The Obama DOT Holds “Road To Zero” Conference as Vehicle Violence Deaths Jump


The Obama DOT Holds “Road To Zero” Conference as Vehicle Violence Deaths Jump

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Words and numbers that hopefully will work to achieve Vision Zero were heard yesterday at the DOT “Road to Zero” Conference.

Particularly inspiring were the remarks of Deborah Hersman, head of the National Safety Council and formerly Chair of the NTSB.  See attached.

You can see the conference at http://www.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa/symposiums/october2016/index.html

What was noteworthy – but not inspiring – is that consumer advocates and crash victims were not visible at this Conference unlike the Nader Conference on Breaking Through Power that included crash victims.  See https://www.breakingthroughpower.org/

Consumer Affairs article by Jim Hood’s article summed it up:“Traffic fatalities continue to grow at an unusual clip, but safety regulators say they have a “zero fatalities” plan that they think will eliminate traffic fatalities completely. The catch? It won’t happen until 2046.”   Seehttps://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/traffic-deaths-surging-but-officials-have-a-zero-fatalities-plan-for-2046-100616.html

If the Obama Administration were serious, why did they not include people, such as Ralph Nader?   The work of Nader, Joan Claybrook, Clarence Ditlow and many others contributed more to saving lives than many of the panelists at this Conference.  
Automotive News also produced an excellent article on the Conference.  See it at http://www.autonews.com/article/20161005/OEM11/161009944/new-u-s-coalition-seeks-to-eliminate-traffic-fatalities
David Shepardson of Reuters asked about the interim goals were and was told that was to be determined.  See his article at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-traffic-idUSKCN1251GZ
One measure of the safety seriousness of the Obama Administration is the money it is setting aside for this project – $1 million per year over the next 3 years.  Compare that with the current DOT policy value of saving just one life of $9.6 million.  Seehttps://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/VSL%20Guidance%202016.pdf
Another measure of the safety seriousness of the Obama Administration is the DOT Budget for 2016 amounts to $94.7 billion. See https://www.transportation.gov/mission/budget/fiscal-year-2016-budget-highlights
At NHTSA we heard every DOT Secretary repeatedly say “Safety is our Number 1 priority.”  It became a hallway joke about the hypocrisy of Department Officials.  Many DOT Secretaries have gone through the DOT Revolving Door to the auto industry.  So keep that in mind when you hear DOT Officials talk about the 94% of the problem being due to human error.  And keep your eye on the Revolving Door.
Lou

 

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