DOT Secretary “Heck of a job” Anthony Foxx – “Incredible Track Record”
November, 2014
Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
The Detroit News reports:
“Last week, a senior administration official told reporters NHTSA’s handling of the recall was “suboptimal.”
Foxx told The Detroit News on Friday that NHTSA’s handling of the recall “wasn’t flawless in the sense” that there were mistakes in press releases — some wrong cars and the wrong number of vehicles were listed in releases on successive days last week. And the website at which car owners could check to see if the vehicles were recalled wasn’t working for much of the week.
“That’s what was suboptimal,” Foxx said. He praised NHTSA’s “incredible track record” over the last decade.” See
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/foreign/2014/10/31/nissan-air-bag-recall/18234493/
So what was this praiseworthy “incredible track record” of NHTSA over the past decade of Bush/Obama?
Way back in August 2014, (about 9,000 crash deaths ago) NHTSA reported that over the past decade nearly 350,000 Americans died of crash injuries. See attached NHTSA report also available at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812055.pdf
In fairness to Secretary Foxx, he may not have added the annual figures, or added an estimate for 2014, or recognized the effects of the Great Recession 2006 – 2010 in the decline in crash deaths. But then, he has little knowledge of auto safety. Neither does the current deservedly much criticized NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman know much about auto safety. See Secretary Foxx’s bio at
Consider that the 350,000 crash deaths is just part of the tragic statistical picture. One has to add about 1.4 million serious crash injuries. And using the NHTSA figures on 2010 annual societal costs of $871 Billion, one can estimate this “incredible track record” at nearly $8 Trillion. See NHTSA Report at
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdfThe 350,000 crash deaths over the past decade amounts to more than 3 times the 101,442 deaths in the Korean, Viet Nam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars combined.
Incredible track record, indeed! Just what Americans voted for, but corporations delivered.
The revolving door will turn again and these “public” officials will go for their rewards for this “incredible track record”.
Lou
