Month: January 2015

State of Union Address 2015 – Will America Finally Get Its Vision Zero Goal?

January, 2015

President Obama, however, has not yet set a Vision Zero Goal for the U.S.A.  And crashes in the U.S.A. under President  Obama’s expected 8 years in Office are on track to record 250,000 crash deaths, 1 million serious crash injuries, and $7 Trillion in societal losses.  Current daily rate in the U.S.A. is nearly 100 crash deaths, 400 serious injuries, and $2 Billion per day.  

President Obama has appointed people who have failed to adequately protect Americans from crash injuries.  NHTSA’s failures are symbolized by the classic NY Times art showing three NHTSA crash test dummies that neither see, hear, nor speak of evil.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/opinion/weak-oversight-deadly-cars.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw%2C{%221%22%3A%22RI%3A10%22}Empathy or Indifference?President Obama, VP Biden, and NHTSA Administrator Rosekind each have personal knowledge of the tragedies of crash deaths and serious injuries.  So will they act to set a worthy 10 year goal to end such tragedies?  See http://www.fairwarning.org/2012/09/a-strange-indifference-to-highway-carnage/ There are safety scientists and engineers all over the world that believe this worthy goal is achievable.  Unfortunately, mostly these safety experts work in organizations that value immediate profits over auto safety improvements.  Safety technologies sit on shelves awaiting government mandates and corporate decisions to purchase safety technologies. These scientists and engineers, as well as citizens everywhere, need and hunger for leadership and commitment.  As Ralph Nader has said:“This country has far more problems than it deserves and far more solutions than it applies.” See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-vpbidenzero.php

Empathic Presidential Leadership 

In 1938, FDR created the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.  In 1955, less than 20 years later, using technologies of the 1950s the Salk vaccine for polio was created.

Imagine what empathic presidential leadership today could accomplish using 21st century technologies to achieve a Vision Zero Goal for crash deaths and serious injuries in a decade.

As the proverbs (29:18) have advised humankind for 2,000 years:  “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

President Obama:  You can do it!  Yes you can.

Lou

Crash Deaths Now To Be Much Greater in Red States Than in Blue States

January, 2015

Twenty-four State Legislatures in 2015 will be controlled by Republicans: All except UT, NV, MI, and OH had crash fatality rates higher (worse) than the national average of 10.69 crash deaths per 100,000 population.  The States with Republican controlled legislatures  that had worse than average crash fatality rates in 2012 are WI, NE, ID, IN, TX, GA, FL, NC, AZ, KS, SD, LA, TN, SC, OK, AL, AR, MS, ND, WY.   

See http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/11/05/republican-sweep-extends-to-state-level/

OnStar & Progressive Insurance Partnership and Your Safety and Privacy

January, 2015

Tom Kowalick offers his vision of a safety and privacy protection system at http://vimeo.com/115537605

NY City Officer Dies of Crash Injuries – Uncounted by NHTSA

January, 2015

“An MTA officer succumbed Monday to injuries he suffered when he was struck last year by a car on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the agency said.

Thomas Choi, 62, is the first officer to die in the line of duty in the 81-year history of MTA Bridges and Tunnels, also known as the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority.

Choi was struck when he was removing barrels while reopening the Brooklyn-bound lower level of the bridge on Oct. 20, 2013. The lower level of the bridge is closed on weekends from midnight until about 8 a.m.

He was treated at Staten Island University Hospital and Seaview Rehabilitation Center but never regained consciousness, the MTA said.

“Officer Choi dedicated himself to serving and protecting everyone who travels the bridges and tunnels that unite New York, and all of us at the MTA join in mourning him,” MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas Prendergast said in a news release. “We send our deepest condolences to his family.”  See

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/12/29/mta-officer-struck-by-car-on-verrazano-bridge-dies-from-injuries/

NHTSA Does Not Count Such Crash Deaths

Would this Officer’s death be counted by NHTSA in FARS 2013 files when the crash occurred, or in the 2014 files when this Officer died a year later? The answer from NHTSA is that in neither year would his death of crash injuries be counted.  NHTSA only counts deaths of crash injured people if they die within 30 days of the crash.   So how many crash victims die after 30 days and are not counted by NHTSA?  The National Safety Council estimates that about 800 – 1,000 crash victims die of their “in traffic” injuries more than 30 days after the crash.

The National Safety Council also counts “not in traffic” crash deaths that occur in driveways, parking lots, and on private roads that NHTSA does not currently include in FARS.  Add these two NHTSA practices of  minimization of crash deaths and one finds a NHTSA policy undercount of nearly 3,000 crash deaths per year – nearly 10 American crash deaths per day.  Source: http://www.nsc.org/learn/safety-knowledge/Pages/injury-facts.aspx

NHTSA Misses Many Crash Deaths

NHTSA’s failures are symbolized by the classic NY Times art showing three NHTSA crash test dummies that don’t see, hear, or speak evil:

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/opinion/weak-oversight-deadly-cars.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw%2C{%221%22%3A%22RI%3A10%22}

For decades, the Center for Auto Safety in its “Missing In FARS” campaign has documented defective data collection of crash deaths by NHTSA.  See http://www.autosafety.org/campaigns/24

NHTSA, under criticism for more than a decade of failures to protect Americans, politically prefers to downplay the problem.   The most recent example of NHTSA “not seeing” or “not speaking” is its failure to mention the effects of the Great Recession in declining crash deaths obvious in the above graph.  Here is NHTSA’s latest press release: “WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today released the 2013 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data that shows a 3.1 percent decrease from the previous year and a nearly 25 percent decline in overall highway deaths since 2004. In 2013, 32,719 people died in traffic crashes.”  Seehttp://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/2014/traffic-deaths-decline-in-2013

Pedestrian Safety in NYC

NY Times reports some promising news for NYC, but perhaps a little premature in view of the time lag between injury and death: “In 2014, 132 pedestrians died in traffic accidents, the lowest total for a year since the city began keeping records a century ago, officials said. There were 180 pedestrian deaths in 2013, the highest number in a decade.

Overall traffic fatalities fell last year to 248, from 293 the previous year, according to preliminary data from the city. There were 20 bicyclist fatalities in 2014, an increase from 12 deaths in 2013, and 37 motorcyclist fatalities last year, down from 42 deaths in 2013. Motor vehicle fatalities remained the same, with 59 deaths in each year.

The decline in pedestrians’ deaths comes as the city continues to put in place Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan, a set of proposals intended to eliminate traffic deaths. Modeled after a Swedish approach that treats all road deaths and serious injuries as inherently preventable, the plan has an ambitious goal of eliminating traffic deaths by 2024. The city lowered its default speed limit to 25 miles per hour, from 30 m.p.h., and increased enforcement of speeding laws, among other initiatives.

“There is no question we are moving this city in the right direction, thanks to stepped up enforcement by the N.Y.P.D., strong traffic safety measures by the Department of Transportation, new laws passed by our legislators and the work of New Yorkers fighting for change,” the mayor said in a statement this week.”  See 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/02/nyregion/new-york-pedestrian-deaths-are-lowest-on-record.html?emc=eta1

Let us work in the new year so that fewer crash victims occur.   A good start for NHTSA would be for NHTSA to do better at counting crash deaths.

Lou

Obama Administration’s DOT Secretary Foxx to Favor Red States?

January, 2015

And now we read in the Washington Post that the DOT has a forthcoming plan that may favor more Red States than Blue States.“The report being drafted by the Transportation Department draws in part on data compiled in recent years by such groups as the Miller Center at the University of Virginia and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

An ASCE report two years ago concluded that it would take a $3.6 trillion investment by 2020 to meet infrastructure needs, about $1.6 trillion short of current spending. The Miller Center said maintaining infrastructure at current levels required additional spending of $134 billion to $194 billion each year through 2035.”….

“The report will outline the challenge of rapid population growth, particularly the need for infrastructure expansion in the South and West, while meeting demand for replacing roads, bridges and other critical systems in the aging Northeast and Midwest.

“We’re going to have this huge influx of citizens, and a lot of that growth is going to happen in the South and West,” said Peter Rogoff, undersecretary of transportation for policy, describing a taffy pull for scarce resources. “There’s a natural tension.”  See

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/obama-administration-outlines-30-year-transportation-plan/2015/01/12/b15daf6a-9a60-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html

NJ Firefighters Patent Way To Get Timely Lifesaving InformationTitle

January, 2015

One of our astute members sent me an excellent article on the work of two brothers working to invent software using their experience as firefighters to help save lives.  Seehttp://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/01/nj_firefighter_hopes_to_go_beyond_the_app_di_ionno.html

NHTSA Neither Knows Nor Seems to Care Whether its Fines are Tax Deductible

January, 2015

NY Times reports Honda hit with record fines of $70 million (2 fines of $35 million each) for not performing required reports of data on deaths and injuries to NHTSA for over a decade.

“It is the largest amount that the safety regulator has ever levied against an automaker. The penalty stems from the automaker’s failure to report 1,729 death and injury claims to the agency for the past 11 years, and its failure to report certain warranty and other claims in the same period.

“Today’s announcement sends a very clear message to the entire industry that manufacturers have responsibility for the complete and timely reporting of this critical safety information,” Mark Rosekind, the new head of the agency, said Thursday.”  See 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/business/honda-fined-70-million-in-underreporting-safety-issues-to-government.html?emc=edit_na_20150108