Tag Archives: Vision Zero

Back Seat Deaths @POTUS The causes of preventable crash deaths are endless:Adopt #VisionZero Now!

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

Did you know that 898 children have been killed in rear-end collisions in the past 15 years, all of them sitting in the back seat. Front seat hidden danger kills children in cars

And I discovered, when we participated in an underride crash test on March 13, that the contents of car trunks can push the rear seat forward. . .

Crash test 089

The causes of preventable crash deaths are endless. A National Vision Zero Goal, White House Vision Zero Task Force, and Vision Zero Executive Order have the potential to more effectively address these issues. What are we waiting for?

Do it, President Obama, for We the People of this United States of America! #VisionZero

Vision Zero Goal

Truck Underride Roundtable is one week away! May it be sehr gut!

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

On June 25, 2014, after a tour of the research & design center of a truck trailer manufacturer in Georgia, I wrote down these perplexing thoughts about the too-long unresolved underride problem:

Now, it is understandable, amid the multitude of demands and the tyranny of the urgent, that—without a ready solution, in fact, one which would require time and money to develop—this problem has not been given much attention. But, if those who bear responsibility for making sure that this problem gets solved (one way or another) had lost two of their beloved children—or any other loved one—I can guarantee you that they would have moved heaven and earth to find a way to prevent underride.

What makes it even more distressing is that there are many individuals and organizations, who truly seem concerned about safety, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), and the trailer manufacturers. Yet, from what I can see, very little communication has taken place to move this problem forward from point A (guards that fail and result in death and/or horrific injuries) to Point B (coming up with a better design that will provide the best protection possible). Underride Guards: Can we “sit down at the table together” and work this out?

From where I stood, there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel for this life-ending/changing problem. I had lots of ideas about what needed to be done but no sense that any thing was going to get done about it any time in the near future.

So, in trying to process what we learned at the meeting, I kept thinking over and over: Could an independent work group of qualified individuals, such as an engineering school, take on the challenge of creating such a design—which could then be tested by IHHS, proposed to NHTSA to aid in defining improved rear impact guard specifications, and provided to all trailer manufacturers? Could we do some kind of crowd funding or grant proposal to obtain the necessary funds to support such an endeavor? Could we perhaps even approach the Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association (TTMA) and ask them to seek contributions from their members for such a project?

Is cost truly not a factor? Is safety really a priority and not a competitive matter? Is it possible to improve the communication necessary to prevent more unnecessary deaths? Can we “sit down at the table together” and work this out?

I am so happy to be able to say that at the Underride Roundtable, one week from now on May 5, 2016, over 65 representatives from the trucking industry, government, safety advocates, engineers, crash reconstructionists, attorneys, and media will be on hand at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Vehicle Research Center to”sit down at the table together” and discuss and demonstrate truck underride crashes.

This group will include representatives from:

  • Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association
  • American Trucking Associations
  • Seven Hills Engineering
  • Airflow Deflector
  • Accident Research Specialists
  • Sapa Extrusions
  • Truck Safety Coalition
  • AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety
  • Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
  • Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
  • Virginia Tech
  • East Carolina University
  • National Transportation Safety Board, Office of Highway Safety
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
  • J. Hunt Transport
  • Batzer Engineering
  • Injury and Crash Analysis
  • Vanguard Trailer
  • Smart Cap Technologies
  • UNC Highway Safety Research Center
  • Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
  • Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center
  • Interstate Distributor
  • NYC Citywide Adminstrative Services
  • Nurenberg Paris Law Firm
  • Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance
  • Sanders & Parks Law Firm
  • The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • North Carolina Department of Transportation
  • Cargo Transporters
  • Stoughton Trailers
  • Great Dane Trailers
  • North Carolina State Highway Patrol
  • City of Boston, Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics
  • Interstate Distributors
  • Media representatives
  • Underride victims and families
  • and joined by an unknown number of individuals globally as the event will be livestreaming at this webcast link.

It is unfortunate that, over the decades in which no adequate solution to this tragic problem has come about, there has been much miscommunication, misunderstanding, misinformation, and mistakes made. I, for one, am ready to encourage things to move forward with positive momentum–aiming for the best possible underride protection.

In my morning reading, I was reflecting on some verses in Mark 11, which reminded me that the outcome is not totally dependent on me or any of the others who will be gathering in Ruckersville, Virginia, next Thursday. Instead, we are to. . .

“Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going go happen; it shall be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you.” Mark 11:22-24

And one more key thing, no matter what has and has not been done during the decades following the discovery of the horror of underride, we all need to forgive, put the past behind us, and find ways to work together to overcome this challenge.

“And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions.” Mark 11:25

And though we may forgive, we will never forget those we have lost and the reason we are here. . .

Never forgotten

“Tesla Motors Autopilot Reduces Accidents By Half” What of domino-effect collisions?

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety,

From a recent article: Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) Autopilot Reduces Accidents By Half

A recent video also showed how the feature prevented a collision with a truck. In the video, it looks as if the truck driver never noticed that the car was there. The Tesla car simply moves and avoids the truck.

What happens if the car moves to avoid the truck and, in so doing, collides with another vehicle? Is it possible for automated technology to prevent domino-effect collisions? After all, every action has a reaction. But then, if it can be done safer than a fallible human and the bugs are worked out before widely implementing. . .

It appears that our truck crash has rendered me a cynical skeptic. Hopeful, though. And persistently pursuing perfection. Nothing less than the best possibilities.

And I am thankful for the many who are working on multiple means of creating safer travel.

Vision Zero Book 024Dragon Underride Protector 004

Webcast Link now available for May 5 IIHS Truck Underride Roundtable

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, ,

I just received the webcast link for the upcoming Truck Underride Roundtable at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS):

Webcast Link for Truck Underride Roundtable at IIHS on May 5, 2016

Serenity

Impact of USED car sales vs NEW car sales on advancement of automated technology #VisionZero

Safety Advocacy,

I’ve been thinking about the challenge of improving the traffic safety outlook even with the promises of collision avoidance technology and self-driving vehicles. I keep thinking: What about the fact that many people still own and buy used cars? So, today, I finally looked it up.

Used car sales in 2014: 36,241,800

New car sales in 2014: about 7,687,570

How long will it take for the whole system to hold safer technology? And, meanwhile, will we do what can be done along other fronts to make our roads safer?

See this post: Australia has embraced Vision Zero. What about US?

Towards Zero aims to improve road safety through four cornerstones:
  • Safe Road Use – Improving road user behaviour.
  • Safe Roads and Roadsides – Improving road infrastructure improvements.
  • Safe Speeds – Ensuring speed limits and travel speeds are appropriate for the safety of the road infrastructure.
  • Safe Vehicles – Improving the safety of the vehicles on the road.

A vision can serve to direct decisions and actions. What are we waiting for?

Tell Obama you are standing with us in this: “Family Continues Fight for Trucking Safety”

Vision Zero Goal

Apathy re: highway carnage “The Absurd Primacy of the Automobile in American Life”by Edward Humes

Safety Advocacy

Read this recent article: The Absurd Primacy of the Automobile in American Life

Considering the constant fatalities, rampant pollution, and exorbitant costs of ownership, there is no better word to characterize the car’s dominance than insane. 

. . . cars’ most dramatic cost: They waste lives. They are one of America’s leading causes of avoidable injury and death, especially among the young. Oddly, the most immediately devastating consequence of the modern car—the carnage it leaves in its wake—seems to generate the least public outcry and attention. Jim McNamara, a sergeant with the California Highway Patrol, where officers spend 80 percent of their time responding to car wrecks, believes such public inattention and apathy arise whenever a problem is “massive but diffuse.”

I wrote about that kind of apathy here: Numbers are funny: 1 (crash story) is a tragedy; 1 million (crash stories) is a statistic

IMG_4452

Ralph Nader Presents: Breaking Through Power: A Historic Civic Mobilization. . . wish I could go

Safety Advocacy,

This sounds like a great conference put on by the Center for Study of Responsive Law with Ralph Nader. Wish I could go:

“The theme of this citizen mobilization will be elaborating ways to break through power to secure long-overdue democratic solutions made possible by a new muscular civic nexus between local communities and Washington, D.C. On these four days, speakers will present innovative ideas and strategies designed to take existing civic groups to higher levels of effectiveness.”

Ralph Nader Presents: Breaking Through Power: A Historic Civic Mobilization

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Mary & AnnaLeah, Fall 2012

Will consequences dealt to VW for deceitful actions have adequate impact on future industry actions?

Safety Advocacy, , , ,

Will consequences dealt to VW for deceitful actions have adequate impact on future industry actions?  VW forges U.S. deal arising from diesel emissions scandal

Lou Lombardo, Care for Crash Victims, asks another important question: How much of the costs will be paid by taxpayers? The answer is still unknown.

And, I ask, will a civil settlement punish criminal negligence appropriately? Should executives be jailed for corporate crimes?

I say that a White House Vision Zero Task Force should be established and this issue of corporate negligence in matters of health & death should be one of the matters they address–tout de suite! Do it, President Obama, for We the People of this United States of America! #VisionZero

National Vision Zero Goal

Updated version of our 689-page Vision Zero Petition Book 3rd Edition

Australia has embraced Vision Zero. What about US?

Safety Advocacy

Western Australia has embraced Vision Zero. What about the US?

Towards Zero is Western Australia’s road safety strategy for 2008-2020.
 
Towards Zero aims to improve road safety through four cornerstones:
  • Safe Road Use – Improving road user behaviour.
  • Safe Roads and Roadsides – Improving road infrastructure improvements.
  • Safe Speeds – Ensuring speed limits and travel speeds are appropriate for the safety of the road infrastructure.
  • Safe Vehicles – Improving the safety of the vehicles on the road.

A vision can serve to direct decisions and actions. What are we waiting for?

Vision Zero Petition Book Cover draft

Do it, President Obama, for We the People of this United States of America! #VisionZero

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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