Category: Blog

WANTED


WANTED

November, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

What if people created WANTED posters for members of Congress that place Deadly Loopholes in safety legislation that predictably will cause deaths to Americans?

WANTED posters have a long American history.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanted_poster

See the latest outrage and help get signatures on the petition by the mother who lost two daughters in an unrepaired defective rental vehicle.  

*  The great state of Texas had the highest number of crash fatalities in the U.S.A. – 3,382 deaths in 2013.
*  Texas had one of the worst rates of percent of crash deaths (64%) that were not taken to any medical facility for treatment in 2013.  See attached ranking of states. The legislation presently before Congress has many outrageous anti-safety provisions.  See

Statement of Jackie Gillan, President

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety

Statement on Release of New Study, “Unclogging America’s Arteries 2015”

November 23, 2015

 

Today, the American Highway Users Alliance released a new study, “Unclogging America’s Arteries 2015, Prescriptions for Healthier Highways.”  Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) supports efforts to promote healthier highways and reduce congestion.  Solving roadway bottlenecks involves adequate funding but also advancing laws, policies and programs to reduce highway crashes.  A major source of roadway congestion is slowed or stopped traffic when a crash occurs.  Serious truck and car crashes often result in deaths and injuries that require the immediate assistance of emergency responders on the scene, shutting down or re-routing traffic, and causing hours of delay for all motorists.

This is the reason our organization and coalition partners are deeply concerned about the anti-safety rollbacks and attacks contained in the DRIVE Act, H.R. 22, now being negotiated in a conference with House and Senate Members.  In 2013, the most recent year final figures are available, there were nearly 5.7 million police-reported crashes across the United States resulting in 32,719 fatalities and over 2 million injuries.  Early estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) predict a 9.5% increase in crash fatalities for the first quarter of 2015, compared to the first quarter of 2014 projections.  These crashes come with an annual cost of $836 billion, amounting to a “crash tax” of approximately $2,600 for every person in the United States.  Congestion caused by crashes, including travel delay, excess fuel consumption, greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants totaled $28 billion (NHTSA). To make our roads truly “healthier,” we need Congress to advance safety laws and policies that will address the economic and emotional costs of crashes as they deliberate over the DRIVE Act.

Unfortunately, both the House and Senate versions of the DRIVE Act ignore available solutions that will prevent crashes and instead, include provisions that will set back safety.  For example, both bills include a provision that will allow teen truck and bus drivers to get behind the wheel of an 80,000 big rig or passenger-carrying bus and operate in interstate commerce despite overwhelming public opposition and compelling research showing the unacceptable high crash risk of young drivers.  A public opinion poll released last week shows that 77% of the public opposes this proposal (conducted by ORC International). Additionally, there is a lethal loophole in the bill that will allow car dealerships to provide loaner or rental cars to consumers even though they have safety recalls that have not been fixed.  The public resoundingly rejects this idea, with 86% of the public opposing.

Furthermore, the bills provide exemptions from federal rules on the limits of working hours for truck driver hours and truck size and weights for certain industries such as logging, ready mix concrete, dairy and construction materials.   It is time for Congress to get serious about reducing the growing carnage on our roads and highways especially when we have commonsense and cost-effective solutions at hand.  To seriously unclog our nation’s arteries and achieve healthier highways, Congress needs to listen to the public, not to trucking and auto interests that prescribe remedies that jeopardize public safety.  

Congress has failed to protect Americans for way too long.  See

https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/MonthlyReportforJuly2015final.pdf

A mapping tool, free to the public, provides crash fatalities by Congressional district for the years 2004 – 2013.  Available at https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/CrashDeathMappingTools.php

There you will see that in 2013, in the district currently “represented” by car dealer Roger Williams there were about 2 crash deaths per week.

Heck of a job!

 

A Safety Victory


A Safety Victory

November, 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 18, 2015

Contact:

Ryan Taylor (Wicker), 202-224-6253

Dean Lieberman (Feinstein), 202-224-9629

Senate Votes to Remove Bigger Trucks Mandate From Transportation Appropriations Bill

Sens. Wicker, Feinstein Successful Again in Putting Chamber on Record Opposing Longer Double Trucks

 WASHINGTON – The Senate today voted in favor of an amendment offered by U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to remove a federal mandate from the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill, H.R. 2577, that would force states to allow large trucks to pull double 33-foot trailers. The Wicker-Feinstein amendment was adopted by a voice vote.

 “A recent independent poll revealed that 77 percent of Americans oppose twin 33-foot trailer trucks on the nation’s highways and byways,” Wicker said. “The Senate stands with this overwhelming majority and with the 38 states who have said ‘no’ to these longer double trailers. This is a victory for public safety, states’ rights, and hard-working taxpayers.”

“Allowing the monstrous twin-33 trucks on our highways without a full understanding of the safety implications would be irresponsible and dangerous,” Feinstein said. “In my view, such a sweeping change runs counter to all notions of public safety and has no place in an appropriations bill. Senator Wicker and I were successful in stripping the language from the transportation funding bill on the floor today. Under our amendment, the Department of Transportation must complete a safety study before any changes to truck length are considered. This is a big win for public safety. I thank the coalition of law enforcement, victims groups, unions and the trucking industry that came together and said no to bigger, more dangerous trucks.”

 For the second time in as many weeks, the Senate has gone on record opposing this federal mandate. Last week, the Senate passed a motion to instruct conferees on the highway reauthorization bill that also sought to remove the mandate.      

 Earlier this year, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to the transportation funding bill requiring states to allow trucks with two 33-foot trailers on their highways. A tractor trailer with two 33-foot trailers measures approximately 91 feet in total length – equivalent to an 8-story office building. Currently, 38 states do not allow these longer trucks to operate within their jurisdictions. One study estimates that twin 33s would put more wear and tear on our nation’s roads, adding $1.2 billion to $1.8 billion in maintenance costs per year.

 When the committee considered the measure, the Department of Transportation (DOT) advised that there is currently not enough data to draw firm conclusions on the safety implications of double 33-foot trailers. DOT recommended that no changes to truck size be considered at this time.

 Specifically, the Wicker-Feinstein amendment would require DOT to complete a comprehensive safety study before longer trucks are permitted on highways. It would also require the agency to conduct a formal rulemaking process with public notice and comment period.

 Groups supporting the Wicker-Feinstein amendment opposing twin 33-foot trailers include Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the American Automobile Association, the Teamsters Union, the Truckload Carriers Association, the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks,several state trucking associations, the National Troopers Coalition, and other law enforcement associations throughout the country.

 

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety Create Report Card & Testimony on Highway Bill


Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety Create Report Card & Testimony on Highway Bill

November, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Report CardHere is what is being considered in Congress for our “safety” for the next 6 years.   Advocates have identified the good and bad sections along with Representatives of Congress by name and Congressional District.  The Report Card is attached.

Crash Deaths By Congressional District  Citizens can use the Crash Death Map Tool to see how many deaths occurred in each member’s district over the past decade.  See http://www.arcgis.com/explorer/?open=e21e612d64654d75943f85a1a6035472&extent=-19044679.7278955,530211.736810937,-3588091.0679062,8231341.58761403

Claybrook Warning As Joan Claybrook warned recently, in crashes the nation can expect to suffer the loss of 200,000 American lives and 12 million people injured over the next 6 years.  See Claybrook Testimony attached.

Lou

 

Thanks to Ralph Nader!


Thanks to Ralph Nader!

November, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

On this Thanksgiving Day, the NY Times published an excellent and timely article on auto safety.

“50 Years Ago, “Unsafe At Any Speed” Shook the Auto World notes:“On Nov. 30, 1965, “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile” was published. The first sentence did not mince words: “For over half a century the automobile has brought death, injury and the most inestimable sorrow and deprivation to millions of people.” …. “If you just simply focus on things like the death toll, clearly the act has been a success,” said Clarence M. Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, which was founded in 1970 by Mr. Nader and Consumers Union, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.”  Seehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/27/automobiles/50-years-ago-unsafe-at-any-speed-shook-the-auto-world.html

Today, even NHTSA, although a largely captive agency,recognizes the statistics of lives saved by its standards and programs over the years.“Lives saved from 1960 to 2012: Safety technologies saved an estimated 613,501 lives from 1960 through 2012″  See p. xix at

Thanks to Ralph Nader, Joan Claybrook, Clarence Ditlow and all the people they inspired to save lives and prevent serious injuries over the past 5 decades!  Seehttps://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/Trial_2015_09Sept_AmmonsreviewofLemov.pdf

Yet there is much more to do.   Currently in the U.S., Americans lose about 100 lives, suffer about 400 serious injuries, and losses valued by DOT at about $2 Billion every average day due to injuries in autos.

With all three branches of the Federal government in varying degrees of corporate captivity, continuing progress in advancing safety is proving difficult.  

At a time in history when we have more safety technologies and safety science than ever before, we still lack even a national Vision Zero goal for auto deaths and serious injuries.

 

“Cheating” Auto Companies Circle Their Wagons On Government Emission Testing


“Cheating” Auto Companies Circle Their Wagons On Government Emission Testing

October, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

“Cheating” is too weak a word to describe poisoning people for more than 4 decades by big auto and government policies.

This is a much bigger problem than is widely known.

The NY Times reports:

LONDON — Despite the cloud cast by the Volkswagen scandal, automakers are proposing that they be allowed a 70 percent increase in the nitrogen oxides their cars emit, unreleased documents show, as part of new European pollution tests.

Under the new plan, cars in Europe would for the first time be tested on the road, using portable monitoring equipment, in addition to laboratory testing.

The automakers, which include Volkswagen, General Motors, Daimler, BMW, Toyota, Renault, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Ford and Hyundai, are essentially conceding what outside groups have said for some time — that the industry cannot meet pollution regulations when cars are taken out of testing laboratories. The move is occurring as Volkswagen, the world’s largest automaker, grapples with fallout from the discovery that 11 million of its vehicles were equipped with software meant to cheat emissions tests.

Tests of car emissions required in the United States and Europe take place in laboratories, where vehicles are run through drills on a dynamometer, which is the automotive equivalent of a treadmill. Automakers have found ways to cheat the tests since emissions were first regulated in the early 1970s.  Seehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/03/business/automakers-ask-europe-for-leniency-in-emissions-testing.html?emc=edit_tnt_20151002&nlid=37926955&tntemail0=y&_r=0

Disclosure:

In the 1971 I blew the whistle on EPA changes in the emission test procedures to favor auto makers.  I was fired and sued the National Academy of Sciences for access to information supporting my arguments.  Judge Sirica and judges up to the Supreme Court ruled against me denying me access to the documents.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/EPA-Whistle-Blow.pdf

Decades later the Nixon Tapes revealed what I did not know at the time.  In April 1971, Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca met with Nixon in the White House and pressed for relief on emission standards and had already met with EPA Administrator Ruckelshaus to change emission test procedures.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/Nixon-Transcriptions.pdf

For more on history of emissions by companies and government failures to protect people, see the Center for Auto Safety statement:“The only way to change auto company behavior is to put the responsible executives in jail.  After a flagrant pattern across the auto industry of violating US health and safety laws, the Center for Auto Safety calls on the Justice Department to move to put the responsible VW executives behind bars as it just did with peanut butter manufacturers.”  Seehttp://www.autosafety.org/volkswagen-emissions-defeat-devices-violate-epa-emissions-rules

I am sorry to say that history teaches that we also have to hold government officials in all agencies and branches of government to the same standards of accountability.

Lou 

 

FCA Wants To Buy Employees and Families Constitutional Right To Trial By Jury – Cheap


FCA Wants To Buy Employees and Families Constitutional Right To Trial By Jury – Cheap

October, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members: The LA Times reports:“Each of Detroit’s Big Three automakers offer a discount on new vehicles for employees, their families and friends.

But only one, Fiat Chrysler, requires that those using the discount give up their constitutional right to a jury trial in return for a few hundred bucks in savings.

“It’s like they’re doing you a favor and, by the way, they’re taking away your right to sue,” said Rosemary Shahan, president of the Sacramento advocacy group Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. “This discount is like the piece of cheese on the trap that kills the mouse.”

See http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20151016-column.html

How low can FCA go?

 

House Commerce Committee Subcommittee Hearing on Auto Safety – NHTSA and Advocates


House Commerce Committee Subcommittee Hearing on Auto Safety – NHTSA and Advocates

October, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Hearing Info is at http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/examining-ways-improve-vehicle-and-roadway-safety

Media Advisory: * * * MEDIA ADVISORY * * * October 20, 2015 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact Sam Avery (Schakowsky): 202-225-2111 Christine Brennan (Pallone): 202-225-5735 Schakowsky, Pallone and others highlight Vehicle Safety Improvement Act after Auto and Roadway Safety Hearing WASHINGTON, DC – On Wednesday, October 21, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade will hold a legislative hearing on a draft auto bill. While a legislative fix to auto safety issues is sorely needed, it is inexcusable that it has taken so long to reach a legislative hearing. The House Republican draft is woefully inadequate and will not make American drivers, passengers, or pedestrians any safer.  Congressional action should begin with the enactment of H.R. 1181, the Vehicle Safety Improvement Act – legislation introduced by Commerce, Trade and Manufacturing Subcommittee Ranking Member Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06), and other Committee Democrats earlier this year. Schakowsky, Pallone, other members of the Committee, consumer advocates, and victims of General Motors’ defective ignitions switches will hold a press conference after the hearing to make clear that Congress can and must do more to improve automobile safety. WHEN:          Immediately following the Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Hearing (Around 12:30 p.m.) Wednesday, October 21, 2015 Link to Livestream the Press Conference: <https://youtu.be/hA32a0cAE70> WHERE:       House Triangle WHAT:          Promote the Vehicle Safety Improvement Act, legislation to enhance auto safety, oversight, and accountability WHO:                         Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Commerce, Trade and Manufacturing Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joan Claybrook, Co-Chair Advocates for Highway Safety and Former Head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Will Wallace, Consumers Union Two GM Victims (Laura Christian and Jamie Frei)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA32a0cAE70 

 Claybrook Testimony attached