSCMinolta DSC

Mary. . . always a character.

There’s no one someone won’t miss.

Towards Zero Crash Deaths

Send @POTUS a D-Day Message: End 33,000 crash deaths/yr. Make Traffic Safety a National Priority

Safety Advocacy,

I received an email from President Obama this week in response to a message which I sent to him in March on the whitehouse.gov Contact Form–asking him to read the Vision Zero Petition Book 3rd Edition which we had delivered to him. The news is not really that great. This is what he said:  Email from President Obama

He expressed sympathy and thanked me for writing, but he did not say that he would do anything about the problem or the requested solution/action/strategy. Please help me make sure that he knows that the people of this country want him to make Traffic Safety a National Priority.

On D-Day, Monday, June 6, 2016, STARTING at NOON (EST), help me flood the media with this message in reply to President Obama (see the sharing links below):

For more information, see previous post: I got an email from President Obama this week.

 

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President Obama, Do something to help us move more quickly toward zero crash deaths! Make Traffic Safety a National Priority. 

Last night, Pres. Obama referred in the past tense to crash fatalities as a public health problem.

And don’t forget about the crash injuries. In 2013, approximately 2.31 million people were injured in motor vehicle traffic crashes.

Last night, Pres. Obama referred in the past tense to crash fatalities as a public health problem.

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , ,

Apparently, President Obama is okay with the current state of traffic fatalities. Anyway it sounds as if he thinks that we have already done all we can to reduce crash deaths.

At least that is what it sounds like to me from last night’s PBS News Hour video of President Obama speaking at a Town Hall (June 2, 2016):

“We used to have really bad auto fatality rates. The auto fatality rate has actually dropped precipitously, drastically since I was a kid. Why is that? We decided we had seat belt laws. We decided to have manufacturers put air bags in place. We decided to crack down on drunk driving and texting. We decided to redesign roads so that they were less likely to have a car bank.

“We studied what is causing these fatalities using science and data and evidence. And then we slowly treated it like the public health problem it was. And it got reduced.”

See President Obama talking about this, starting at 1:57 on this video:  https://www.facebook.com/newshour/videos/10154247237078675/

Interesting. This is what I noticed about what he said:

  1. He identified auto fatalities as a public health problem.
  2. He referred to it in the past tense.
  3. He did not acknowledge that there is still a long ways to go and that there are still way too many preventable crash deaths occurring every year.
  4. He did not mention that 33,000 people — like AnnaLeah and Mary, real people, whom someone will miss — are still dying every year and that we should make it a national priority to work on them.
  5. He also did not mention that more than 2 million people are seriously injured in crashes each year.
  6. He did not take that opportunity to say let’s set a national vision zero goal and work on this together.

President Obama, are you aware that over 20,000 people have asked you to set a Vision Zero Goal and to sign a Vision Zero Executive Order. We need a Vision Zero Task Force to address specific traffic safety issues and we need Vision Zero Rulemaking policies and we need a Traffic Safety Ombudsman to over see this ongoing public health problem–in ways that are not now being done.

Could we please sit down and talk about this so we can get on the same page?

Marianne

p.s. I, for one, daily face the loss of my two daughters, AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13). And I know for a fact that more could have been done — but wasn’t — to prevent their deaths.

President Obama

I got an email from President Obama this week.

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

I received an email from President Obama this week in response to a message I sent to him in March on the whitehouse.gov Contact Form–asking him to read the Vision Zero Petition Book 3rd Edition which we had delivered to him.  This is what he said:

Dear Marianne,

Thank you for writing. There are no words to ease the pain of losing a loved one, but I hope fond memories help temper the grief you must feel.
 
At this difficult time, please know I will keep fighting for people like you every single day I hold this office. You and your loved ones will be in my thoughts and prayers in the days ahead.
 
Thank you, again, for taking the time to write. I wish you all the best.
 
Sincerely,
Barack Obama

Email from Barack Obama White House.gov

On D-Day, Monday, June 6, 2016, STARTING at NOON (EST), help me flood the media with this message in reply to President Obama (see the sharing links below):

President Obama,

Thank you for your sympathy and kind words. But what I, and over 20,000 Vision Zero Petition signers, want is for you to do what no one else in this country can do: Make Traffic Safety a National Priority!

  1. Set a National Vision Zero Goal to move us toward zero crash deaths.
  2. Establish a White House Vision Zero Task Force.
  3. Sign a Vision Zero Executive Order; and
  4. Appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman to oversee our progress in making our  roads safer.

Looking forward to hearing from you again soon,

Marianne Karth

Please share this Traffic Safety Virtual Flash Mob Game Plan with others before Monday, June 6, D-Day:

  1. Read this post.
  2. Put this Virtual Event on your calendar.
  3. Share this blogpost with others who you think might want to help.
  4. On Monday, June 6, 2016, D-Day starting at noon EST, post this vital message –using every form of social media at your disposal:

 

On 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/

President Obama, we will accept nothing less than a full-fledged, national effort to move toward zero crash deaths & serious injuries. Lead the way!

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Prayer on D-Day, June 6, 1944

Traffic Safety OmbudsmanPresident Obama Adopt Vision Zero

President Obama

In memory of AnnaLeah & Mary, precious ones whose lives were cut far too short:

“Safety Advocates Say Fatal Car Seat Failures Are ‘Public Health Crisis’” #VisionZero

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LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Safety advocates say automakers and regulators have acted with “criminal” negligence in failing to remedy a long-acknowledged auto safety flaw that watchdogs say has played a role in hundreds of deaths, creating a “public health crisis.”

At issue are car seats that malfunction and collapse backward when a car is rear-ended. The impact of the crash and collapsing seat can cripple or kill drivers, as well as passengers in the back seat, in many cases, children. . .

See the entire article and newscast here: Safety Advocates Say Fatal Car Seat Failures Are ‘Public Health Crisis’

In my opinion, a Vision Zero Executive Order, if signed by President Obama, could end the kind of Cost/Benefit Analysis which allows for the excuse that “not enough people die,” from an automotive defect, to justify taking action on deadly automotive defects. See why here:

Sign our Vision Zero Petition here: Save Lives Not Dollars: Urge DOT to Adopt a Vision Zero Policy

 

Life & Death Traffic Safety Problems Deserve Proper Treatment: Not Political Tug-of-War Game!

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , ,

I have said it before and I’ll say it again: Life & death traffic safety problems deserve to be handled appropriately and not like some political tug-of-war game played by industry lobbyists, administrators, and legislators!

I have offered what seems to me to be a reasonable alternative when I petitioned President Obama to resolve our national traffic safety travesty in this way:

  1. Set a National Vision Zero Goal (which would serve to raise national awareness and direct national priorities with the goal in mind of doing everything possible to move our country ever closer to zero crash deaths & serious injuries).
  2. Establish a White House Vision Zero Task Force to address these traffic safety problems in an interdisciplinary, non-political manner.
  3. Sign a Vision Zero Executive Order to pave the way for Vision Zero Rulemaking that could truly make Saving Lives a priority rather than an afterthought.

See more here about this ongoing problem & my recommended solution:

  1. An ongoing battle over trucker hours of service and its impact on truck driver fatigue and inevitably fatal crashes is addressed in two recent articles: Maine Voices: In the long haul, tired truck drivers result in hazardous highways and Trucks Are Getting More Dangerous And Drivers Are Falling Asleep At The Wheel. Thank Congress.
  2. I wrote about the congressional truck safety legislation fiasco here: “Trucks Are Getting More Dangerous And Drivers Are Falling Asleep At The Wheel. Thank Congress.” and, of course, here we have addressed the driver fatigue problem at length on our website: Driver Fatigue on annaleahmary.com
  3. We delivered over 20,000 Vision Zero Petition signatures to Washington, DC, on March 5, 2016, in the form of a book which we distributed to key leaders asking for bottomline change and a major paradigm shift in how all traffic safety problems are addressed: Tell Obama you are standing with us in this: “Family Continues Fight for Trucking Safety”

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Need Nat’l Safety Stds @POTUS: MD Car Safety Disclosure Bill Does Little to Protect & Inform Drivers

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, ,

“MD House Car Safety Disclosure Bill Does Little to Protect and Inform Drivers” Maryland House Car Safety Disclosure Bill

ANNAPOLIS, Md., April 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — The auto safety disclosure bill the MD House passed in March (HB 525) does very little to protect drivers from dangerous defects, leading safety and consumer advocates say, and flies in the face of new safety and defect disclosure rules issued last week by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). Leading consumer groups including Public Citizen, the Center for Auto Safety, and the Consumer Federation of America have joined Consumer Auto in calling on the MD Senate to strengthen the bill to better protect consumers.

“The bill would sharply limit our ability to share with our customers the information about defects the manufacturers share with us in service bulletins, warranty updates, and other communications,” notes Jack Fitzgerald, the president of Fitzgerald Auto Malls who has run a string of car dealerships in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Florida for 50 years. 
“It’s absurd for Maryland law to prevent us from telling our customers about information that Congress and NHTSA say should be public. That’s a terrible disservice to the people who rely on us to sell and service their cars,” Mr. Fitzgerald argues.

My answer: National Traffic Safety Standards and Rules to be adopted by every state. A task of a White House Vision Zero Task Force. What are you waiting for, President Obama?

If we do not pursue this course of action, then who is ethically responsible for all of the deaths which will occur as a result?

Number Line Rulemaking Method

Pres. Obama will get a copy of our Vision Zero Petition Book today. Please email him; ask him to read it.

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, , ,

Please email President Obama today and ask him to read the Vision Zero Petition Book and act upon it. Help us to let him know how important the traffic safety problem is in this country and that he can do something about it.

You can send your message to him online or call the White House at 202-456-1111 (TTY/TTD 202-456-6213)

On Friday, March 4, we left a copy of our Vision Zero Petition Book with policy officials at the Department of Transportation which they promised me they would deliver to President Obama today.

He will be receiving the printed/bound copy of the book today as well as pdfs of the Letter to President Obama from the Karth Family and the Vision Zero Book by Marianne Karth for President Obama.

Thank you.

News report of our petition delivery to Washington

Marianne Karth signing the Vision Zero Petition Book for President Obama, March 4, 2016
Marianne Karth signing the Vision Zero Petition Book for President Obama, March 4, 2016