January, 2016
To help us all advance safety in this election year, I have put together some political facts and figures on auto safety.
Please see the January 2016 Monthly Report attached. Let us hope it helps us all build a Safer and more Just America.
Lou
December, 2015
NY Times article notes its first article on airbags. See http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/science/jan-2-1966-when-airbags-were-more-science-fiction-than-fact.html?hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
I had the privilege of working with Dr. Carl Clark at NHTSA in the 1980s.
By 1973, GM had produced and sold airbag vehicles to the U.S. government. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-daylaightsavings.php
December, 2015
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Josh Zembik (Blumenthal) – 202-224-6452
December 23, 2015
Giselle Barry (Markey) – 202-224-2742
BLUMENTHAL, MARKEY ON NHSTA RECALL COMPLETION RATES: “COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE AND A MASSIVE DISAPPOINTMENT”
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) issued the following statement on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) current completion rates for replacing recalled Takata airbags:
“Today’s update from NHTSA reiterates what we already know: the current pace of recall efforts is completely unacceptable and a massive disappointment. While they have increased somewhat in the last few weeks, these completion rates are dismal – NHTSA and automakers deserve a lump of coal this year for failing to get their act together to get every potentially deadly airbag off the road. As the holiday season brings increased travel, Americans on the road to visit family or friends should not be at risk because of NHTSA’s lethargic recall.
“The coordinated remedy and appointment of an independent monitor are helpful steps, but are largely required because NHTSA has moved too slowly and ineptly for years, allowing a patchwork of recalls too confusing for consumers to follow. Automakers have dragged their feet and failed to quickly and clearly communicate the extent of the risk to NHTSA and the public. While NHTSA’s appointment of John D. Buretta, an experienced litigator with a track record of protecting consumers, as independent monitor of the recall is a positive step, NHTSA must ensure that Mr. Buretta has all resources necessary to effectively oversee this critical task.
“While we appreciate Honda, Subaru, and Mazda’s recall expansions to ensure an adequate safety margin, there remain many un-recalled vehicles on the road that still contain potentially defective Takata airbags. The identification of yet another preventable death – this time a young boy and well after when this safety defect was first made known – reiterates the urgent need for swift recall of all cars with these potentially defective airbags, which we have been urging NHTSA to require for months. The longer it takes to require and complete this recall, the more drivers and passengers are at risk of injury or death.”
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December, 2015
Bloomberg reports:
NHTSA agrees that movement on the Takata case took too long and that’s why it included deadlines for action in its consent order with the company, Trowbridge said. For example, manufacturers in states with high humidity, which has been linked to the air bag failures, must have enough parts on hand by March to complete all repairs, he said.
“We’ve got kind of a mess on our hands here and everybody acknowledges this,” he said. “This is not going to get done fast enough to satisfy us or, frankly, we think the manufactures that are involved.”
Law changes that would make recall completion rates higher have consistently been fought by the industry, Ditlow said.
A measure contained in transportation legislation earlier this year would have required used car dealers to perform all outstanding recalls before selling vehicles. It was taken out of the bill before it passed.” See
December, 2015
Please see the excellent news below that we all can be thankful for from Clarence Ditlow.
Lou
December 1, 2015 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Caitlin Graf, The Nation, caitlin@thenation.com, 212-209-5426 Clarence Ditlow, The Center for Auto Safety, 202-328-7700
Exclusive to The Nation
New York, NY – December 1, 2015 – Based on an exclusive new analysis of deaths per mile driven, the Center for Auto Safety (CAS) and The Nation, America’s premiere weekly magazine of progressive politics and culture, today announced that auto safety-related measures—the 1966 federal laws, federal agency and general measures they created—have averted 3.5 million auto deaths over the past 50 years.
The data, compiled by CAS executive director Clarence Ditlow and timed to the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ralph Nader’s Unsafe At Any Speed, are exclusively reported in “How Ralph Nader Changed America,” a Nation profile of the crusading consumer advocate by Mark Green. It will be published in the December 21/28, 2015 edition of the magazine and be accompanied by an interviewbetween Nader and national affairs correspondent John Nichols.
“3.5 million represents the difference between the number of deaths that there would have been if the death rate had stayed at 5.50 per hundred million VMT (vehicle miles traveled) in 1966 versus what it went down to in each subsequent year, falling to 1.07 by 2014,” * said Ditlow. “Deaths have been saved by traffic laws (seat belt use, speed limits, helmet and drunk driving laws), safer roads, vehicle safety standards and vehicle safety improvements spurred by consumer demand for more safety after Unsafe at Any Speed.” *See chart at end, “Analysis of Lives Saved by Lower Vehicle Death Rates.”
Green, who worked for Nader in Washington, DC, from 1970-1980 and later became the first elected Public Advocate of New York City, added: “These 3.5 million American lives saved over five decades by auto regulation reducing auto-related death rates by 80 percent—as many saved per year as were killed in the entire Vietnam War—is a persuasive numerical rebuttal to all who glibly denounce ‘big government.’ Would they maintain their disdain if shown to among the 3.5 million? The issue is not the size of government but how a smart democracy can successfully save millions of lives.”
The Nation published Nader’s first article on auto safety, “The Safe Car You Can’t Buy,” on April 11, 1959, when he was just one year out of Harvard Law School. [Read an excerpt.] This article would provide the basis for Unsafe at Any Speed, which in turn helped launch the consumer-rights movement.
Until the fall of 1966, there was no federal regulatory law or agency protecting them from death and injury on the nation’s highways. In that year, 50,894 people were killed and 1.9 million injured. Prior to 1966, over 1.6 million people had been killed in motor vehicle accidents in the United States before the Congress passed two landmark pieces of legislation that year—the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and its companion bill, the Highway Safety Act. If the 1966 fatality rate of 5.50 deaths per hundred million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) had continued, 167,956 people would have been killed in vehicle crashes in 2014. Instead, the death rate was 1.07—a decline of 80 percent over 50 years—with 32,675 killed.
In 1965, the publication of Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed exposed the deplorable safety records of auto companies. The book—and subsequent investigation of the author by General Motors—led to Congressional hearings overseen by Senators Warren Magnuson and Abraham Ribicoff. At the Senate hearing, GM President James Roche apologized to Mr. Nader for his company’s probes. Within a few months, the Senate and House unanimously passed the Vehicle Safety and Highway Safety Acts, which were signed by President Lyndon Johnson on September 16th, who stated: “In this century, more than one and a half million of our fellow citizens have died on our streets and highways; nearly three times as many Americans as we have lost in all our wars. . . . I’m proud at this moment to sign these bills—which promise, in the years to come, to cure the highway disease: to end the years of horror and give us years of hope.”
For booking requests or further information, please see contact information above.
About the Center for Auto Safety:
Consumers Union and Ralph Nader founded the Center for Auto Safety (CAS) in 1970 to provide consumers a voice for auto safety and quality in Washington and to help lemon owners fight back across the country. CAS has a small budget but a big impact on the auto industry. With less than half what General Motors spends on a single Super Bowl commercial, CAS has taken on the auto giants and won for consumers. Its many accomplishments include lemon laws in every state; recall of the infamous Ford Pinto for exploding gas tanks and the Firestone 500 tire for tread separation; exposure of GM Firebomb pickups with side saddle gas tanks that burned over 1,000 people to death; state laws to force disclosure of secret warranties on cars that can save consumers billions of dollars each year; safety and highway standards that have dropped the death rate on America’s road from 5.2 per 100 million vehicles mile traveled in 1969 to 1.1 in 2010; and numerous legal victories over government agencies that have saved vital consumer, safety and environmental laws under assault by industry.
About The Nation:
Founded in 1865, The Nation is America’s oldest weekly magazine, serving as a critical, independent voice in American journalism and a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community. Through changing times and fashions, The Nation and TheNation.com offer consistently informed and inspired reporting and analysis of breaking news, politics, social issues and the arts—never faltering in our editorial commitment to what Nation Publisher Emeritus Victor Navasky has called “a dissenting, independent, trouble-making, idea-launching journal of critical opinion.”
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Center for Auto Safety Analysis of Lives Saved by Lower Vehicle Death Rates Since 1966
Year
# of Deaths
Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Millions
Death Rate per 100 Million VMT
# of Deaths if Death Rate = 1966
# of Lives Saved
1966
50,894
925,899
5.50
50,894
-0-
1967
50,724
964,005
5.26
53,020
2,126
1968
52,725
1,015,869
5.19
55,873
5,149
1969
53,543
1,061,791
5.04
58,399
5,674
1970
52,627
1,109,724
4.74
61,035
7,492
1971
52,542
1,178,811
4.46
64,835
12,208
1972
54,589
1,259,786
4.33
69,288
16,746
1973
54,052
1,313,110
4.12
72,221
17,632
1974
45,196
1,280,544
3.53
70,430
16,378
1975
44,525
1,327,664
3.35
73,022
27,826
1976
45,523
1,402,380
3.25
77,131
32,606
1977
47,878
1,467,027
3.26
80,686
35,163
1978
50,331
1,544,704
3.26
84,959
37,081
1979
51,093
1,529,133
3.34
84,102
33,771
1980
51,091
1,527,295
3.35
84,001
32,908
1981
49,301
1,555,308
3.17
85,542
34,451
1982
43,945
1,595,010
2.76
87,726
38,425
1983
42,589
1,652,788
2.58
90,903
46,958
1984
44,257
1,720,269
2.57
94,615
52,026
1985
43,825
1,774,826
2.47
97,615
53,358
1986
46,087
1,834,872
2.51
100,918
57,093
1987
46,390
1,921,204
2.41
105,666
59,579
1988
47,087
2,025,962
2.32
111,428
65,038
1989
45,582
2,096,487
2.17
115,307
68,220
1990
44,599
2,144,362
2.08
117,940
72,358
1991
41,508
2,172,050
1.91
119,463
74,864
1992
39,250
2,247,151
1.75
123,593
82,085
1993
40,150
2,296,378
1.75
126,301
87,051
1994
40,716
2,357,588
1.73
129,667
89,517
1995
41,817
2,422,823
1.73
133,255
92,539
1996
42,065
2,484,080
1.69
136,624
94,807
1997
42,013
2,552,233
1.65
140,373
98,308
1998
41,501
2,628,148
1.58
144,548
102,535
1999
41,717
2,690,241
1.55
147,963
106,462
2000
41,945
2,746,925
1.53
151,081
109,364
2001
42,196
2,795,610
1.51
153,759
111,814
2002
43,005
2,855,508
1.51
157,053
114,857
2003
42,884
2,890,221
1.48
158,962
115,957
2004
42,836
2,964,788
1.44
163,063
120,179
2005
43,510
2,989,430
1.46
164,419
121,583
2006
42,708
3,014,371
1.42
165,790
122,280
2007
41,259
3,031,124
1.36
166,712
124,004
2008
37,423
2,976,528
1.25
163,709
122,450
2009
33,883
2,956,764
1.15
162,622
125,199
2010
32,999
2,967,266
1.11
163,200
129,317
2011
32,479
2,950,402
1.10
162,272
129,273
2012
33,782
2,968,815
1.14
163,285
130,806
2013
32,719
2,965,579
1.10
163,107
129,325
2014
32,675
3,053,738
1.07
167,956
135,237
1966 thru 2014
TOTAL LIVES SAVED
3,500,078
Clarence Ditlow
Executive Director
Center for Auto Safety
1825 Connecticut Ave NW #330
Washington DC 20009
December, 2015
Missing!
Who and what has the power to end crash violence in all its forms? Crash victims and their stories.
The message forwarded (see here) is from Marianne Karth a mother who lost two daughters in a violent preventable crash is an example of what there has not been enough of in auto safety. It is the stories of crash victims that give life and tears to the dry statistics that NHTSA records regularly. Currently, the NHTSA statistics are at the rate of about 100 deaths, 400 serious injuries, and $2 Billion in losses per day in the U.S.A.
Under Joan Claybrook’s too short reign at NHTSA, I had the privilege to have a small part in research on the effects of crashes on families.
See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/effects-on-families.php
Elections have consequences. Ronald Reagan’s election ended Joan Claybrook’s leadership at NHTSA. Reagan’s reign of safety terror also ended the research on the effects of crashes on children and families. Lest some readers think “terror” is a typo for “error” consider: * Reagan also ended research on stronger Truck Under-ride Guards, * Reagan rescinded the airbag rule (later overruled by the Supreme Court 9-0), * Reagan cut the size of NHTSA from 900 safety workers to 600 – a reduced level that persists to this day.
So this former conservative Republican who worked for election of Goldwater in 1964 and later became a conservative converted by my conscience against Republican policies, I believe the word safety “terror” is appropriate.
As for the Clinton and Obama Administrations, they clearly did too little to end crash violence. See http://www.fairwarning.org/2012/09/a-strange-indifference-to-highway-carnage/ To this day there is not even a Vision Zero Goal to end violent crash deaths and serious injuries in or by new vehicles in a decade. Hillary Clinton has been willing to raise the gun violence issue. Will Sen. Sanders be willing to raise the crash violence issue (there are far more injuries in crashes)? We have to end both gun and crash violence.
To do so it will take citizens sharing their stories and motivating and mobilizing fellow citizens politically and economically.
Building a Safer America depends on the actions of its citizens. Here’s hope for progress in the Car Safety Wars in the new (election) year. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/Trial_2015_09Sept_AmmonsreviewofLemov.pdf
———- Forwarded message ———- From: AnnaLeah & Mary <donotreply@wordpress.com> Date: Fri, Dec 25, 2015 at 11:48 PM Subject: [New post] Missing you this Christmas, AnnaLeah & Mary. With hope, we carry on. To: louis.v.lombardo@gmail.com
December, 2015
Cally Houck issued a “Thank You” for all the support that helped the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act pass the House and Senate this week. “When it becomes the law of the land, it will be a violation of federal law for a rental car company, including car dealers, with a loaner / rental car fleet of 35 vehicles or more, to rent, loan, or sell an unrepaired recalled car until the safety defects have been repaired. I’m thrilled! But I am very concerned about the car dealers’ dangerous 35-car loophole. That loophole was all about politics. Not safety.… But today, I want to thank each and every one of you for speaking up and sending messages to Rep. Upton, who was the last holdout against closing the car dealers’ loaner car loophole.” Seehttps://www.change.org/p/rep-fred-upton-repfredupton-support-the-raechel-and-jacqueline-houck-safe-rental-car-act/u/14472382
Lou
