Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
The Center has announced a successor to Clarence Ditlow.
“Washington D.C. – The Center for Auto Safety, the nation’s leading independent non-profit organization providing consumers a voice for auto safety, quality, and fuel economy, announced the appointment today of Jason K. Levine as its new Executive Director. Mr. Levine succeeds the late Clarence M. Ditlow III.Ralph Nader, who founded the Center for Auto Safety with Consumers Union in 1970, said: “Following the tragic loss of the Center’s Executive Director, Clarence Ditlow, for decades America’s guardian angel for motorists’ safety, fuel efficiency and cleaner air, the appointment of Jason Levine, an accomplished former public servant for several federal agencies, should assure a productive continuity for the Center’s critical missions. The Trump administration’s announced fervor to abandon law and order for corporate misbehavior intensifies the challenges for the Center and the American people. As an attorney, with government experience in dealing successfully with pressured situations, Jason Levine’s known passion for consumer health and safety will serve the public interest well.”
Mr. Levine stated: “Despite rising auto fatalities, and new recalls coming almost daily, the current administration has shown no interest in meeting its statutory duty and moral responsibility to enforce safety laws on behalf of drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. American consumers expect their government to prevent the false advertising of used cars and protect the environment from auto pollution. Yet, the only momentum we see in Washington is a regulatory rollback that too many in the auto industry are aiding and abetting. The Center’s role as the eyes, ears, and voice of the consumer is more important than ever.”
Mr. Levine, a consumer protection attorney, has held leadership positions in three federal agencies, including Chief of Staff at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Director of the Office of Congressional, Legislative, and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Joan Claybrook, former Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), President Emeritus of Public Citizen, and a member of the Center’s board, said:
“Since the beginning, the Center’s leadership has focused on following the data wherever it may lead and taking on the auto industry and government agencies on behalf of consumers regardless of the difficulty of the fight. By speaking truth to power, the Center’s efforts have led to millions of recalls of cars, tires, child seats and most recently tens of millions of Takata airbag inflators, actions which when combined have likely saved tens of thousands of lives. A consumer’s ability
to seek legal recourse in all 50 states for a defective car and receive recall repairs free of charge is directly attributable to the work of the Center. Jason will continue in that tradition.”
Let’s all wish him success. Millions of American lives are depending on the Center’s efforts.
In the year 2015 alone, the number of Americans that died due to vehicle violence injuries amounted to 37,757 people in the U.S.A. And the number of Americans that suffered medically consulted injuries due to vehicle violence in 2015 amounted to 4,300,000 people in the U.S.A. according to the National Safety Council. See http://www.nsc.org/learn/safety-knowledge/Pages/injury-facts.aspx
The current Trump Clocks show that vehicle violence is now estimated to amount to 20,000 crash deaths in the U.S.A. to date.
Note the estimates of 30,000 early deaths in the U.S. due to auto emissions so far under President Trump do not include the effects on all of the people on earth endangered by the pollution contributions to the growing existential threat of global heating.
