Category: Blog

State of Union Address 2015 – Will America Finally Get Its Vision Zero Goal?


State of Union Address 2015 – Will America Finally Get Its Vision Zero Goal?

January, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Safety Opportunity & Need On January 20, 2015 President Obama is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address.

President Obama has been in charge of NHTSA for 6 years. And in each of those 6 years he has failed to set a Vision Zero Goal — for crash deaths and serious injuries in or by a new car by 2024 — for Americans.  

*  Volvo has such a goal. 
*  Mayor de Blasio also set such a goal for NY City.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-volvotrackzero.php
*  The Swedish Parliament, in 1997, adopted a “Vision Zero” policy that requires that fatalities and serious injurious be reduced to zero by 2020.
All are making progress.

President Obama, however, has not yet set a Vision Zero Goal for the U.S.A.  And crashes in the U.S.A. under President  Obama’s expected 8 years in Office are on track to record 250,000 crash deaths, 1 million serious crash injuries, and $7 Trillion in societal losses.  Current daily rate in the U.S.A. is nearly 100 crash deaths, 400 serious injuries, and $2 Billion per day.  

President Obama has appointed people who have failed to adequately protect Americans from crash injuries.  NHTSA’s failures are symbolized by the classic NY Times art showing three NHTSA crash test dummies that neither see, hear, nor speak of evil.

Inline image 1

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/opinion/weak-oversight-deadly-cars.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw%2C{%221%22%3A%22RI%3A10%22}Empathy or Indifference?President Obama, VP Biden, and NHTSA Administrator Rosekind each have personal knowledge of the tragedies of crash deaths and serious injuries.  So will they act to set a worthy 10 year goal to end such tragedies?  See http://www.fairwarning.org/2012/09/a-strange-indifference-to-highway-carnage/ There are safety scientists and engineers all over the world that believe this worthy goal is achievable.  Unfortunately, mostly these safety experts work in organizations that value immediate profits over auto safety improvements.  Safety technologies sit on shelves awaiting government mandates and corporate decisions to purchase safety technologies. These scientists and engineers, as well as citizens everywhere, need and hunger for leadership and commitment.  As Ralph Nader has said:“This country has far more problems than it deserves and far more solutions than it applies.” See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-vpbidenzero.php

Empathic Presidential Leadership 
In 1938, FDR created the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.  In 1955, less than 20 years later, using technologies of the 1950s the Salk vaccine for polio was created.
Imagine what empathic presidential leadership today could accomplish using 21st century technologies to achieve a Vision Zero Goal for crash deaths and serious injuries in a decade.

As the proverbs (29:18) have advised humankind for 2,000 years:  “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

President Obama:  You can do it!  Yes you can.
Lou

 

Volvo On Track To Vision Zero Crash Deaths in 2020 – Where is the U.S. Vision?


Volvo On Track To Vision Zero Crash Deaths in 2020 – Where is the U.S. Vision?

December, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Safety progress from Volvo reportedly continues. “Such technology already builds on the active safety systems that debut in the new XC90, in particular the City Safety function that can detect, warn and auto-brake the car if sensors detect an oncoming collision with a cyclist. The Swedish firm also says it is on track with plans to have nobody killed or seriously injured in its cars by 2020.

Mayor De Blasio may achieve Vision Zero in NYC too.  Seehttp://www.nyc.gov/html/visionzero/pages/home/home.shtml
Imagine President Obama setting a Vision Zero Goal for the nation to achieve by 2024.  The new NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind could propose such a goal for the President to take as an Executive Action.
Now that would be a worthy subject for the President’s State of the Union Speech to Congress with crash victims in the gallery.   That would be better than the gallery visitor Mary Barra seated with Mrs. Obama last year as the last Administrator was going through the NHTSA Revolving Door.
Again we must President Obama to set a worthy national safety goal of Vision Zero on the grounds that “where there is no vision – the people perish”.
Lou

 

Will VP Biden, NHTSA Administrator Rosekind, and President Obama Set A Vision Zero Goal?


Will VP Biden, NHTSA Administrator Rosekind, and President Obama Set A Vision Zero Goal?

December, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

VP Biden will probably be at the State of the Union Address.  Will this article on crash deaths in Delaware be cited by President Obama announcing a Vision Zero goal for crash deaths in the U.S. by 2024?“With two weeks to go in the year, traffic deaths on Delaware roads are up 23 percent over the same period in 2013, according to state data.” See  http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/delaware/2014/12/19/delaware-traffic-deaths/20635885/

Two years ago I co-authored an article with Ben Kelley published by Fair Warning and other publications noting a “Strange Indifference to Highway Carnage.”  We called attention to the family tragedies suffered by VP Biden, President Obama, President Clinton, President George W. Bush, and presidential candidate Mitt Romney.  All of whom suffered family tragedies of fatal car crashes.  See http://www.fairwarning.org/2012/09/a-strange-indifference-to-highway-carnage/
Today we have a new NHTSA Administrator Mark R. Rosekind who also suffered a family car crash tragedy – losing his father to crash injuries in a fatal crash.    Since the publication of “A Strange Indifference” another 60,000 Americans have died of crash injuries in the U.S.A.  Another nearly 250,000 Americans suffered serious crash injuries.  And the crash losses, since publication in September 2012, are now valued at nearly $2 trillion in the U.S.A.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”  See Proverbs 29:18
Lou

 

Crash Victims Lose in America’s Legal System


Crash Victims Lose in America’s Legal System

December, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members: 

America’s broken legal system denies crash victims justice and denies all Americans safety.  Money is at the root.

The NY Times published an insightful report on the plight of crash victims.  As you read the NY Times article keep in mind the DOT Policy Guidance valuing a statistical life at $9.1 million (copy attached).   See NY Times article at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/business/victims-of-gm-deadly-defect-fall-through-legal-cracks.html?ribbon-ad-idx=5&rref=business&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&pgtype=Blogs

The NY Times Editorial Board addressed the need for reform as one of its top 15 issues of 2014. 

“Vehicles of Mass Destruction

Deadly safety problems in cars made by General Motors, Honda and others exposed a deeply flawed auto safety system that Congressneeds to reform. Lawmakers have expressed outrage about failures by the car companies and safety regulators but so far have passed no laws to make prevent more such negligence or worse.”

See http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/opinion/torture-race-marijuana-and-12-other-big-issues-of-2014.html?ref=opinion

We really can and must do better.
Lou

 

Chrysler To America: Drop Dead


Chrysler To America: Drop Dead

December, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Another example of corporate irresponsibility brought about by government failure to protect Americans for a decade.

NY Times reports:

“Chrysler has told federal safety regulators that it would not help thousands of consumers whose recalled Jeeps were too rusty to be fixed for a fire hazard, even though regulators have said that the failure to do so would be a “great concern.”

Chrysler informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this month that it would repair only structurally sound vehicles and that it would not pay for repairs to vehicles that were too rusty or had collision damage in the rear, a Chrysler spokesman, Eric Mayne, wrote in an email on Sunday.

The refusal sets up another confrontation between the automaker and federal regulators in what has already been a contentious issue.

The government contends that those vehicles, which have gas tanks mounted behind the rear axle, are prone to deadly fires in rear-impact collisions. The controversial repair suggested by Chrysler and approved by the safety agency involves putting a trailer hitch on the back of the vehicle. Trailer hitches are typically used for towing, and have never been seen as safety devices.

Chrysler has told N.H.T.S.A. it may not be possible to repair 3 percent to 6 percent of the 1.6 million Jeeps. That would be 48,000 to 96,000 vehicles, although historically it would be extremely unusual for every owner to respond to a recall notice….”  

“Under federal safety regulations, the safety agency has the authority to require an automaker to buy back recalled vehicles if it cannot fix the safety problem, said Allan J. Kam, a safety consultant from Bethesda, Md., who was a senior enforcement lawyer for the agency before retiring in 2000.

But automakers are not required to fix recalled vehicles free — or replace them — if they are older than 10 years, he said.”  See

This one year after former NHTSA Administrator David Strickland made the deal with Chrysler and then left through the Revolving Door to join Venable a lobbying company.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-unfixedjeeps.php
America:  We have a safety inequality problem right here in the U.S.A.  Safety for the money and power of corporations is more important than the safety for people’s lives. Lou

 

Congressional Blog on Recalls, Deaths, and Blame


Congressional Blog on Recalls, Deaths, and Blame

December, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Michael R. Lemov, an attorney with a long history of safety work has written a blog for the Hill.  His article “50 million cars recalled, hundreds dead, who is to blame” notes the role of Congress.

“Yet there is another co-conspirator that also has “shared culpability” for the General Motors, Toyota, Honda and other botched recalls, such as Chrysler Jeep’s  potentially flammable gas tanks. 

That party is the finger- wagging Congress itself, specifically, the House and Senate Appropriations committees.  They have starved the federal safety agency for staff and funding for decades. NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigations (ODI), the office responsible for policing and correcting safety defects, is funded at about $10 million a year to oversee the 265 million cars now on the roads in America.  It has about 60 professionals, including engineers and investigators, assigned to the job. Its staff and expertise are simply no match for the skills and size of the car companies and particularly the complex, computerized cars with new technologies now coming off the assembly lines.  And NHTSA’s $10 million congressionally-authored budget for the defects office has remained virtually the same for a decade.

The underfunding by Congress insures that the safety agency will be slow, incompetent and subject to halfway deals with the car companies in order to attempt to comply with its huge responsibilities.““Lemov is the author of the forthcoming book, “Car Safety Wars:  100 Years of Technology, Politics and Sudden Death” (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press/Rowman& Littlefield) He was formerly chief counsel of the House Energy and Commerce, Oversight and Investigations subcommittee.”

See http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/225611-fifty-million-cars-recalled-hundreds-dead-who-is-to-blame

Disclosure:  I have done fact checking for Mr. Lemov’s book and in the process I learned a lot about safety I did not previously know.
Lou

 

Correction and Addition: Safety Inequality in America


Correction and Addition: Safety Inequality in America

December, 2014

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
Correction:  Thanks to one of our members, a typo of mine was caught – so second ad at Super Bowl costs $4.5 million – not billion.  
Addition:  And this member added some valuable information.“Roughly every 15 minutes someone dies in a motor vehicle crash.

Roughly every 15 minutes 4 people are seriously injured in an automobile crash.

That means that during a roughly 4-hour Superbowl presentation, 16 people will die and 64 people will be seriously injured.  I read somewhere that each American has roughly 5 close family contacts.  If one were to consider those, nearly 500 Americans will be impacted by death or serious injury during the Superbowl (which focuses its advertising on automobiles and beer drinking).”

That’s from a member who has been to more crash scenes than I have.  In a way, I am glad I made that typo.  Back to the original article.
An excellent article in Automotive News points out the plight of crash victims who own older vehicles — another example of Safety Inequality in America.  

““It’s a difficult problem,” said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety in Washington. “If you look at the older vehicles, the recall rate can drop to less than 50 percent.”

More than 17 million U.S. vehicles have been recalled for potentially defective Takata inflators, according to Reuters. According to a government analysis of recalls from 2000 through 2008, about 65 percent of recalled cars each year get fixed within 18 months of the recall.

So if just 65 percent of the Takata-related vehicles are fixed, that would leave some 6 million or more vehicles on the road with potentially explosive inflators that could send deadly shrapnel at drivers and passengers.

For years, Ditlow said, he has suggested a law requiring dealers to complete all recalls before selling a used car. In private transactions, the buyer would have to complete the recall before registering the vehicle.”

See http://www.autonews.com/article/20141222/OEM11/141219835/older-vehicles-can-escape-recalls-nets

This year, as in many of the past 40 years, the citizen auto safety group that has done the most to protect all Americans from crash injuries is the Center for Auto Safety.  See http://www.autosafety.org/

Inequality of Financial ResourcesYear after year, a small group has struggled on behalf of crash victims (all of us) against irresponsible actions by NHTSA and the auto industry.  It has been, and continues to be, a struggle of very limited citizen financial resources vs. nearly a Billion dollar “safety” agency + a Trillion dollar industry.   See http://www.nhtsa.gov/Laws+&+Regulations/NHTSA+Budget+Information andhttp://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2014/12/u-s-auto-industry-generates-record-1-1-trillion-in-2014-sales/

The inequality of financial resources can be recognized by the fact that the Center for Auto Safety annual budget is a small fraction of the cost of just one 30 second Super Bowl ad of $4.5 million this year. See http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2014/12/automakers-spending-big-money-to-maximize-exposure-with-super-bowl-ads/

Note that in the corporate world, the auto industry funds spent on Super Bowl ads support a violent and injurious sport to Americans.

Moral Resources
In the human world, the small amount of citizen funds donated to the Center for Auto Safety support life saving work of enormous moral value.   In the world of “right makes might” the Center for Auto Safety has often carried the day on safety issues.  It has done so with hard work and expertise: day after day, week after week, and year after year.  It has won battles in the courts of public opinion, courts of law, and the legislative and executive branches of government.  
Unfortunately, in the world of might makes right, too often moral force is not enough.
Help Balance the Safety Inequality
In the USA, more than 3.6 million Americans have lost their lives to crash injuries.  Imagine if just one family member of each of those people killed donated $1 to the Center for Auto Safety.  It would be less than the price of just one Super Bowl ad.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/clock.php In the USA, more than 688 million Americans have suffered crash injuries.  Imagine if just one family member of each of those people injured donated $1 to the Center for Auto Safety.  It would be less than the price of just 150 Super Bowl ads.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/clock.php In the USA today, nearly 100 Americans lose their lives to crash injuries, another 400 suffer serious crash injuries, and these losses are valued by DOT at $1 Billion each day.  Imagine if just one family member of each of those people killed or seriously injured donated $1 to the Center for Auto Safety.  Over one year It would amount to $182,500.  It would be about the price of 1 second of just 1 Super Bowl 30 second ad.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/clock.php
We members of the Care for Crash Victims Community can do our part at this time of moral and financial giving and donate to the Center for Auto Safety at http://www.autosafety.org/

Lou