Category: Blog

NHTSA Revolving Door Spins in DC for Self-Driving Cars


NHTSA Revolving Door Spins in DC for Self-Driving Cars

April, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

As I just read in the Introduction to the new book “Nation on the Take”:

“In 1974, around 3 percent of former members (of Congress) became lobbyists.  Now, half of them pass through Washington’s “Revolving Door” … As the NY Times’s Mark Leibovich observed: “In some sense [they are] living proof of the thing that most voters loathe about Washington: the notion that membership in its political class guarantees a win-for-life lottery ticket.”

Now we read a new lobby group has been formed with David Strickland, former NHTSA Administrator and former Senate Staffer as spokesman:Insurance Journal - Property Casualty Industry News

Google, Ridesharing Firms, Automakers Form Lobby Group for Self-Driving Cars

A group of companies including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Ford Motor Co. and Uber Technologies Inc., are forming a coalition to advocate for safety regulations for self-driving cars and to bring them to American roads.
The group, which also includes Volvo Cars and Lyft Inc., aims to work with lawmakers, regulators and the public to “realize the safety and societal benefits of self-driving vehicles,” according to a statement Tuesday.
Self-driving cars will make roads in the U.S. safer and less congested, according to the group, but “one clear set of federal standards” is needed to help facilitate bringing the cars to market. One of the group’s first tasks will be to work with civic organizations, municipalities and businesses to accomplish that goal, according to the statement.
“Fully autonomous vehicles will help people travel more safely and efficiently, as well as facilitate mobility for those currently unable to drive,” Ford said in a separate statement.
David Strickland, a former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, will serve as the coalition’s counsel and spokesman.”

See Strickland smiling in recent photo (seated far left) with other former NHTSA Administrators attached.

Lou

 

Breakthrough to Lifesaving Information on Auto Defects


Breakthrough to Lifesaving Information on Auto Defects

April, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The Center for Auto Safety announced a legal breakthrough.  

The facts that it took a lawsuit and nearly 4 years to get NHTSA to do its job should raise questions in the American people’s minds including:  1.  Why?   2.  How many people were and will be needlessly injured and killed because of the delay.

3.  How do we get NHTSA to work for the people and not the auto companies?

See http://www.autosafety.org/how-to-find-technical-service-bulletins-and-other-manufacturer-communications-via-nhtsas-search-portal/

 

April 25, 2016202-328-7700

How to Find Technical Service Bulletins and Other Manufacturer Communicationsvia NHTSA’s Search Portal

On February 4, 2016, the Center for Auto Safety (CAS) filed a lawsuit against Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx seeking to enforce the Congressional mandate in in the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” (MAP-21) enacted on July 6, 2012.

MAP-21 provided that “the Secretary shall make available on a publicly accessible Internet website, a true or representative copy of each communication to the manufacturer’s dealers or to owners or purchasers of a motor vehicle or replacement equipment produced by the manufacturer about a defect or noncompliance with a motor vehicle safety standard prescribed under this chapter in a vehicle or equipment that is sold or serviced.”

To make the Bulletins searchable by consumers, MAP-21 required: “an index to each communication, which– (A) identifies the make, model, and model year of the affected vehicles; (B) includes a concise summary of the subject matter of the communication; and (C) shall be made available by the Secretary to the public on the Internet in a searchable format.”

On March 25, DOT finally announced its intent to start obeying the law by issuing a Federal Register notice stating it would post all Technical Service Bulletins and communications to dealers on defects in vehicles, regardless of whether the defects were safety related. DOT also required manufacturers of vehicles and equipment to prepare indexes to TSBs and dealer communications, as a guide to consumers looking for information on potential vehicle problems.

Soon after, NHTSA began posting TSBs only to its website through the safety portal used for recalls, complaints, and related information. Electronic communications to dealers should begin to be posted in the summer of 2016. You can locate these communications by following the three easy steps listed in the following pages.

Thanks to the Center for Auto Safety, Public Citizen, and their founder Ralph Nader for this breakthrough.
Lou Lombardo

 

Cancer Moonshot vs. No Crash Injuries Moonshot


Cancer Moonshot vs. No Crash Injuries Moonshot

April, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

What is the difference between President Obama creating a Cancer Moonshot – but not a Crash Injury Moonshot?  

1.  Cancer does not have a lobby against government action.

2.  Crash Injuries have a huge lobby against government action.  This despite the fact that an end to crash injuries is within sight – in a decade.

The “Strange Indifference to Highway Carnage” continues at the highest levels of the U.S. government.  Seehttp://www.fairwarning.org/2012/09/a-strange-indifference-to-highway-carnage/
Lou

 

Corporate Crime Reporter Interview of Ben Kelley on Death by Rental Car

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Please read this to better understand how rigged things are in America against crash victims. http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/ben-kelley-on-death-by-rental-car/

As you read it remember that taxpayers bailed out Chrysler.

Lou

The Voice of a Crash Victim


The Voice of a Crash Victim

April, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

The most important challenge we face is how do we help get the voices of victims heard and heeded!

Marianne Karth’s latest post:

“We can do better than continue to put our heads in the sand and think that these horrific, preventable, tragic deaths will go away by handling these problems the same old way.

What is being done now to address traffic safety issues is just not working: Senate Prepares To Make Truck Safety Even Worse, Advocates Warn
If you could walk in my shoes (and those of the hundreds of thousands of other Americans who have lost loved ones this way) and bear the unnecessary grief on a daily basis, then you might be able to understand the frustration of knowing that something better could be done about this–but ISN’T.

Are you listening, Congress, everyone involved in the trucking industry and traffic safety advocacy, and especially, right now, President Obama?!

Life & Death Traffic Safety Problems Deserve Proper Treatment: Not Political Tug-of-War Game!”