Category: Blog

Senators Blumenthal, Wicker, Safety Advocates & Crash Victims Trying To Stop Big Truck Deaths


Senators Blumenthal, Wicker, Safety Advocates & Crash Victims Trying To Stop Big Truck Deaths

June, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Senator Blumenthal is from one of the safer States (CT) and Sen. Wicker is from the State ranked 49th in worst crash fatality rates in 2013.  See attached State rankings.

CONTACT: Bill Bronrott, 202-270-4415 and bronrott@gmail.com

 

MEDIA ADVISORY

 

Truck crash victims, law enforcement, safety advocates to join Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) as Senate is poised to consider dangerous special interest riders including “Double 33 Trailers” and “Tired Truckers” provisions passed by House in FY 2016 transportation spending bill

 

WHAT:            NEWS CONFERENCE to urge the Senate Appropriations Committee to stop theunprecedented assault on truck safety led by large trucking company lobbyists who used backdoor maneuvers to slip several anti-truck safety provisions into the FY 2016 transportation spending bill(HR 2577) narrowly approved by the House on June 9.

 

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) will mark up the Senate’s FY 2016 transportation appropriations bill on Tuesday, June 23and the full Appropriations Committee on Thursday, June 25.  News conference speakers will call on the Senate committee to reject these stealth riders that made it into the House bill without any hearings, public input or evaluation of the impacts of these rollbacks on safety and the nation’s roads and bridges.

 

WHEN:            Tuesday, June 23, 2015 at 2:30pm

 

WHERE:            U.S. Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) Room 208, Washington, D.C.

 

WHO:             Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and a leading voice for improved commercial motor vehicle safety. On June 18, Senator Blumenthal and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations leadership urging them to reject any effort to legalize double 33-foot trailers on the nation’s highways.

 

Joan Claybrook, Chair, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) and former Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

 

Jackie Gillan, President, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

 

James P. Hoffa, General President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters (INVITED)

 

Andy Matthews, Chairman of the National Troopers Coalition, which represents 42,000 State Troopers from 41 states around the country, and President of the Connecticut State Police Union.

 

Lisa Shrum of Fayette, Missouri, whose mother Virginia Baker and stepfather Randy Baker were killed in a crash on October 10, 2006, involving a FedEx double trailer truck.  Lisa is a victim advocate with the Truck Safety Coalition.

 

Ed Slattery of Lutherville, Maryland.  On August 16, 2010, Ed’s wife Susan was killed and their two sons, Peter and Matthew, were severely injured when a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel of a triple-trailer truck on the Ohio Turnpike, forcing them into the semi-trailer ahead.  Matthew suffered massive head trauma, and is permanently disabled.  Ed is a board member of Parents Against Tired Truckers.

 

Officer Robert Mills, Fort Worth (TX) Police Department, one of the nation’s leading commercial motor vehicle safety law enforcement experts.

 

BACKGROUND:

The safety rollbacks, repeals and exemptions in the House-passed transportation spending bill (HR 2577) would result in more overweight and oversized trucks driven by overworked and overtired truckers across the nation at the cost of more death and traumatic injury by:

 

* Forcing states to allow FedEx double 33-foot trailers throughout the country, taking away a state’s right to set trailer lengths. 39 states currently prohibit double 33 tractor-trailer combinations, which are at least 84 feet in length – the height of an 8-story building.

* Permanently increasing truck driver working and driving hours up to 82 hours per week and killing the “weekend off” for two nights of restorative rest.

* Defunding a public rulemaking underway at the Department of Transportation that is reviewing and assessing ifminimum insurance requirements for trucks and passenger-carrying buses are adequate. They have not been changed since 1985.

* Giving special interest carve outs to increase the current federal truck weight limits from 80,000 lbs. up to 129,000 lbs. in Idaho, raise truck lengths in Kansas and possibly additional state exemptions that could be offered during Committee mark-up that would further damage already-crumbling roads and bridges and rollback safety.

 

KEY FACTS:

Ø  Every year 4,000 people are killed and nearly 100,000 are injured, on average, in truck crashes.

Ø  Large truck crash fatalities increased 17% from 2009 through 2013 while total traffic fatalities declined by 3%.

Ø  The number of people injured in large truck crashes increased 28% from 2009 through 2013 while the number of people injured in all traffic crashes increased by only 4%.

Ø  In fatal two-vehicle crashes between a large truck and a passenger motor vehicle, 96% of the fatalities were occupants of the passenger vehicle.

Ø  Commercial motor vehicle crashes cost our nation $99 billion annually.

 

 

Progress on Uncovering Deadly Defect Information


Progress on Uncovering Deadly Defect Information

June, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

NHTSA & Industry Deadly Secrecy – Delay, Denial & Obfuscation

For many years the Center for Auto Safety (CAS) has had to fight both the NHTSA and the auto companies to reveal for the public deadly defect information – as required by law.  Delay at Justice Department – see the 2011 CAS letters to the Justice Department seeking transparency for Death and Injury Inquiries (DI’s) athttp://www.autosafety.org/cas-letter-attorney-general-eric-holder-re-nhtsa-freedom-information-act-and-transparency-0Denial at NHTSA – see 2012 CAS Letter to NHTSA Administrator Strickland (before the Administrator resigned and exited through the NHTSA revolving door to join a law firm representing auto industry clients) at http://www.autosafety.org/sites/default/files/imce_staff_uploads/Strickland%20No%20More%20DI%20FOIAs%208-3-12.pdf 

The CAS had to file FOIA after FOIA to obtain lists of Death Inquiries for the public.  After one gets a list, one then has to FOIA for the underlying documents obtained by the DI which may consist of legal complaints, police reports, insurance claims, accident reconstruction or simple demand letters. 
Obfuscation at NHTSA for years.  The CAS reports:

“Under 49 CFR Part 579 (Early Warning Reporting Rule), automakers must submit summaryinformation to NHTSA on death and injury claims filed against them. (See http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=cc0a454e9c9e15c24f2be4bd364ddc68&mc=true&node=pt49.7.579&rgn=div5. As described in attached NHTSA Fact Sheet “NHTSA-ODI-EWR Facts, one can search the EWR reports for the summary information on death and injury reports but it is so vague as to be useless.

EWR submissions by manufacturers and NHTSA summary reports on passenger vehicles are grouped into 28 component categories so broad one doesn’t know what the report is. E.g., onecategory covers the fuel system – is this the fuel filler neck, the fuel rail, the fuel injection, the throttle body, the evaporative canister, the fuel tank, the electronic control unit that controls fuel  metering or what? 

The categories are: 01 steering system, 02 suspension system, 03 foundation brake system, 04 automatic brake controls, 05 parking brake, 06 engine and engine cooling system, 07 fuel system, 10 power train, 11 electrical system, 12 exterior lighting, 13 visibility, 14 air bags, 15 seat belts, 16 structure, 17 latch, 18 vehicle speed control, 19 tires, 20 wheels, 22 seats, 23 fire, 24 rollover, 25 electronic stability control system, 26 forward collision avoidance system, 27 lane departure prevention system, 28 backover prevention system, 98 where a system or component not covered by categories 01 through 22 or 25 through 28, is specified in the claim or notice, and 99 where no system or component of the vehicle is specified in the claim or notice. If an incident involves more than one such code, each shall be reported separately in the report with a limit of five codes to be included.

In the case of the Toyota 4Runner steering rod relay recall, 05V-389, for which NHTSA opened a timeliness investigation on May 10, 2009, Toyota coded a clear steering rod relay fracture that led to a rollover crash with 3 injuries as rollover and power train but not steering. In a September 2004 Audit of EWR, the DOT Inspector General found that EWR can’t identify steering defects & NHTSA Administrator Runge agreed to that finding.”

Senators Markey and Blumenthal have campaigned to require NHTSA to not only make all DIs public and searchable but also to require that the underlying documents behind a death claim be provided to the agency along with the initial EWR death claim report so that one doesn’t have to wait for NHTSA to request the documents.

Markey, Blumenthal Statement on NHTSA’s “Path Forward”

New Hope From NHTSA and CAS

“Under new NHTSA Administrator Rosekind, the walls of secrecy surrounding Death Inquiries are beginning to crumble. In response to a FOIA, NHTSA just provided CAS a complete list of all DIs from 2010 to present.  The Center then took that list and combined it with earlier DI lists to make a searchable list by manufacturer of all DIs.”   See

 http://www.autosafety.org/nhtsa-ewr-death-inquiry-di-index

The CAS has now produced “How To Find EWR Reports Based on NHTSA DIs” that is an example of the deadly – and potentially life saving – information that now can be found through careful examination.  See attached CAS “How To Find EWR Reports“.

Additional valuable Defect Investigations resources are now publicly available thanks to the CAS work at their Defect Investigations Page, under Early Warning Reporting at 

http://www.autosafety.org/campaigns/22

Years of hard work by the Center for Auto Safety, Congressional and public pressure, and now new NHTSA leadership are advancing auto safety.  It is about time.

Lou

 

History of Auto Safety: Progress & Pressing Needs


History of Auto Safety: Progress & Pressing Needs

May, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Keith Crain, Editor in Chief of Automotive News, notes 50 years of auto safety progress since publication of “Unsafe At Any Speed” by Ralph Nader.

“This industry can take pride in its accomplishments over the years. Despite that, it still needs outsiders to push for higher safety standards and greater compliance with existing rules.

Until there are no auto-related deaths or injuries, one could say that the work is not done.”  See 

Michael R. Lemov, author of Car Safety Wars, in a Baltimore Sun Op-Ed,  offers “a page of history about suffering and death on America’s highways and one big reason why it is still happening today.”  Seehttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-car-safety-20150430-story.html
Auto safety history continues to be of life or death or disability importance to all Americans.   On an average day Americans suffer nearly 100 crash deaths, 400 serious crash injuries, and estimated losses of $2 Billion. 
Automotive News reports that nearly 50% of all vehicles on the roads are not covered by existing safety regulations.  Seehttp://www.autonews.com/article/20150430/OEM11/150439993/almost-half-of-u-s-vehicles-arent-covered-under-existing-safety
We can, and must, do better protecting Americans from crash injuries.
Let’s push Presidential candidates to set a Vision Zero goal of zero deaths and serious crash injuries in a decade.  Seehttps://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/MonthlyReportforFebruary2015.pdf
Lou

 

What You Can Do When Your Car is Recalled


What You Can Do When Your Car is Recalled

May, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Good advice from a fellow retired NHTSA Official is in a Huffington Post article:“Ask for a loaner vehicle. You may get one — and it might just save your life.…

Allan Kam, a former senior enforcement attorney at NHTSA, told The Huffington Post that the planned hearing speaks to the severity of the problem. Kam, who served at NHTSA from 1975 to 2000, said that in the past, recalls were completed much more rapidly.

“It typically did not take months,” Kam said. Recalls that long were “the exception, rather than the rule.”  See

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/21/auto-recall-takata-airbags_n_7379654.html?1432255418

 

Insights Into NHTSA’s New Activity on Recalls


Insights Into NHTSA’s New Activity on Recalls

May, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members: “The U.S. auto safety watchdog, long criticized as toothless and slow, is showing both bark and bite under its new boss – a testimony to his credentials as a safety expert and a hardening of the administration’s policy after a wave of deadly defects.”http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/24/us-autos-takata-nhtsa-insight-idUSKBN0O90F220150524

 

Law Professors on GM Recalls and Government Failures


Law Professors on GM Recalls and Government Failures

May, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Please see this excellent article – that many Americans should read – by two leading Law Professors that concludes:“GM’s success in working the system must be offset by criminal culpability, on both the corporate and individual level, for leaving consumers to drive in ticking time bombs for so many years.”

See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rena-steinzor/gm-and-its-no-good-very-bad_b_7191124.html

Lou

 

NHTSA Administrator Rosekind and Jeep Gas Tank Defect Recall


NHTSA Administrator Rosekind and Jeep Gas Tank Defect Recall

May, 2015

Dear care for Crash Victims Community Members:

On July 2, 2015 NHTSA will hold a public hearing on the Jeep Recall.

Automotive News in an informative report notes NHTSA improvement:

“Five months into his tenure, Rosekind is delivering on that pledge. In a rapid-fire series of actions last week, his agency:

• Summoned Fiat Chrysler’s U.S. arm to a July 2 public hearing to review a “pattern” of alleged problems with executing 20 recalls since 2013.

• Exacted an acknowledgment from Takata Corp. of an airbag defect in some 34 million vehicles.

• Extended its extraordinary oversight of General Motors’ safety operations for at least another year.

The whirlwind week was the clearest sign yet of Rosekind’s growing imprint on the agency, which has come under heavy criticism in recent years that it’s too timid, too slow and too cozy with the industry it polices. With the latest actions, he is invoking extraordinary powers and tools to clear up logjams on recalls, pressure automakers and get unsafe cars off the road.

Said Joan Claybrook, who ran the agency under President Jimmy Carter and has been a frequent critic of it since: “I think we have a new sheriff in town.”  

See

http://www.autonews.com/article/20150524/OEM11/305259967/nhtsas-rosekind-lays-down-the-law-and-the-industry-is-rattled

Representatives of crash victims are calling for criminal investigations of Fiat Chrysler for crash deaths.  See 

What is sadly foreseeable is that there will be more tragedies before effective remedies will be in place to prevent them.
Lou