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
