Category: Blog

Unfortunately, the annual government spending bill has become her private domain for pushing anti-truck safety measures. When trucking interests sought to significantly increase truck weights in Maine, Sen. Collins was ready to help. Last year, FedEx and others recognized a willing partner in Sen. Collins when they sought to overturn laws in 39 states, including Maine, and allow monster-sized trucks across the country.

And, for the third consecutive year, as a senior Appropriations Committee member, she slipped a provision into the bill to repeal the reasonable federal limits on the driving and working hours of truckers, although fatigue is a major cause of truck crashes.

However, this time she went even further and wrote into law an increase in the driving hours of truckers from 60 to 73 in a week. This is insane, but she has the temerity to actually claim it will be safer. This proposal had no congressional hearing, no scientific review and no public input. But it’s no problem if you are a well-connected trucking lobbyist.

Truck crashes kill 4,000 people and injure 100,000 more annually. Sen. Collins’ solution is to help corporate trucking interests protect their profits, but not public safety.”

See http://www.pressherald.com/2016/05/20/letter-to-the-editor-sen-collins-puts-trucking-industry-profits-before-public-safety/

We need a graphic showing Lady Justice holding the scales of Justice.  On the heavy side a big bag of Corporate Dollars.  On the light side the endless lives being lost going to heaven.  From under the blindfold tears flowing from Lady Justice.

What stories could they share with attendees?

Here is the Administrator’s expertise in a nutshell https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-r-rosekind-ph-d-0009226/

Imagine loopholes so big that broken axles are allowed to fall through them by a captive NHTSA.  Which is worse – the defect in the Ford axle or the defect in the NHTSA that allowed brackets?

“May 16, 2016 — Government regulations say automakers must repair recalled vehicles to make sure consumers are safe. But consumer safety advocates say that is not happening in the case of some 1998 – 2003 model year Ford Windstar minivans with rear axles prone to breaking due to rust.

And, they say all consumers should be worried that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration doesn’t see this as a problem.

In 2010 Ford first recalled about 528,000 Windstars, saying a “completely fractured rear axle may lead to a loss of vehicle control” with “little or no warning.” But the automaker told the N.H.T.S.A. not all of them would get a new axle as the result of a recall.

Ford said it would only replace an axle only if it was cracking.

Otherwise, it would install supporting brackets that would “extend axle durability in the presence of corrosion.”

The brackets were intended as a safety device “to prevent any future axle fractures from causing a loss of control,” John Cangany, a Ford spokesman said in an email. “Even with the brackets installed, there was still a potential for the axle to continue to corrode and crack.”

The federal regulators thought that was okay.

“The support brackets that were the recall remedy, eliminated the safety-related consequence if they were properly installed,” Bryan Thomas, the agency’s director of communications, said recently in a statement.

But federal regulations require a repair that will eliminate danger.  A couple of brackets to prevent “a loss of control,” doesn’t do that, said Joan Claybrook, a consumer advocate and former head of Public Citizen who was in charge of the N.H.T.S.A. from 1977 to 1981.  If Ford’s recall is going to be “lawful” all Windstars should get a new axle, Claybrook said.

The problem is that Ford isn’t replacing the axle, but instead trying to prevent a “catastrophic result” if it breaks,  said Allan J. Kam, a safety consultant from Bethesda, Md., who was the senior enforcement lawyer for the agency before retiring in 2000.

Ford’s position is that there won’t be any “catastrophic results.”  Just before the recall in 2010, a Ford spokesman said even if an axle broke the driver should be able to maintain control.

But shortly after the 2010 recall was announced, federal regulators took the unusual step of urging owners not to delay getting the problem fixed. The reason was a crash that killed Sean Bowman, a 28-year-old Massachusetts man.”

See http://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2016/ford-windstar-axle-recall-may-not-meet-us-safety-agency-own-rules.shtml

We need a government in America as good as in India!

As we think about Benefits and Costs we need to think about Who gets the Benefits and Who gets the Costs.  People’s lives vs. Corporate monies.