I was struggling yesterday with the sense that I am not adequately getting across the need for a Traffic Safety Ombudsman to facilitate a strategy to move our country more quickly toward zero crash deaths and serious injuries. And unless we embrace such a vision, too many lives will be lost when their deaths might have been prevented.
Why am I so convinced that we need a Traffic Safety Ombudsman? Because of the lives which I see shattered every day by preventable crash fatalities. And the 3.5 million traffic fatalities since the first one in 1898.
People like Mary and AnnaLeah. People like two of my facebook friends who lost loved ones (or have family members with life-altering injuries) due to truck crashes and were struggling yesterday with their frustration and anger and ongoing grief.
See the posts by these two families who shared their heartbreak, frustration, & anger about the devastation caused in their lives by preventable crashes:
How many broken hearts does that represent? How many more are yet to come?
And what do we get from those who could do something to stem the tide of Death by Motor Vehicle? Resistance. Opposition. And too often it leads to Compromise–settling for solutions that are ineffective and too often delayed. Basically, saving people from preventable crash deaths is not a national priority. And someday, it might impact you.
Take for example truck underride protection/prevention. The trucking industry has long resisted doing anything voluntarily above and beyond any shabby, inadequate regulations which might be imposed upon them. In fact, their opposition is quite probably the reason those regulations are so weak.
And they continue to resist an all-out, comprehensive technologically-possible solution to prevent DEATH BY UNDERRIDE. What is their biggest reason? Cost, of course. When the importance of crash testing a manufacturer’s underride guard with an actual crash test to prove its effectiveness is brought up, a concern is raised about whether small manufacturing companies can afford to do that kind of testing.
Well, I certainly know that crash testing is expensive and we have not been able to raise enough money through our non-profit, AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety, to support underride research crash testing. And in our efforts to find money for such an endeavor, I don’t see it as being made much of a priority. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate how we have seen some of the trailer manufacturers step up to the plate after receiving our letters asking for voluntary improvement. But is it really enough?
As far as I am concerned, if crash testing is what it takes to ensure that their product is safe enough to protect my family and they can’t afford it, well then, I’m sorry, but I would prefer that they shut down than endanger the people whom I love (and countless others as well)!
Now, I am not convinced that a solution couldn’t be worked out to help those smaller companies get their crash testing done. In fact, it was mentioned at our follow-up underride meeting on June 24 that larger companies could perhaps do some testing for smaller companies. Well, will they? Is there enough of a cooperative spirit to prove to me that Safety is not just a buzz word–that there is some actual concern about saving lives whatever it takes?
I’d like to put a challenge to the trucking industry which Senator Bobby Kennedy put to the automotive industry back in July 1965 — 50 years ago. I read about it in Michael Lemov’s informative book, Car Safety Wars. [By the way, I just have to say how cool it is to be able to Google the quote which I am looking for and be able to include it as a link to take you right to that quote in that very book. So, go look at it! And here is a link to a report on the hearing itself!]
Kennedy: What was the profit of General Motors last year? Roche [President of GM]: I don’t think that has anything to do. . . Kennedy: I would like to have that answer if I may. Donner [Chairman of GM]: The one aspect we are talking about is safety. Kennedy: What was the profit of General Motors last year? Donner: I’ll have to ask one of my associates. Kennedy: Could you please? Roche: (Pause)–$1,700,000,000 ($1.7 billion). Kennedy: What. . .? Donner: About a billion and a half. Kennedy: About a billion and a half? Donner: Yes. Kennedy: And you spent about one million dollars on this [safety research]? Donner: In this particular facet we are talking about. . . Kennedy: If you gave just one percent of your profits [to safety research] that is $170 million.
This rare challenge to the car manufacturers was reported by the press. General Motors promptly released a “corrected” statement saying that it had actually spent $193 million on “safety programs.” The figure was immediately challenged, since it appeared to include many activities that were unrelated to automobile safety. But, even if true, the figure was a small percentage of GM’s $1.7 billion annual net profit. Car Safety Wars, Michael Lemov, Google Books
So my question is to the trailer manufacturing industry specifically (and the trucking industry in general): What was your profit last year?
Second question: How much did you spend on safety research? And, more specifically, how much did you spend on underride research?
I’d really like to know the answers — not just for 2015 but for many years before as well. Because I’m not willing to compromise. There are too many shattered families, broken hearts, and lives ended far too soon.
Why on earth am I asking for another government-funded worker — a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman? And whatever would that person do anyway?
It would be a lot easier for you to understand if you were in my shoes. But I don’t want you to be in my shoes — continuing to grapple with the grief of losing a loved one in a preventable traffic crash. So I will try to describe, as briefly and clearly as I can, what I have in mind with this Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition.
Basically, in the aftermath of losing two daughters, AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13), due to a truck underride crash on May 4, 2013, we have discovered that millions have died in traffic crashes since the first one in 1898, that there are many reasons for that, and that trying to do something about those reasons is very difficult, time-consuming, and resisted. Meanwhile, while solutions are being delayed, people continue to die — often needlessly, because something could have been done to prevent their death, but was not.
There is often a political tug-of-war over these issues. An Office of National Traffic Safety Ombudsman (TSO) would be established to function outside of the political realm — untainted by the pressures of powerful lobbyists. Instead, the TSO would work with the existing government agencies, industry representatives, researchers, and safety advocates — listening to traffic safety concerns and speaking forth on behalf of matters of importance to traffic safety.
Currently, Traffic Safety is not even listed on whitehouse.gov as an Issue. This has got to change. It needs to become a national priority and we need an Advocate to listen to traffic safety concerns which are raised (in fact, actively seeking to make sure that they come to the surface) and then identify solutions and inform those who can do something about them.
Now I can do many things as an individual to raise national awareness about traffic safety issues. But my ability to motivate and facilitate change is way too limited. I don’t truly have the ear of leaders essential to the process. In fact, although my family and I have taken two petitions to Washington — with the agreement of thousands of people, they can too easily brush me away like a pesky fly. We need someone with the authority to demand an audience with the powers that be.
I have not heard one word from Washington, D.C., about our 20,000 Vision Zero Petition signatures. That’s a problem. Either they think they are already doing what that Petition requests (with which I would disagree) OR they don’t think that it is important enough to do anything about. That is something which we should all rise up about.
In fact, how I envision it is that the Traffic Safety Ombudsman would be the person to implement the requests of the Vision Zero Petition. Small businesses have a National Ombudsman. Why not do the same for the victims of tragic, preventable traffic crashes?
Makes sense to me. Because, really, who would be given the responsibility and authority to oversee these things otherwise?!
When I was reading my Bible this morning, I read a verse about Jesus ascending to sit at the right hand of the Father. What is He doing there? Advocating on our behalf, interceding for us, speaking to His Father and ours about our needs. Hmmmm, kind of like I would expect a Traffic Safety Ombudsman would do — only not in heavenly places (or not only) but getting the ear of those who can move heaven & earth to make our roads safer!
I don’t think that you need to worry about this costing the taxpayers a lot of money or creating an enormous new agency. Look at what our family has already done voluntarily and with the help of other concerned parties with our petitions and the Underride Roundtable, which we helped to organize, and the Tired Trucker Roundtable, which I have proposed. We have pulled together in communication and actual sit-down-together meetings diverse groups, such as government regulators, law enforcement, trucking industry, safety advocates, researchers, media, and victims. Organizations like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the Truck Safety Coalition (with their non-governmental funds), along with citizen contributions, have helped to finance such events — without emptying the pockets of taxpayers.
The Traffic Safety Ombudsman would not be replacing the safety functions of the government or watchdog efforts of safety advocacy organizations. Rather, the TSO would be working with them and getting them to work together — with the goal of SAVING LIVES as their primary and, in fact, sole responsibility. And there would still be the need to raise national awareness and involve citizens in advocacy efforts through social media and my recommended national network of Vision Zero/Traffic Safety Community Action Groups.
With a relatively-small budget for travel, office rental, equipment & supplies, and salary & benefits, even a one-person Office of National Traffic Safety Ombudsman — with endless possibilities for internships — could accomplish a lot. A lot more than I would be able to do here in my home in Rocky Mount, North Carolina — a retired home school mom, truck crash survivor, and broken-hearted mother.
Note: And I am not the only one who thinks so! Among others. . .
Bill Bronrott, Media, government & public affairs for healthy, safe & sustainable communities. Past US DOT Appointee, Maryland State Legislator, Congressional Press Secretary, sent out a Tweet last night about the petition:
Roger Lanctot, Associate Director in the Global Automotive Practice at Strategy Analytics, Driverless Policy Making, “I was reading an impassioned letter to the President by Marianne Karth on the issue this morning – impassioned because Karth lost two daughters to a motor vehicle accident involving a truck lacking under-ride protection. . .Karth binds her thoughts into a five-point appeal: ‘Would you (President Obama), in fact, make Traffic Safety a national priority–placing it on the list of important issues listed on whitehouse.gov and then do something about it, e.g., Appoint a Traffic Safety Ombudsman who would oversee all of this and be an Advocate for vulnerable road users (which includes us all) —untainted by political pressures?'”
Neil Arason, Author of ‘No Accident’, and believer in vision zero and the need to re-think everything about our roads, told me this after signing the petition, “I have signed the petition, and have just Tweeted about it. Having a traffic safety ombudsman is such a great idea!“
Last night I found a very lengthy email from a stranger who was writing to me and to an editor at treehugger.com. He was reaching out to me–asking me to take on a traffic safety issue after I finished with underride guards.
He wanted me to raise awareness of Left Foot Braking which went out of vogue when automatic transmissions were introduced into our cars. I grew up driving a stickshift and have recently observed that perhaps people pay less attention to their driving because they don’t have to be more engaged with shifting. But I had never heard of this idea that Right Foot Braking has led to thousands of deaths.
Now I am not even going to begin to go into the details of this issue. But I want to point out what I quickly realized after clicking on a link in his email. This man had found my name and learned about my safety advocacy efforts from an article just published on treehugger.com. He was appealing to me to help him get the traffic safety issued, which he is most concerned about, resolved.
This man, Trevor Frith, was acting like I am a traffic safety advocate who could help address this problem which he truly believes is unnecessarily causing traffic fatalities. He thinks that I could help to do something to change things so that these kinds of deaths are prevented in the future. He was hoping that I would act like a Traffic Safety Ombudsman!
Well that just goes to show you: A U. S. Traffic Safety Ombudsman is definitely needed!
I mean, I can do a lot, as a “retired” home school mom — sitting here at my computer in North Carolina and shouting out my frustration over the travesty of traffic “safety” here in our country. The availability of information on the internet and the social media tools have greatly enhanced the abilities of an individual to make an impact since the days when I was a nursing home patient advocate in 1977.
But to really make headway in this crusade for safer roads, we need a recognized position of Traffic Safety Ombudsman, who has the ear of those in authority who can do something about these issues. And I don’t mean that this has to be someone who would apply political pressure but who would have good connections to communicate the needs and facilitate timely resolutions and raise national awareness and support and change.
And he/she would need the resources of any person working a full-time job of national life & death importance–not the volunteer 60 year-old mom of nine (two of them in heaven) and grandma of three working out of her bedroom “office” and pouring her heart into the battle.
So, thank you, Lloyd Alter, for publishing your article about our Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition. I hope that it gets noticed by many people in this country and helps to get the attention of the White House and President Obama.
And thank you, Trevor W. Frith, B.S.M.E., for illustrating so aptly why a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman is needed. People’s lives are depending on it. And they don’t even realize it.
Footnote to the Braking Issue: I just got a reply from a person whom I follow on Twitter. He posts a lot about different driving techniques and safety tips. So I asked him what he knew about Left/Right Foot Braking. This is what he said:
So, you see, after less than 24 hours of learning about this issue, I am not going to claim to be an expert. But it confirms my conclusion that someone — like a Traffic Safety Ombudsman — is needed to sort out and address traffic safety issues–to get to the bottom of it and find out the truth of the matter in every case. To raise awareness and help us do what is best for travelers on our roads.
Less than a week ago, I woke up thinking, “I need to start a petition on the White House website asking President Obama to appoint a Traffic Safety Ombudsman.” The idea of such a position/role had come to me a month earlier, but nobody was responding to my request to appoint one.
Now it seemed like I needed to take action. Since the petition site indicated that if we got 100,000 signatures in 30 days, then they would respond to it, it seemed like good timing to start July 1–with July 31 as the target date.
The first step was getting the ball rolling and it has been torturous watching the number of signatures slowly creep up. Once it reaches 150, then the petition will become searchable on their website. Meanwhile. . .
Maybe we’ll get a boost from an article published today on treehugger.com by managing editor, Lloyd Alter. I had commented on his article last weekend on the Tesla crash and Tweeted a message to him.
Today he published an article about our crash story, our advocacy efforts, and our Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition and Vision Zero goals. Perhaps this will give us a good jumpstart on the way to our 100,000 goal–and ultimately our goal of SAVING LIVES.
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.
About the White House We the Peoplepetition 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.
Be inspired to exercise your right as a citizen to petition the government. Listen to these kids sing their hearts out:
So, I have launched this petition on the White House website with the hope that we can get 100,000 people to sign in support of asking President Obama to appoint a Traffic Safety Ombudsman to speak on our behalf on a daily, ongoing basis so that we will be safer as we travel on the roads of our country.
But even the title, “Traffic Safety Ombudsman,” is a foreign concept. Ombuds is a Scandinavian word meaning representative or proxy, someone authorized to act for someone else. If you google the term (try it), you mostly get my posts about the topic. So why am I asking the President to appoint one?
Well, first of all, my first job out of college was as the director of a non-profit patient advocacy organization for nursing home patients–Citizens for Better Care. I learned all about the need and importance of advocating for the needs of vulnerable people who cannot necessarily speak for themselves. I, also, became acquainted with the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman (at the time, Doug Roberts). I learned a lot about being an advocate from Doug.
Secondly, and more recently and significantly, after my two youngest daughters, AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13), were killed due a truck underride crash on May 4, 2013, I became fully aware of the many, many factors which lead to crash fatalities (and serious life-altering injuries) and, furthermore, that many of those tragedies could have been prevented.
That experience has unexpectedly catapulted me into a new volunteer role of safety advocate for road users (all of us). It has also made me gung-ho about being passionate to get to the bottom of things and not wait around for somebody else to do something about it. It has also made me want to make others aware of the problems and stir them up to be a part of the solutions.
Which brings us to the Petition to Appoint a Traffic Safety Ombudsman to act on our behalf and who is not compromised by competing interests. Safety will be the person’s driving force and purpose. Without a position like this, SAFETY will continue to lose the battle to PROFIT.
And in order to force the White House to respond to our request to establish an Office of National Traffic Safety Ombudsman, we need to get at least 100,000 people on board with the vision. When that happens, the White House has promised to respond. Once we get 150 signatures, the petition will be searchable on the White House website.
So I have provided some tools here for you to use to raise awareness and light a fire under perfectly capable citizens who can help us accomplish this!
Be a part of the solution. WHAT CAN YOU TO DO TO HELP?
Share MEMES to get the message across in an emotion-packed visual way:
Share all of these things multiple times and in multiple ways to inform, inspire, and motivate those who might be hearing of some of these things for the first time. I have been using them to thank people for their support and to encourage/equip them to be a part of the solution.
Share videos to get the message across in another way:
We are asking for 100,000 Americans to sign our new petition on WhiteHouse petition site. Once we get 150 signatures, it will become searchable on their website.
If we are able to get 100,000 signatures in 30 days — by July 31, then the White House has promised that they will respond to our new petition, which calls on President Obama to appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman, who will be an Advocate for Safer Roads.
PLEASE NOTE: If you sign the petition, be sure to go to your email. We the People will send you an email which you have to reply to in order to confirm your signature is valid.
What the Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition says:
Every average day in the U.S., 100 of our loved ones die in crashes and 400 more suffer serious crash injuries–along with $2 Billion in crash losses.
We propose that the President establish an independent Office of National Traffic Safety Ombudsman to be an advocate to eliminate preventable crash deaths and serious injuries.
We need someone who has a mandate to advocate on behalf of the victims, someone who is not compromised by competing interests. We call on the President to take this action to protect our families and loved ones from one of the leading causes of preventable death.
Traffic Safety has not been a national priority. Without this Presidential action, too many lives will continue to be lost to vehicle violence.
Please SIGN the Petition: https://wh.gov/i6kUj. Then, SHARE this post. We have to get 100,000 in 30 days! July 31 is the target date.
Read more about how a Traffic Safety Ombudsman could help us move more quickly toward ending tragic and preventable crash fatalities and life-altering crash injuries:
So what does a person do with the anger and frustration which inevitably surface in the aftermath of a truck/car crash fatality (or case of serious life-altering injuries)?
That’s what I would like to know because I have experienced it and have observed others — in similar situations — dealing with it as well. And it is not your normal grief (if anything can be called that). Because, in addition to the loss one has experienced, one also often discovers that perhaps the loss was unnecessary — but nothing (or too little or too late) was done to prevent it. Imagine your reaction to that situation.
Then too often one might discover that, not only was nothing done in the past that could have prevented one’s loss, but, on top of that, there continues to be nothing tangible done to prevent future crash fatalities and serious injuries. What then? How would you deal with the feelings upon that realization?!
Indeed, despite decades of safety advocacy efforts to draw attention to the problem of traffic crash fatalities, too little too late is being done to move us toward zero crash deaths and serious injuries.
When I saw a Tweet the other day quoting Senator Chris Murphy as saying that survivors of the Orlando mass shooting experienced a “second layer of grief” “when they realize that those who expressed sympathy won’t take action,” I could relate to it.
And besides which, it turns into not just a matter of struggling with trying to forgive but an intense conviction that there is a good chance that wrongdoing was involved. Wrongdoing for which there is apparently no genuine accountability or liability. Because if there were, then wouldn’t we see change?
Just yesterday, I read a facebook post by a man who had lost his wife in a truck crash and whose son became permanently disabled from that same crash. Most days, the dad is upbeat and handling the hardship of his new life with grace. But at that moment, it seemed like he was experiencing the straw that broke the camel’s back. He confessed that, at that moment, he was feeling anger towards and hatred for the truck driver responsible for the crash.
The truth is that, probably in most truck crashes (and other traffic-related crashes), there usually are multiple factors which have led to the initial collision as well as the final outcome. And the sad fact is that, too often, the tragedy could have been avoided.
Are we doing enough, as a nation, to work on solutions to those things which could be prevented? I don’t think so and I have been calling for our leaders to adopt a National Vision Zero Goal, to set up a National Vision Zero Task Force, to adopt Vision Zero rulemaking policies, and to appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman.
The opposition to the requirement and manufacture of the safest possible underride protection on trucks is an example of something which could have been taken care of a long time ago but instead is a problem for which there has not been a truly effective solution–in fact it seems to have been deliberately opposed or at least not made a priority to get to the bottom of and resolve.
A few days ago, I went on a walk in the woods and shared my thoughts spontaneously on this matter:
Do these situations make it harder to arrive at the forgiveness discussed by one writer? Forgiveness is one thing. But when there is no tangible change, and my button is repeatedly pushed, then, of course, frustration and therefore anger wells up over and over again. And that certainly is not healthy–not for the victim’s family and not for those whose actions contributed to the deaths.
Now I am struggling with this question for myself: Can my anger at the injustice of criminal negligence (as well as the continued inadequate resolution of countless Traffic Safety Issues) ever be fully resolved if the negligence is not acknowledged, punished, or made right?
How am I supposed to stop being angry as long the problems which caused the deaths of AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13) — and shattered our family — continue on?
I have a friend whose family was shattered by a car/train crash many years ago. After the crash, the municipality took care of the dangerous crossing. Just today, another family was shattered in another state by a car/train crash at a crossing where there have been 6 “accidents” in the last 30 years. They have talked about making this crossing safer for $230,000. But they have not yet done so.
A National Vision Zero Goal facilitated by a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman just might hasten America along and save countless lives — which will be inevitably lost if we refuse to take a united, intentional, aggressive, not-willing-to-dawdle approach to reducing preventable crash deaths!
