Category: Legal Reader

Legal Reader online publication references.

Power of People to Protect People


Power of People to Protect People

December, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
Power of People to Protect People
Legal Reader has published an article that I authored “Power Of People To Protect People”.  See http://www.legalreader.com/power-of-people-to-protect-people/ This article was inspired by the lifetime of safety work by:  *  Clarence Ditlow:  See his presentation at http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16672 *  Joan Claybrook:  See her presentation at http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=17360 *  Ralph Nader:  See his presentation and many others at his Conference “Breaking Through Power” at  https://www.breakingthroughpower.org/    The Graphic of Lady Justice was inspired by the writings of Marianne Karth, a mother of two daughters tragically killed in a crash that should have been prevented by regulations on truck under-ride guards delayed for decades.  See http://annaleahmary.com/2016/12/road-to-zero-coalition-considers-priority-actions-to-reduce-traffic-fatalities/  Lady Justice Graphic is available to the public for free use with attribution to Legal Reader and the artist Neil F. Angeles.
Never underestimate the power of people – especially crash survivors and victims – to protect other people.   *  Cally Houck, mother who lost two daughters in a recalled but unfixed rental car.  Seehttp://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/ben-kelley-on-death-by-rental-car/ *  Stella Gurr, mother who lost a son in a 15 passenger vehicle crash.  Seehttp://blog.vanangels.ca/2015/03/mothers-say-changes-to-motor-vehicle.html. *  Laura Christian, mother who lost her daughter in a GM vehicle with a defective ignition switch.  See http://www.gmrecallsurvivors.com/  They also inspire and continue to work to save others because they suffered losses to vehicle violence.
Presidential Power Failure
The record of Presidential failures to protect people dictates that we the people have to step up and use our power.

The Power of People was written as Americans approach the end of 8 years of one Administration with a tragically disappointing auto safety record with a NHTSA  estimated  251,647 deaths due to vehicle violence under President Obama from 2009 through the first six months of 2016.   NHTSA data shows that the number of motor vehicle related deaths is accelerating and estimated to increase an additional 10% approaching an Obama legacy of 270,000 vehicle deaths.  See https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812332

Nader and Ditlow told us so.  See https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/opinion/weak-oversight-deadly-cars.html

President Obama failed year after year to adopt a Vision Zero Goal despite petitions of the American people.  The Swedish Parliament adopted Vision Zero in 1997.  Seehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_Zero
Powers of People – Needed Now More Than Ever
Daily losses due to vehicle violence in the U.S.A. today: 
*  100 deaths
*  400 serious injuries
*  $2 Billion
This is at a time when we have more technologies available to achieve an end to vehicle violence in or by new vehicles in a decade than ever before in human history.

Now as we face an incoming Administration that is talking more about the problems of regulations on business than about the problems of deaths and injuries to people, we need to begin anew conversations about what people can do to protect people.   Ralph Nader warns us of the Trump people and policies that we face.   Seehttp://www.eurasiareview.com/27122016-ralph-nader-tripwires-for-the-trumpsters-oped/

Lou Lombardo

 

Legal Reader Interview on Whistle Blowing


Legal Reader Interview on Whistle Blowing

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Legal Reader’s Jay W. Belle Isle interviewed me via email on the subject of Whistle Blowing for Legal Reader. See http://www.legalreader.com/

This is to thank Jay and Legal Reader and to make the interview available to our community.

The link to the interview is at  http://www.legalreader.com/interview-louis-lombardo-on-whistleblowing-and-vehicle-emissions/

I also wish to thank Claire Nader and the Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest for information on the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage given to two recent recipients of the Whistle Blower Awards. 

Sincere appreciation, 

Lou Lombardo

 

What Have VW and Other Auto Makers and Government Officials Done To Our Health?


What Have VW and Other Auto Makers and Government Officials Done To Our Health?

October, 2015

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
The latest corporate crime against humanity – not seen by government officials for years – has now become visible to the world.  
Media Coverage
Photo of Obama and Auto Execs (except VW) revealing backdrop for NY Times article on VW and Obama Administration.   See   http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/business/international/volkswagen-sought-a-green-seal-for-its-diesel-cars.html?emc=eta1&_r=0
NY Times coverage of VW Hearing see
Insightful Interview On Prospects
German publication interviews Clarence Ditlow, leading lawyer and engineer, who has advocated auto safety advances for more than 4 decades.  See  http://www.dw.com/en/it-is-certainly-going-to-worsen-volkswagens-troubles/a-18774398
Infographic Summary Of VW Legal Situation
A Little History – The Finest Money Could Buy

In 1971, I edited an EPA Report titled “Our Urban Environment and Our Most Endangered People”.  

Little did I know then (I only learned decades later from the Nixon Tapes) that Lee Iacocca and Henry Ford II were lobbying Nixon and EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus to weaken air pollution controls by changing the test procedures.

See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/1970-PolutionControlEfforts.php

To this day more than 40 years later we read about VW selling vehicles designed to emit many times more pollutants on the streets than on the EPA test dynamometers.  The many health effects of automotive emissions have long been known.  See  http://www3.epa.gov/airquality/nitrogenoxides/health.html

I recall a 1970s research presentation funded by the oil industry that argued the EPA air quality standards could be exceeded ten fold without adverse health effects.  At the break I asked Dr. “Money” (that is the name I give him): How could this be?  He told me that his scientific study was very rigorous.  He used only the most carefully selected, healthiest and fittest monkeys that money could buy.  That these adult monkeys in their prime were exposed to tightly controlled levels of nitrogen oxides under stringent laboratory conditions.  When I asked about the bacteria that were used to determine the subsequent health effects, he said they did not do so (so as to not confound the scientific study).  Yet that was a common way to determine the reduction in resistance to respiratory infections due to inhalation of NOx.  No dose, no response, no problem.

To no avail, I pointed out that people living in urban areas were of all ages, all degrees of health and fitness, and exposed to a wide variety of pollutants and bacteria.

When will we ever learn?   Two types of ignorance: 1. To not know, and 2. To know and to not act.

Lou