[New post] Missing you this Christmas, AnnaLeah & Mary. With hope, we carry on.
December, 2015
Missing!
Who and what has the power to end crash violence in all its forms? Crash victims and their stories.
The message forwarded (see here) is from Marianne Karth a mother who lost two daughters in a violent preventable crash is an example of what there has not been enough of in auto safety. It is the stories of crash victims that give life and tears to the dry statistics that NHTSA records regularly. Currently, the NHTSA statistics are at the rate of about 100 deaths, 400 serious injuries, and $2 Billion in losses per day in the U.S.A.
Under Joan Claybrook’s too short reign at NHTSA, I had the privilege to have a small part in research on the effects of crashes on families.
See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/effects-on-families.php
Elections have consequences. Ronald Reagan’s election ended Joan Claybrook’s leadership at NHTSA. Reagan’s reign of safety terror also ended the research on the effects of crashes on children and families. Lest some readers think “terror” is a typo for “error” consider: * Reagan also ended research on stronger Truck Under-ride Guards, * Reagan rescinded the airbag rule (later overruled by the Supreme Court 9-0), * Reagan cut the size of NHTSA from 900 safety workers to 600 – a reduced level that persists to this day.
So this former conservative Republican who worked for election of Goldwater in 1964 and later became a conservative converted by my conscience against Republican policies, I believe the word safety “terror” is appropriate.
As for the Clinton and Obama Administrations, they clearly did too little to end crash violence. See http://www.fairwarning.org/2012/09/a-strange-indifference-to-highway-carnage/ To this day there is not even a Vision Zero Goal to end violent crash deaths and serious injuries in or by new vehicles in a decade. Hillary Clinton has been willing to raise the gun violence issue. Will Sen. Sanders be willing to raise the crash violence issue (there are far more injuries in crashes)? We have to end both gun and crash violence.
To do so it will take citizens sharing their stories and motivating and mobilizing fellow citizens politically and economically.
Building a Safer America depends on the actions of its citizens. Here’s hope for progress in the Car Safety Wars in the new (election) year. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/Trial_2015_09Sept_AmmonsreviewofLemov.pdf
———- Forwarded message ———- From: AnnaLeah & Mary <donotreply@wordpress.com> Date: Fri, Dec 25, 2015 at 11:48 PM Subject: [New post] Missing you this Christmas, AnnaLeah & Mary. With hope, we carry on. To: louis.v.lombardo@gmail.com
