Many People That Should Be At “Breaking Through Power” Conference May 23 – 26, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

There are many crash victims who should be at this Conference – but will not be there.

*   3,690,757 Americans who died of vehicle injuries.  They will not see the U.S.A. Crash Death Clock reach 3,691,000 before or during the Conference.       See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/clock.php

*   Nearly 1 Billion Americans Injured in or by vehicles.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/clock.php

What stories could they share with attendees?

One mother who tragically lost two daughters in a truck crash offered the following today:

“People who die as a result of traffic crashes usually have no warning and, for the most part, were not doing something intentional to warrant such an untimely end.

Whatever the cause of their death, what is the best way to honor the memories of those hundreds of thousands of loved ones? One way is to share their stories and photos.  Another way is to work diligently in their memory to reduce crash deaths so that others do not have to suffer the same tragic end to their earthly life–and putting an end to this traffic crash epidemic.

Here is one Victim Memorial Page: Truck Crash Victim Memorials at Truck Safety Coalition

Here is an idea I had a while ago for making these stories more visible:

Digital photo/video montage of the countless people who have had their lives cut short by a tragic crash.

What would you suggest? Email your ideas to me at marianne@annaleahmary.com.

Breaking Through Power Conference

The Conference program and speakers is available at https://www.breakingthroughpower.org/

Crash Victims, activists, and citizens can work together to build a Safer America.
Yes we can!
Lou Lombardo–

____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

Joan Claybrook Letter on Pending Truck Safety Loopholes

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
“Despite the carnage, Sen. Collins continues to be the star quarterback for special trucking interests seeking to repeal safety regulations that protect the lives of truck drivers and Maine families. National news stories have documented her legacy working on behalf of corporate trucking interests and, in turn, their generous largesse for her support.

Unfortunately, the annual government spending bill has become her private domain for pushing anti-truck safety measures. When trucking interests sought to significantly increase truck weights in Maine, Sen. Collins was ready to help. Last year, FedEx and others recognized a willing partner in Sen. Collins when they sought to overturn laws in 39 states, including Maine, and allow monster-sized trucks across the country.

And, for the third consecutive year, as a senior Appropriations Committee member, she slipped a provision into the bill to repeal the reasonable federal limits on the driving and working hours of truckers, although fatigue is a major cause of truck crashes.

However, this time she went even further and wrote into law an increase in the driving hours of truckers from 60 to 73 in a week. This is insane, but she has the temerity to actually claim it will be safer. This proposal had no congressional hearing, no scientific review and no public input. But it’s no problem if you are a well-connected trucking lobbyist.

Truck crashes kill 4,000 people and injure 100,000 more annually. Sen. Collins’ solution is to help corporate trucking interests protect their profits, but not public safety.”

See http://www.pressherald.com/2016/05/20/letter-to-the-editor-sen-collins-puts-trucking-industry-profits-before-public-safety/

We need a graphic showing Lady Justice holding the scales of Justice.  On the heavy side a big bag of Corporate Dollars.  On the light side the endless lives being lost going to heaven.  From under the blindfold tears flowing from Lady Justice.

Lou

____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

Illegal Deadly Deal Revealed – Dollars, Deaths, and Injuries To Follow

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
“A backroom deal by the federal agency responsible for auto safety to allow automakers to avoid following federal safety rules is unlawful and will lead to more deaths and injuries, three top consumer advocates said today. They urged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to grant the formal petition the advocates filed in January to require automakers to make advanced safety technologies standard equipment on all cars and light trucks.

The January 2016 petition by Consumer Watchdog, the Center for Auto Safety and Joan Claybrook, former NHTSA Administrator and now President Emeritus of Public Citizen, asked the agency to require Automatic Emergency Braking, a set of three new technologies to prevent collisions, as standard equipment. But in March, NHTSA announced that it had reached a secret agreement with twenty automakers allowing them to roll out weakened versions of the technology on a “voluntary” basis over a ten year period, evading formal federal safety protections.

The groups said “Americans will pay a heavy toll in deaths and injuries” for NHTSA’s “abdication of its regulatory responsibilities,” calling it “unprecedented in the history of the agency.”  See  http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/consumer-advocates-demand-federal-agency-act-on-auto-safety-petition-300273449.html

The quo has been revealed.  Watch the DOT Revolving Door for the quid to follow at the end of the Obama Administration.

The deaths and injuries not prevented will follow later.

Lou

____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

How To Advance Your Safety and Happiness and Power

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

People who want to make future Mothers Days happier need to see and hear people who have already done so much to know more about “How It’s Done”.  See

It’s about your past, present, and future.
Lou

____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

Fwd: Wednesday: Media Conference Call on controversial tired trucker provisions in US DOT funding bills on Senate Floor and House Committee

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Media Conference Call Announced for tomorrow to Stop Congress Attacking Truck Safety.  See below to join call.

For many tragic reasons why see list of crash victims at

For State by State Rankings in 2013 from Worst (North Dakota) to Best (Massachusetts) see
http://trucksafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/sts2015-state-rankings-ncas.pdf

MEDIA ADVISORY: Media Conference Call – Wed. May 18, 2016 at 10:00am ET

Contact: Bill Bronrott, 202-270-4415, bronrott@gmail.com

 

Victims of Tired Trucker Crashes in ME, AL, GA and IL to Join Truck Driver and

Safety Advocates to Call on Congress to Stop the Attacks on Truck Safety

 

Tired Trucker Provisions in Transportation Spending Bills on Senate Floor This Week,

Scheduled for Mark-Up Wednesday in House Appropriations Subcommittee.  

Both Bills Repeal Obama Administration Hours of Service Rule for Truck Drivers.

 

No Congressional Hearings, No Scientific Review, No Public Input –

No Problem if it’s for the Trucking Industry

 

More Driving and Work Hours + Less Rest Hours = More Crashes, Deaths and Injuries

 

White House Issues Veto Threat Citing Tired Trucker Provision

 

WHAT:        MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL

This week, the Fiscal Year 2017 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2577) is being debated on the U.S. Senate Floor.  Tomorrow the House begins consideration of its spending bill in the House Appropriations Subcommittee on THUD.  Both bills include special truck interest provisions that dramatically increase the working and driving hours of truck drivers.  The Senate bill even expands on the provision pushed by Senator Collins in the last two spending bills to write into law a new 73-hour cap on the weekly driving hours of truck drivers.  The Obama Administration set a 60-hour weekly driving limit.  Both the House and Senate provisions stopping the Obama rule were slipped into the must-pass U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) funding bill with no discussion or debate, no independent expert review and no public input.  Yesterday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a statement threatening a veto of the Senate bill and its “potential to undercut public safety.”

Truck driver fatigue is a well-known and well-documented safety problem identified by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), U.S. DOT and decades of research.  Less than two weeks ago, there were two serious large truck crashes involving tired truckers in Nashville, TN and Charlotte, NC.  Each year about 4,000 people are killed in truck crashes and nearly 100,000 more injured. The NTSB included reducing fatigue related crashes on its 2016 Most Wanted List. Crash victims, law enforcement, trucking industry representatives, and safety advocates oppose these back room deals cut to benefit trucking industry profits at the expense of public safety.

WHEN:       Wednesday, May 18, 2016 at 10:00 am ET

 

HOW:         To join the Media Conference Call: 800-875-3456       Verbal Passcode: GILL87137

 

WHO:                        

·      Craig and Kathy Clark, Powder Springs, GA, daughter Emily Clark was killed with four other Georgia Southern nursing students when a truck driver with a history of falling asleep at the wheel ploughed over their car.

·      Daphne Izer, Lisbon, ME, Co-Founder of Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT), has been advocating for truck safety since her 17-year-old son, Jeff, was killed on the Maine Turnpike by a tired Wal-Mart truck driver who fell asleep at the wheel and ran over the top of the car, killing four.

·      Dana Logan, Cedar Hill, TX, Truck Driver, survived a multiple vehicle truck crash, caused by a fatigued truck driver who had fallen asleep, resulting in the death of five people.

·      IL State Trooper Douglass J. Balder suffered life threatening burns and injuries when a tired trucker smashed into his patrol car, exploding the gas tank.

·      Keiuna Davis, Savannah, GA, wife Jamila Davis was killed on her way to work in Madison County, AL on the morning of February 12, 2016, when a fatigued truck driver, who had fallen asleep, crossed an interstate median into Jamila’s lane of traveling and hit her vehicle.

·      Jackie Gillan, President, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety www.saferoads.org

·      Joan Claybrook, Chair, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH), and former Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

 

WHY:          Special trucking interests are seeking to, once again, overturn the Obama Administration hours of service rule and rewrite a complicated and controversial rule in a must-pass spending bill to benefit corporate trucking interests at the expense of public safety.  Over the past four years for which data is available (2009-2013), there was a 17% increase in deaths and a 28% increase in injuries from large truck crashes. In 2013 alone, the economic cost of truck crashes exceeded $100 billion. (U.S. DOT)

 

# # #

____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

Consumer Watchdog To Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind to “slam the revolving door”…

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
Consumer Watchdog today called on Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind to “slam the revolving door” with the robot car industry shut with a written commitment that they will not work as an employee or consultant to developers of self-driving autonomous vehicles for at least seven years after leaving their respective positions.

“Slam shut the revolving door that has become the reward for taking a top job at NHTSA. Failure to do so will leave the public with the troubling perception that the revised autonomous vehicle policies expected to be released in July have been crafted with an eye focused on your future employment prospects rather than on the public interest,” wrote John M. Simpson Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director in a letter to the two officials.

At least four former high-ranking NHTSA officials are now working on behalf of Google’s self-driving car project.

Foxx and Rosekind have been pressing to deploy autonomous vehicle technology rapidly.  Last December the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that the autonomous technology controlling a self-driving robot car could be considered to be the driver. In January Foxx said NHTSA would update its autonomous vehicle policy in six months. Foxx encouraged manufacturers to submit requests for use of NHTSA’s exemption authority to allow the deployment of fully autonomous vehicles.

Consumer Watchdog’s letter said the importance of this commitment not to work for industry was driven home on the eve of NHTSA’s second public meeting on autonomous vehicle technology. That’s when it was revealed that former NHTSA Administrator David L. Strickland would serve as counsel and spokesman for the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, comprised of Google, Lyft, Uber, Ford and Volvo.

Ron Medford, former Deputy Director of NHTSA, is Director of Safety for Google’s self-driving car program. Chan Lieu, who served as Director of Government Affairs, Policy and Strategic Planning at NHTSA, is at Venable, LLP, like Strickland and lobbies for Google. Daniel Smith, who ran NHTSA’s Office of Vehicle Safety, is now a Google consultant.

Read Consumer Watchdog’s letter here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/ltrfoxxrosekind051816.pdf

Keep watching the Revolving Door.  Search “Revolving Door” at www.CareForCrashVictims.comLou Lombardo

____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com