Month: June 2016

President Obama Emails Marianne Karth – Marianne Wants Us To Help Respond

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Marianne Karth asks our help as follows:

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:

See http://annaleahmary.com/2016/06/i-got-an-email-from-president-obama-this-week/

This is a citizen request for doable actions by the President that are within his responsibilities and duties.    We should all be willing to support.  Let’s help Marianne and all people to be safer in the future.
Lou
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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

New Fatality Counts from NHTSA

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
Early Estimate of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities in 2015 A statistical projection of traffic fatalities for 2015 shows that an estimated 35,200 people died in motor vehicle traf­fic crashes. This represents an increase of about 7.7 percent as compared to the 32,675 fatalities that were reported to have occurred in 2014. If these projec­tions are realized, fatalities will be at the highest level since 2008, when 37,423 fatalities were reported. Preliminary data reported by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) shows that vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in 2015 increased by about 107.2 billion miles, or about a 3.5-percent increase. The fatality rate for 2015 increased to 1.12 fatalities per 100 million VMT, up from 1.08 fatalities per 100 million VMT in 2014.

Lou

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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

National Academy of Sciences: A National Trauma Care System: Integrating Military and Civilian Trauma Systems to Achieve Zero Preventable Deaths After Injury

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

A new Report on Trauma Care is out that calls for a Vision Zero for Preventable Deaths.

A National Trauma Care System:

Integrating Military and Civilian Trauma Systems to Achieve Zero Preventable Deaths After Injury

See Infographic at  http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2016/A-National-Trauma-Care-System-Integrating-Military-and-Civilian-Trauma-Systems.aspx

There is a lot to like in this report.  See the Recommendations at http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/2016/Trauma-Care/Trauma-Care-Recs.pdf

I like that the Report calls on the White House, the DOD, and the DHHS to get involved.

See some of my previous thoughts on this that NHTSA ignored at the cost of countless preventable tragedies at: https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/VisionZero2014Article.pdf

and at: https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog/blog-goldenafgh/

and at: https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/com-NHTSA-strategic-plan.pdf

A Google Drive link to the full Report is attached.​

 23511.pdf

​

Lou

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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

Nader To Be In Automotive Hall of Fame

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

AchievementsLast year, Clarence Ditlow reported the achievements since publication of Unsafe at Any Speed to include the saving of an estimated 3.5 million lives (many millions more Americans were saved from suffering serious injuries).  Seehttp://www.thenation.com/article/on-50th-anniversary-of-ralph-naders-unsafe-at-any-speed-safety-group-reports-auto-safety-regulation-has-saved-3-5-million-lives/

Honor

Today according to Corporate Crime Reporter:“Auto safety advocate Ralph Nader will be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame next month at the Cobo Center in Detroit Michigan.”

More NeededCurrently every average day nearly 100 people in America die from vehicle violence.Every average day nearly 400 people in America suffer serious injuries from vehicle violence.

Every average day nearly $2 Billion in losses result from vehicle violence in America.

See http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf

One need addressed by Law Professor Rena Steinzor is in an article last year in the Harvard Law & Policy Review titled

(Still) “Unsafe at Any Speed”:
Why Not Jail for Auto Executives?
Lou
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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

NHTSA and Tesla Guilt – Past, Present and Future

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Consumer Watchdog is calling on President Obama, DOT, NHTSA and Tesla to do the right thing for safety.  Keep their hands on the wheels and eyes on our future for safety from pain – not on the revolving door and private gain.

“Consumer Watchdog Exposes Robot Car Weaknesses At Symposium; Calls On Tesla To Update Software & Carmakers To Accept Legal Responsibility, Asks Feds To Go Slow

SAN FRANCISCO, July 18, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Consumer Watchdog today called on Tesla to require, through a software update, that the driver’s hands remain on the steering wheel when Autopilot is engaged, and for the Obama administration to slow its push to deploy self-driving robot car technology.  The group also called on Tesla and other carmakers to accept legal responsibility when their self-driving technology causes a crash.

The nonpartisan nonprofit public interest group brought a large white truck to circle outside the Union Square Hilton Hotel where the Automated Vehicles Symposium 2016 is being held this week. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator Mark R. Rosekind are to speak at this week’s Automated Vehicles Symposium and are expected to release industry-friendly “guidance” for robot cars, which give the public no opportunity for comment or scrutiny.

The white truck highlighted the shortcomings of Tesla’s Autopilot, which could not distinguish between a white truck making a left turn in front of the car and a bright sky in a fatal crash in Florida that killed former Navy SEAL Joshua Brown.  Consumer Watchdog’s truck had large signs reading “Tesla Don’t Hit Me!” and “Obama Speed Kills.”

View and download a photo of the truck here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/images/teslatruck071816sm.jpg

Consumer Watchdog proposed reprogramming Tesla’s Autopilot software to require the driver’s hands on the wheel in a letter sent today with former NHTSA Administrator Joan Claybrook to Tesla Chairman Elon Musk and NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind.  The letter also called for automakers to accept legal responsibility and for NHTSA to abandon its voluntary guidelines and adopt enforceable standards. Read the letter here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/ltrmuskrosekind7-18-16_final.pdf”

“We are deeply concerned about the failure of Tesla and NHTSA to accept responsibility for the death of Joshua Brown, a death that is not the result of human error, but of the failure of technology and acceptance of a voluntary industry agreement by the government in lieu of minimum mandatory safety performance standards,” Court and Claybrook wrote.    

“The tragic fatal Tesla crash in Florida demonstrates the need for Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards rather than voluntary guidelines. Not only did the Tesla S’s video camera fail to distinguish a white truck from white sky, but its automatic emergency braking system failed to apply the brake with a tractor-trailer stretched across the road right in front of it.”  The letter noted that NHTSA had denied a rulemaking proceeding for safety standards for automatic emergency braking that may have created enforceable standards for radar range that could have prevented the death.”

See release at http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/consumer-watchdog-exposes-robot-car-weaknesses-at-symposium-calls-on-tesla-to-update-software–carmakers-to-accept-legal-responsibility-asks-feds-to-go-slow-300300071.html

Will Obama, Foxx, Rosekind and Musk keep their hands on the wheels and their eyes on our future safety?  Or will the American people suffer more pain – because their eyes are on the revolving door and private gain?

President Obama, Secretary Foxx, Administrator Rosekind and Tesla’s Elon Musk can’t talk with Joshua Brown the Tesla underride crash victim.  But they can talk with Marianne Karth for first hand knowledge of underride tragedy.  See http://annaleahmary.com/  And they can talk with Claybrook and Court on safety governance.  Will they or won’t they?  If not, why not?  That is the question the American people should be asking.

Lou Lombardo
____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

NHTSA Still Not Counting Many People’s Deaths

Dear Care For Crash Victims Community Members:

The Center for Auto Safety has just sent a letter to NHTSA Administrator Rosekind finding:“NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) is supposed to be a census of fatal motor vehicle crashes but it is not. The National Safety Council historically comes up with 2,000 more motor vehicle deaths each year. Much of the difference is due to deaths occurring in non-traffic incidents such as hyperthermia or by definitional restrictions on FARS such as not counting off-roadway crashes or deaths beyond 30 days after the crash. For the past 15 years, we have documented our efforts on the Center’s “Missing in FARS” campaign, available at http://www.autosafety.org/missing-in-fars/ …. Until August 10, 2011, NHTSA insisted there were only 3 to 5 drowning deaths each year but was then forced to admit that there were actually 384 deaths each year on average…. This NHTSA conclusion is most telling because it admits that certain types of deaths cannot be measured by FARS. Another such type of death is seat back collapse where FARS does not contain any information on seat back collapse as CAS pointed out in its March 9, 2016 submission to NHTSA in support of the Cantor Petition to upgrade FMVSS 207. Time after time and safety hazard after safety hazard, inaccurate NHTSA death and injury databases are failing the American public and leading to inadequate safety measures to prevent needless deaths and injuries on the roads and driveways of America.”

Is it any wonder that crash survivors are justifiably upset?  Marianne Karth, articulating what many might agree, just wrote:“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 aNational 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.”

See http://annaleahmary.com/2016/06/the-anger-and-frustration-in-the-aftermath-of-a-truck-crash-are-not-easily-resolved/

More Americans must ask themselves: What strings hold back Federal auto safety actions by the President?

Lou

NHTSA Problems Counting Deaths

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Thanks to Randy Whitfield of Quality Control Systems Corp. who has written an important note to us on this subject.   He offers us a particular, and recent, instance of NHTSA’s failure to count deaths – tire related deaths – in a rulemaking process once considered sacrosanct.  

“You wrote:
…Time after time and safety hazard after safety hazard, inaccurate NHTSA death and injury databases are failing the American public and leading to inadequate safety measures to prevent needless deaths and injuries on the roads and driveways of America.
For example, tire-related deaths…
According to the official NHTSA press release…
“… each year there are almost 200 fatalities as a result of tire-related crashes”
But in fact, even the FARS data show the count in 2014 was 596.
Why would NHTSA’s tire safety rulemaking be guided (that is to say, brought to a halt) by a sample-based estimate of the number of persons who die in tire-related crashes which undercounts the figure derived from FARS by two-thirds?
See…
(And, of course, the FARS-based result is itself sure to be an underestimate.)
You wrote:  “More Americans must ask themselves: What strings hold back Federal auto safety actions by the President?”
To put it more bluntly, why would Federal auto safety officials knowingly mislead the public about important public health issues?”
See more of Randy’s excellent work at http://www.quality-control.us/
America is fortunate to have Randy’s organization working to save lives.
But America is not fortunate to have had NHTSA become a captive regulatory agency.  See NY Times article and readers comments at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/opinion/weak-oversight-deadly-cars.html
Lou

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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com