Category: Blog

Gun Violence and Vehicle Violence – Thoughts on Fathers Day 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
We need an end to both gun violence and vehicle violence.

Gun Violence Statistics

Brady Campaign reports:

Every Day on Average (all ages)

Every day, 297 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, and police intervention.

Every day, 89 people die from gun violence: 

  • 31 are murdered
  • 55 kill themselves
  • 2 are killed unintentionally
  • 1 is killed by police intervention
  • 1 intent unknown.

Every day, 208 people are shot and survive:

  • 151 shot in an assault
  • 10 survive a suicide attempt
  • 45 are shot unintentionally
  • 2 are shot in a police intervention

See http://www.bradycampaign.org/key-gun-violence-statistics

Vehicle Violence Statistics
Every average day nearly 100 people in America die from vehicle violence.

Every average day nearly 400 people in America suffer serious injuries from vehicle violence.

Every average day nearly $2 Billion in losses result from vehicle violence in America.

See http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf

President Obama’s Views Concern Crash Victims
Crash victims seek reasonable and doable actions by the President such as setting a national Vision Zero Goal.  See
President Obama’s Fathers Day Message:“Like all dads, I worry about my girls’ safety all the time.  Especially when we see preventable violence in places our sons and daughters go every day – their schools and houses of worship, movie theaters, nightclubs, as they get older.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/weekly-address
Why?
So why does the President, that I voted for twice, continue to miss talking about vehicle violence after nearly 250,000 vehicle deaths and 1 million serious vehicle injuries under his administration?
We need an end to this strange indifference to vehicle violence.  See http://www.fairwarning.org/2012/09/a-strange-indifference-to-highway-carnage/
We can and must do better than this.
Lou

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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

Inventors Seek Crowd Sourced Funding For Improving Rescue of Crash Victims

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Please see this entrepreneurial effort to save lives.  Inventors Paul and David Smart are experienced fire rescue workers who have patented a system to provide fire fighters with information in real time to help extricate crash victims faster and safer.  This is a technology that is needed all across the U.S.A. today.

They ask:

“I’m writing to announce the launch of our Kickstarter page today. If we’re successful, we’ll raise 15K to have Chop Dawg Studios (www.chopdawg.com) create the demonstration prototype of our program that potential investors have been asking to see.

This will be a HUGE step towards helping us to help rescuers do their jobs and save more lives of crash victims. Here is the page:
Would you please share, forward, visit, post on FB, Twitter, etc. to help us get the word out? We need all the help we can get to raise 15K July 23rd. If we fall short, we get nothing. If we meet our goal, we could have our tech in recuers’ hands by the end of the year.”
If auto companies had hearts, they would be racing to help develop and deploy this technology.
Lou
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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

NHTSA Problems Counting Deaths

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Thanks to Randy Whitfield of Quality Control Systems Corp. who has written an important note to us on this subject.   He offers us a particular, and recent, instance of NHTSA’s failure to count deaths – tire related deaths – in a rulemaking process once considered sacrosanct.  

“You wrote:
…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.
For example, tire-related deaths…
According to the official NHTSA press release…
“… each year there are almost 200 fatalities as a result of tire-related crashes”
But in fact, even the FARS data show the count in 2014 was 596.
Why would NHTSA’s tire safety rulemaking be guided (that is to say, brought to a halt) by a sample-based estimate of the number of persons who die in tire-related crashes which undercounts the figure derived from FARS by two-thirds?
See…
(And, of course, the FARS-based result is itself sure to be an underestimate.)
You wrote:  “More Americans must ask themselves: What strings hold back Federal auto safety actions by the President?”
To put it more bluntly, why would Federal auto safety officials knowingly mislead the public about important public health issues?”
See more of Randy’s excellent work at http://www.quality-control.us/
America is fortunate to have Randy’s organization working to save lives.
But America is not fortunate to have had NHTSA become a captive regulatory agency.  See NY Times article and readers comments at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/opinion/weak-oversight-deadly-cars.html
Lou

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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

NHTSA Still Not Counting Many People’s Deaths

Dear Care For Crash Victims Community Members:

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.”

See http://annaleahmary.com/2016/06/the-anger-and-frustration-in-the-aftermath-of-a-truck-crash-are-not-easily-resolved/

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

Lou

NHTSA and Tesla Guilt – Past, Present and Future

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Consumer Watchdog is calling on President Obama, DOT, NHTSA and Tesla to do the right thing for safety.  Keep their hands on the wheels and eyes on our future for safety from pain – not on the revolving door and private gain.

“Consumer Watchdog Exposes Robot Car Weaknesses At Symposium; Calls On Tesla To Update Software & Carmakers To Accept Legal Responsibility, Asks Feds To Go Slow

SAN FRANCISCO, July 18, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Consumer Watchdog today called on Tesla to require, through a software update, that the driver’s hands remain on the steering wheel when Autopilot is engaged, and for the Obama administration to slow its push to deploy self-driving robot car technology.  The group also called on Tesla and other carmakers to accept legal responsibility when their self-driving technology causes a crash.

The nonpartisan nonprofit public interest group brought a large white truck to circle outside the Union Square Hilton Hotel where the Automated Vehicles Symposium 2016 is being held this week. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator Mark R. Rosekind are to speak at this week’s Automated Vehicles Symposium and are expected to release industry-friendly “guidance” for robot cars, which give the public no opportunity for comment or scrutiny.

The white truck highlighted the shortcomings of Tesla’s Autopilot, which could not distinguish between a white truck making a left turn in front of the car and a bright sky in a fatal crash in Florida that killed former Navy SEAL Joshua Brown.  Consumer Watchdog’s truck had large signs reading “Tesla Don’t Hit Me!” and “Obama Speed Kills.”

View and download a photo of the truck here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/images/teslatruck071816sm.jpg

Consumer Watchdog proposed reprogramming Tesla’s Autopilot software to require the driver’s hands on the wheel in a letter sent today with former NHTSA Administrator Joan Claybrook to Tesla Chairman Elon Musk and NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind.  The letter also called for automakers to accept legal responsibility and for NHTSA to abandon its voluntary guidelines and adopt enforceable standards. Read the letter here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/ltrmuskrosekind7-18-16_final.pdf”

“We are deeply concerned about the failure of Tesla and NHTSA to accept responsibility for the death of Joshua Brown, a death that is not the result of human error, but of the failure of technology and acceptance of a voluntary industry agreement by the government in lieu of minimum mandatory safety performance standards,” Court and Claybrook wrote.    

“The tragic fatal Tesla crash in Florida demonstrates the need for Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards rather than voluntary guidelines. Not only did the Tesla S’s video camera fail to distinguish a white truck from white sky, but its automatic emergency braking system failed to apply the brake with a tractor-trailer stretched across the road right in front of it.”  The letter noted that NHTSA had denied a rulemaking proceeding for safety standards for automatic emergency braking that may have created enforceable standards for radar range that could have prevented the death.”

See release at http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/consumer-watchdog-exposes-robot-car-weaknesses-at-symposium-calls-on-tesla-to-update-software–carmakers-to-accept-legal-responsibility-asks-feds-to-go-slow-300300071.html

Will Obama, Foxx, Rosekind and Musk keep their hands on the wheels and their eyes on our future safety?  Or will the American people suffer more pain – because their eyes are on the revolving door and private gain?

President Obama, Secretary Foxx, Administrator Rosekind and Tesla’s Elon Musk can’t talk with Joshua Brown the Tesla underride crash victim.  But they can talk with Marianne Karth for first hand knowledge of underride tragedy.  See http://annaleahmary.com/  And they can talk with Claybrook and Court on safety governance.  Will they or won’t they?  If not, why not?  That is the question the American people should be asking.

Lou Lombardo
____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

Adding Visuals To Rulemaking Increasing Public Understanding and Influence

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The Karth family shares a Draft Law Review article that recognizes the importance of visuals in Rulemaking in increasing public influence.  See http://annaleahmary.com/2016/06/visual-rulemaking-law-review-article-and-deadly-underride-discussion-june-24-at-iihs/

The NY Times publishes an excellent article on the latest IIHS crash test visuals – such visuals have long influenced the advance of safety thanks to Dr. William Haddon, Ralph Nader, Joan Claybrook and many other safety leaders.  See   http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/24/automobiles/risks-higher-for-front-seat-passengers-in-some-suv-crashes-tests-show.html?mabReward=CTM&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine
Letting the public see what is happening to them is a good step forward in advancing safety.

Lou

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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com

Nader To Be In Automotive Hall of Fame

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

AchievementsLast year, Clarence Ditlow reported the achievements since publication of Unsafe at Any Speed to include the saving of an estimated 3.5 million lives (many millions more Americans were saved from suffering serious injuries).  Seehttp://www.thenation.com/article/on-50th-anniversary-of-ralph-naders-unsafe-at-any-speed-safety-group-reports-auto-safety-regulation-has-saved-3-5-million-lives/

Honor

Today according to Corporate Crime Reporter:“Auto safety advocate Ralph Nader will be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame next month at the Cobo Center in Detroit Michigan.”

More NeededCurrently every average day nearly 100 people in America die from vehicle violence.Every average day nearly 400 people in America suffer serious injuries from vehicle violence.

Every average day nearly $2 Billion in losses result from vehicle violence in America.

See http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf

One need addressed by Law Professor Rena Steinzor is in an article last year in the Harvard Law & Policy Review titled

(Still) “Unsafe at Any Speed”:
Why Not Jail for Auto Executives?
Lou
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____________________Lou Lombardowww.CareForCrashVictims.com