Blog Archives - Page 26 of 115 - Care For Crash Victims

DOT Waffles on Ethical and Safety Issues of Autonomous Vehicles

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Mike Lemov has written an Op-Ed published in The Hill.

“On Sept. 20, the Department of Transportation, by law our primary national traffic safety enforcement agency, issued its long awaited “guidelines” for the development and sale of driverless cars. The Department attempted, Solomon-like, to balance its guidance between ensuring public safety and promoting the speedy development of driverless cars (called “Highly Automated Vehicles”) for use on our roadways.

For all its fanfare, DOT’s guidance failed to achieve its primary mission of ensuring safety.

DOT and its delegate agency NHTSA did not issue any new enforceable safety regulations for driverless vehicles, at least for the present. It did not propose any premarketing standards or requirements for automated cars, except to say it will shortly ask all producers of driverless cars and component systems to answer a comprehensive questionnaire about their proposed designs and test methods. Absent was any commitment by the federal government to actually regulate the new cars before they are sold to the public for use on public roads.

The omission is discouraging and could prove dangerous, particularly in view of the current record of partially automated vehicles getting into accidents. Some of these crashes have been deadly. It seems as if the guidelines were designed to preempt states such as California which already has issued enforceable safety regulations, such as requiring a driver and a steering wheel in all vehicles.

The Department did warn producers that the current penalties for not reporting a safety related defect publicly would apply to the automated cars, despite the weakness of the current penalties and the agency’s failure to force reporting of past lethal dangers of non-driverless cars, such as Toyota’s sudden acceleration, General Motors’s ignition shut off problem and Takata’s exploding airbags. In all these cases, and many more, the lack of adequate federal civil and any criminal sanctions apparently induced manufacturers to gamble on not reporting the accidents, even while people were being injured and killed.

The ethical and safety issues raised by the Department’s waffle are troubling.” Seehttp://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/302647-driverless-cars-ethics-and-public-safety

Hopefully, Congress will look into the ethical and safety failures of DOT officials who have allowed the rising rate of crash victims in the U.S.A. today:

* 100 deaths per day

* 400 serious injuries per day

* $2 Billion in losses per day

Lou Lombardo

Journal of Trauma Publishes Paper on Time and Place of Death From Automobile Crashes

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Dr. Howard R. Champion, a surgeon who has worked to improve care for crash victims since at least 1986, has a new paper out in the Journal of Trauma (attached).

Short History of Efforts To Improve Care for Crash Victims

I have had the honor to work with Dr. Champion over the years. A little background information.

1980’s – By 1980 the U.S. had lost 2.2 Million Lives to Vehicle Violence Dr. Champion was co-author of the landmark 1989 Journal of Trauma paper “Trauma Triage: Vehicle Damage as an Estimate of Injury Severity”. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2724382

At NHTSA, his work was very highly regarded and listed in CIREN Report HS 809 564 pp. 107 – 110. Available at https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/CIREN2.pdf

1990’s – By 1990 the U.S. had lost 2.7 Million Lives to Vehicle Violence Dr. Champion’s work in the 1980s contributed to the American College of Surgeons’ 1990 publication “Resources for the Optimal Care of the Injured Patient.” In 1991, NHTSA faced a mystery of an air bag fatality that turned out to be an airbag success story – albeit a tragic story. NHTSA had assigned me to manage a Congressional earmark project to build a Trauma Center in Miami, FL. A small percentage of the project funding was allocated to research on crashes, injuries, treatments and outcomes. One objective was to observe how new airbags coming into the fleet were performing. As NHTSA investigated its first air bag fatality on my project, NHTSA R&D became intensely aware of the need to improve triage, transport, and treatment decision-making for saving crash victims. The Trauma Center had not yet been built and the crash victim was transported to the massive Jackson Memorial Hospital. The crash victim had been in a very high severity multiple impact crash in a 1991 Volvo traveling at an estimated 60 mph into a traffic control box and then into a concrete pole. He was unbelted and weighed 323 lbs. He was initially stable. He was later taken to the operating room for seemingly correctable problems. He deteriorated, developed severe problems, found to have massive internal injuries and died of multiple organ system failure.

At NHTSA our focus was on the engineering of the Volvo airbag. We brought together the leading bio-mechanics and airbag engineers to understand what caused the injuries. We spent a year trying to determine whether the airbag was improperly designed, did the airbag go off on the first impact or the second impact, was the victim on the airbag when it went off? Etc. It turns out that the limits the Volvo airbag was designed for was about a 60 mph barrier impact for a belted, average size male – not an unbelted 323 lb. male in a multiple impact crash with the second impact into a concrete pole.

When I told a trauma surgeon from Baltimore about our engineering mystery, he pointed out that the emergency medical system including the hospital failed to immediately recognize the presence and severity of the internal injuries. At the hospital, they did not know how severe the crash was because he lacked major facial injuries that were usually were present in severe crashes. That led to Dr. Jeffrey S. Augenstein et al describing the challenge of identifying occult injuries in air bag protected crash victims. See Case #91-002 inattached SAE paper 940714.

In 1993, NHTSA published a Research Note, that I co-authored, titled “Detection of Internal Injuries in Drivers Protected by Air Bags” See p. 37 at https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/CIREN2.pdf

In 1994, NHTSA published a poster for the Emergency Medical community titled “Look Beyond the Obvious” to help detect internal injuries in air bag equipped vehicles. See CIREN Progress Report #2, Pages 37-45 at https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/CIREN2.pdf

In 1996, NHTSA Administrator Ricardo Martinez, the agency’s first emergency physician to head the agency, asked me to manage a research project with Dr. Champion as Principal Investigator to examine the relationships of crash characteristics to injuries. I had the privilege of bringing together a team of high level medical and safety researchers. We met monthly for a year analyzing available NHTSA data on crashes, injuries, and outcomes.

In 1997, Dr. Champion presented findings that it was possible to estimate the probability of the presence of serious injuries from crash data to the Administrator and top NHTSA executives – including demonstration of an URGENCY 1.0 algorithm. The continued development of an URGENCY algorithm was recommended for improving post-crash injury control. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/MartinezBriefing3-27-97.pdf And see https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/Malliaris970393.pdf

Based on this work, I helped in the publication of papers by the team members on Automatic Crash Notification (ACN), URGENCY, and Air Medical Services. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/home/urgency

In 1998, the research team produced the paper on Automatic Crash Notification published in AirMed. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/automatic-crash-notification.pdf

In 1999, the team’s paper on URGENCY was published in AirMed. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/urgency.pdf

In 1999, Dr. Champion presented a paper to the NTSB titled “Reducing Highway Deaths and Disabilities with Automatic Wireless Transmission of Serious Injury Probability Ratings from Crash Recorders to Emergency Medical Services Providers.” See http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/problems/studies/acns/champion.htm

In October 1999, the Congress, based in part on this research, enacted the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act specifying 9-1-1 to be the “universal emergency telephone number” and finding that “emerging technologies can be a critical component…to reduce emergency response times and provide appropriate care.” In 1999, the FCC also issued rules for Enhanced 9-1-1 service to automatically provide location information to emergency dispatchers.

2000’s – By 2000 the U.S. had lost 3.1 Million Lives to Vehicle Violence

In 2001, NHTSA published an evaluation report on a limited test of Automatic Crash Notification (ACN). See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/ACNEvaluation.pdf

In 2001, NHTSA published a paper “Development and Validation of the URGENCY Algorithm to Predict Compelling Injuries” See https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/2001-06-0051/

In 2001, NHTSA published CIREN Report #1, which I edited, that carried chapters on the continuation of work on crashes, injuries, treatments, and outcomes to reduce deaths and disabilities. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/CIREN1.pdf

In 2003, NHTSA published a paper on the creation of the Atlas and Database of Air Medical Services (ADAMS) to help improve rescue of seriously injured crash victims to get them to definitive (timely and optimal) care at trauma centers. See http://www.adamsairmed.org/pubs/ITS_SSC.pdf

In 2003, NHTSA published CIREN Report #2, which I edited, that carried chapters on improving care for crash victims at Trauma Centers. It summarizes much of the work. See pp.37-45 at https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/CIREN2.pdf

In 2005, NHTSA published a paper by Dr. Champion and the team “New Tools to Reduce Deaths and Disabilities by Improving Emergency Care: Urgency Software, Occult Injury Warnings, and Air Medical Services Database”. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/2005-urgency.pdf

In 2005, another team of researchers I worked with produced a paper “Assessment of Air Medical Coverage Using the Atlas and Database of Air Medical Services and Correlations With Reduced Highway Fatality Rates”. This paper indicated the life saving potential for the ADAMS GIS by providing the data and software tools needed to enable users to view the air medical resources in this country on national, state, and local levels. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/amj-paper-4.pdf

By 2006, under the Bush Administration, NHTSA had reassigned me to work that appeared to me to have less promising life saving potential. I thought that I should retire and work on improving care for crash victims.

By 2007, GM had funded work at CDC to remove “Rollover and Extrication” from new Triage Guidelines. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/CFCV-MonthlyReport-March2014.pdf

By 2009, Dr. Champion had a paper published in the Journal of Trauma noting the importance of “Rollover and Extrication” in Triage Guidelines. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/rollover_paper.pdf

By 2009, BMW had shown what was possible with Automatic Crash Notification, URGENCY software, and communications with trauma centers and air medical services. Watch video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A30fi8-muk4

2010’s – By 2010 the U.S. had lost 3.5 Million Lives to Vehicle Violence

By 2015, the NHTSA data showed that both the number and percent of fatalities counted by NHTSA that died pre-hospital exceeded those that died in hospital. See

JS Final NHTSA Vehicle Deaths GraphData Percentages States 06-15-15-1 2015 at https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/home/urgency In 2015, Dr. Champion’s paper “Time and Place of Death from Automobile Crashes” was published by the Journal of Trauma. Copy attached. It shows that time and place of death data continue to support calls for improvements in the triage, transport, and treatment decisions of people seriously injured in crashes.

By 2016, twenty five years later, – and nearly 1 million American lives lost and nearly 4 million serious injuries later – NHTSA still has not published a federal minimum vehicle safety standard FMVSS for ACN, URGENCY software, and communications and dispatch protocols to trauma centers and air medical services when crashes have a high probability of presence of serious injuries. This despite 100 deaths per day and 400 serious injuries per day in the U.S.A. today. See

NHTSA has failed the American people. After 25 years, 56% of all deaths due to vehicle violence still occur without transport to any facility for emergency medical care. And of the 44% that are taken to “some” facility, not necessarily a trauma center for optimal care, many die for lack of timely and optimal care.

The science and safety technologies have been there for decades. The needless deaths and suffering continue.

Lou Lombardo

Legal Reader Interview on Whistle Blowing

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Legal Reader’s Jay W. Belle Isle interviewed me via email on the subject of Whistle Blowing for Legal Reader. See http://www.legalreader.com/

This is to thank Jay and Legal Reader and to make the interview available to our community.

The link to the interview is at http://www.legalreader.com/interview-louis-lombardo-on-whistleblowing-and-vehicle-emissions/

I also wish to thank Claire Nader and the Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest for information on the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage given to two recent recipients of the Whistle Blower Awards.

Sincere appreciation,

Lou Lombardo

Senators Markey and Blumenthal Call For NHTSA Standards

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Senators Markey and Blumenthal. “If modern day cars are computers on wheels, we need mandatory standards, not voluntary guidance, to ensure that our vehicles cannot be hacked and lives and information put in danger.

“FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Giselle Barry (Markey) 202-224-2742

Maria McElwain (Blumenthal) 202-224-6452

Markey, Blumenthal on New Transportation Dept. Auto Cybersecurity Guidance: It’s A Take-Home Exam for Failing Students

Senators have introduced legislation to protect drivers from auto security, privacy risks

Washington (October 24, 2016) – Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), members of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, released the following statement today after the Department of Transportation unveiled proposed guidance for improving motor vehicle cybersecurity. In 2015, Senator Markey released the report Tracking & Hacking: Security & Privacy Gaps Put American Drivers at Risk, which detailed major gaps in how auto companies are securing connected features in cars against hackers. For example, only two of the 16 car companies had developed any capability to detect and respond to a hacking attack in real time.

“This new cybersecurity guidance from the Department of Transportation is like giving a take-home exam on the honor code to failing students,” said Senators Markey and Blumenthal. “If modern day cars are computers on wheels, we need mandatory standards, not voluntary guidance, to ensure that our vehicles cannot be hacked and lives and information put in danger. In this new Internet of Things era, we cannot let safety, cybersecurity, and privacy be an afterthought. We must pass our legislation, the SPY Car Act, that puts the protections in place to ensure auto safety and security in the 21st century.”

In July, the Senators introduced the Security and Privacy in Your Car (SPY Car) Act, legislation that would direct the National Highway Traffic and Safety administration and the Federal Trade Commission to establish federal standards to secure our cars and protect drivers’ privacy. The SPY Car Act also establishes a rating system — or “cyber dashboard”— that informs consumers about how well the vehicle protects drivers’ security and privacy beyond those minimum standards.

In August, Senators Markey and Blumenthal called on the Federal Communications Commission to consider taking a number of steps to protect consumers’ safety and privacy as car manufacturers deploy vehicle-2-vehicle and vehicle-2-infrastructure technologies in their automobiles.

###

The NHTSA “guidelines” document (attached) as National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (2016, October). Cybersecurity best practices for modern vehicles. (Report No. DOT HS 812 333). Washington, DC: Author.

When government fails to do its job setting legal standards – it is creating a lawless society – people suffer and die.

That is the tragic history of “voluntary” standards. Just one example is the “voluntary” agreement of the 1920s allowing lead in gasoline poisoning people for decades. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/gettheleadout.pdf

Lou Lombardo

NHTSA Revolving Door Cited by Campaign for Accountability

October, 2016

Dear Care For Crash Victims Community Members:

The Campaign for Accountability (CfA) has called for strengthening NHTSA’s ethics regime.“WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the non-partisan watchdog group Campaign for Accountability (CfA) called on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to improve its ethics enforcement program. Documents published by the Google Transparency Project reveal that top NHTSA officials were in frequent contact with Google executives while working on federal guidelines for self-driving cars.

Read the letter here.

Ron Medford, the former deputy director at NHTSA, left the agency in January 2013 to become Google’s Director of Safety for Self-Driving Cars. Prior to joining Google, Mr. Medford – along with a host of other top officials at the Transportation Department — communicated regularly by email with high-level Google officials. The hiring of Mr. Medford was viewed as giving Google “a bureaucrat intimately familiar with the inner-workings of the transportation administration.” Eight months after Mr. Medford joined Google, he arranged a meeting at Google’s headquarters with his successor at NHTSA, David Friedman.

CfA Executive Director Anne Weismann stated, “The close interaction between Google and federal transportation officials raises questions as to whether NHTSA has become too cozy with a company it is charged with regulating.”

In addition to Mr. Medford, at least three other senior NHTSA officials including Administrator David Strickland, Senior Associate Administrator Danny Smith, and Government Affairs Director Chan Lieu left the agency between 2012 and 2015 to aid Google’s work on self-driving cars. Mr. Strickland and Mr. Lieu joined Venable LLP, a law firm that counts Google as a client, and Mr. Smith apparently serves as a Google consultant.

CfA has asked NHTSA to determine whether Mr. Medford followed the relevant ethics rules and regulations when negotiating his employment and move to Google. CfA also has asked NHTSA to develop a more robust ethics enforcement process to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”

See http://campaignforaccountability.org/cfa-calls-on-highway-safety-agency-to-strengthen-ethics-regime-after-close-ties-to-google-revealed/

As I and many others have long been advocating, closing the Revolving Door will save many lives and prevent much suffering. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-closerevdoor.php

Lou Lombardo

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

Injury + Inequality + Injustice = Tragedies Past, Present, and Future

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

An article published by the Washington Post, on the front page Oct. 26, 2016, provides insights into the legal “system” as it currently values awards for injured people’s lives differently based on race, gender, and age. And then secrecy in settlements is used to minimize compensation, costs, deterrence, and accountability.“In one case, when a 6-year-old girl and a male fetus were killed in the same car crash, the settlement for the fetus was calculated to be up to 84 percent higher than the girl’s, according to court records.”…

The debate over this use of demographic averages pits two tenets of the American justice system – fairness and accuracy – against each other.

Martha Chamallas, a law professor at Ohio State, called the practice reminiscent of “something Ruth Bader Ginsburg and civil rights advocates [fought] in the 1960s.” Jennifer Wriggins, a law professor at the University of Maine, said it “reinforces past discrimination and pushes it out into the future and endorses it.”

Defenders say it is the most accurate way to make calculations about the losses people incur when they are injured. “If there’s a difference in society, it is what it is. It’s a difference, and the economist’s job is to figure out what would have happened,” said James Woods, a forensic economist in Houston…

Law professors who study the practice in the United States say it deserves a fresh look, given America’s increasing awareness of the role race plays in the justice system – as well as the progress women have made in closing other economic disparities….Although G.M.M.’s case took place in open court, 95 percent of personal injury cases are settled behind closed doors, according to Lawrence Spizman, the president of the National Association of Forensic Economics. These settlements – which largely make up the $35 billion personal-injury industry, according to IBIS World – are almost always attached to confidentiality agreements preventing the victims from discussing the terms reached…. In a 2009 survey by the National Association of Forensic Economics, 44 percent said they considered race and 92 percent said they considered gender when projecting the annual wage for an injured child. Race and gender also come into play in many other calculations as well.” See https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/wonk/settlements/

Thanks to the Post and author Kim Soffen for this revealing examination of how our legal “system” fails victims.

As for why lawyers do not use the DOT value of a statistical life of $9 million, I leave it to readers to judge.

Feinberg did not use $9 million in the GM ignition scandal. As I wrote: “First, the Feinberg team, in devising their compensation plan, did not consider the DOT guidance on the higher value of a statistical life of $9.1 million. Although Mr. Feinberg did ask for that information to be submitted for their consideration. So yesterday I submitted the attached DOT Policy Guidance document.” See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-feinberg-comp.php

Lou Lombardo