Category: Blog

Automotive News reports on timeline of delays in warning motorists of their endangerment:

“SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla Motors Inc. alerted regulators to a fatality in one of its electric cars in partial self-driving Autopilot mode nine days after it crashed, the company said on Tuesday, defending its decision not to make the accident public before a federal investigation was announced.

Tesla learned about the crash of the Model S sedan in Florida “shortly” after the May 7 crash, and on May 16 it disclosed the incident to the government. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on June 30 announced a probe.”

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20160705/OEM11/160709944/tesla-told-regulators-about-autopilot-crash-9-days-after-accident

Corporations and NHTSA keep the public in the dark on fatal crashes.

It is a deliberate Vision Zero policy of keeping the public blind, ignorant, and unsafe.

Lou

—

Lou Lombardo

Marianne Karth asks our help as follows:

On D-Day, Monday, June 6, 2016, STARTING at NOON (EST), help me flood the media with this message in reply to President Obama (see the sharing links below):

President Obama,

Thank you for your sympathy and kind words. But what I, and over 20,000 Vision Zero Petition signers, want is for you to do what no one else in this country can do: Make Traffic Safety a National Priority!

1. Set a National Vision Zero Goal to move us toward zero crash deaths.
2. Establish a White House Vision Zero Task Force.
3. Sign a Vision Zero Executive Order; and
4. Appoint a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman to oversee our progress in making our  roads safer.

Looking forward to hearing from you again soon,

Marianne Karth

Please share this Traffic Safety Virtual Flash Mob Game Plan with others before Monday, June 6, D-Day:

1. Read this post.
2. Put this Virtual Event on your calendar.
3. Share this blogpost with others who you think might want to help.
4. On Monday, June 6, 2016, D-Day starting at noon EST, post this vital message –using every form of social media at your disposal:

• Share on Twitter: @PresidentObama @POTUS  Do something about 33,000 crash deaths/yr. Make Traffic Safety a National Priority! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX-3CPyGA7c 
• Send a message to @President Obama on Facebook: President Obama, Make Traffic Safety A National Priority 
• Share this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/dOP9H_rOi4w

See http://annaleahmary.com/2016/06/i-got-an-email-from-president-obama-this-week/

Marianne Karth is upset – as we all should be – by President Obama’s words and continued inaction in his last days as President.

“Dear President Obama,

I sat at my computer the other day and listened to you speak at a Town Hall on PBS News Hour (recorded June 1, 2016).

You said that crash fatalities were a major public health problem — as if they no longer are. You implied that we have already done, or are already doing, everything possible to prevent 33,000 people from dying on the roads of our country every year.

In fact, your attitude brushes off my daughters’ deaths as inevitable rather than potentially preventable.  It sounds like, to you, their deaths — their lives —  weren’t worth enough to put out the additional effort needed to decrease the fatality rate to the fullest extent possible. And not once have you acknowledged our petition for Vision Zero action.

Let me tell you, that makes me mad! Would you be any less so were your family in our shoes?! Would that change your tune about the acceptability of the current crash fatality rate? Would you suddenly speak out against the decades of political tug-of-war which delay — over and over — needed safety measures?

Would you go beyond talking about it and do what no one else can do: lead the way in setting our entire nation (and not just some programs in the USDOT or scattered efforts in states, cities, and communities) on a course of aggressively moving toward zero crash deaths & serious injuries?

Would you, in fact, make Traffic Safety a national priority–placing it on the list of important issues listed on whitehouse.gov and then do something about it, e.g.,:

1. Set a National Vision Zero Goal?
2. Establish a White House Vision Zero Task Force?
3. Sign a Vision Zero Executive Order to allow Vision Zero Rulemaking?
4. Get We the People involved in the action and the solution by promoting the development of a nationwide network of Traffic Safety/Vision Zero Community Groups?
5. Appoint a Traffic Safety Ombudsman who would oversee all of this and be an  Advocate for vulnerable road users (which includes us all) —untainted by political pressures?

President, Obama, don’t be misled by DOT’s commitment to the TZD (Toward Zero Deaths) initiative. It is obviously not enough. I should know; I have spent endless hours engaged in a battle for safer trucking, and others have spent many more years doing so.

Take the bull by the horn, make use of the authority invested in you as the leader of this country, and end this public health travesty. And please, talk to me about this; show me that you are not ignoring our heartfelt, data-driven pleas.

On behalf of AnnaLeah & Mary (and countless others), who can no longer speak for themselves,

Marianne Karth

p.s. What is stopping you from taking this action which would benefit us all?

On the PBS News Hour, June 1, 2016, starting at 1:57 to about 3:05 on this video,  hear President Obama speak about the crash fatality rate:

https://www.facebook.com/newshour/videos/10154247237078675/

The President has the responsibility and power to do that which Marianne Karth is asking for and he should do so – unless there is a higher political power stopping him.

For Vision Zero goals set by others around the world see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_Zero

Lou

Great news from Cally Houck:WE WON!!! Thank you, everyone!

cally houck

Ojai, CA

Jun 1, 2016 — The Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act, named for my beautiful and talented daughters, is now the law of the land!! Thank you to everyone who pitched in to make this happen. We still have work to do, to close the car dealers’ loaner-car loophole. But meanwhile, this is a huge victory. To their credit, the rental car companies themselves worked with me and Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, and Dr. Rosekind, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, our champions in Congress, and other consumer groups to get the law enacted. Good to know that we the people can change the law to protect precious lives, when enough of us speak up.Cally Houck

The Detroit News reports:

Washington — Rental car companies are prohibited from distributing vehicles that have been recalled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under a new federal law that took effect Wednesday.

The new law requires rental companies with fleets of more than 35 vehicles to pull recalled cars from their rotations until they are repaired.

The prohibition was included in a $305 billion highway bill that was approved by Congress last year. It was originally introduced as a bill that was named after Raechel and Jacqueline Houck, sisters who were killed in a 2004 crash in California that involved a rental car that had been recalled. Their mother, Cally Houck, lobbied Congress for years to approve the change.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said he is happy to enforce the ban now that has Congress has codified the prohibition in federal law.

“When a family picks up a rental car on vacation, they should be able to expect it is free of any known safety defect,” Foxx said in a statement. “I thank Congress and the safety advocates who helped turn this common-sense idea into law.”

The ban on recalled cars does not apply to used car dealerships, despite a push from safety advocates to also apply the prohibition to them.

Backers of the ban on rental companies distributing recalled cars said it is a major victory that the ban is taking effect today, even as they vowed to continue pushing for a wider prohibitions including the sale of recalled used cars by dealers.

“I’m thrilled that the Safe Rental Car Act named for my beautiful, treasured daughters, Raechel and Jacqueline, is now the law of the land. But I’m worried about the loaner-car loophole for car dealers and remain committed to closing that dangerous safety gap,” Cally Houck said in a statement distributed on Wednesday by the Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety group.

“If this law was in existence when my cherished, beautiful daughter Jewel rented a car, she would still be alive today,” added Alexander Brangman, whose 26-year-old daughter Jewel died in a 2014 crash while she was driving a rented 2001 Honda Civic.

Lawmakers in Washington who pushed for the inclusion of the recalled rental ban in the massive highway funding law that was approved last year also touted the implementation of the prohibition on Wednesday.

“I am so proud that the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act takes effect today so that the public can be assured that when they rent a car, it cannot be under recall,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who introduced multiple bills contain the ban before it was added to the 2015 highway bill.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., added: “This law is going to save lives, period. Families heading out for vacation or businesspeople on travel should never have to wonder if their rental car is under recall when they drive it off the lot. Thanks to this bill, the millions of people who rent cars every year will have peace of mind that rental companies can’t rent or sell cars that they know are unsafe.”

NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind agreed, saying the recalled rental ban gives his agency “one more tool to protect the safety of U.S. motorists,” although he lamented the fact that there are currently more than 900 active auto recalls.

See http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2016/06/01/new-law-bans-rental-companies-using-recalled-cars/85246898/

For more on the history of this safety victory see the book Death by Rental Car available at

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Rental-Car-Houck-Changed/dp/0692559132?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Great safety advance!

Lou