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