VISIONZERO CRASH DEATHS AND ZEROSERIOUS INJURIES VISIONZERO CRASH DEATHS AND ZEROSERIOUS INJURIES The Delivery of a Vision Zero Petition March 2016 AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety © 2016 Marianne W. Karth. All rights reserved. Published by AnnaLeah & Mary For Truck Safety Interior design, layout, and production: Isaac Karth Presidential Edition annaleahmary.com 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 This book is lovingly compiled in memory of AnnaLeah Karth (forever 17) and Mary Lydia Karth (forever 13) Precious ones, your lives were cut far too short. Contents Contents vii Introduction ix I Letter to President Obama 1 1 Petition Letter to President Obama 3 2 Letter of Support for the AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety Vision Zero Executive Order Petition 5 3 Selected Comments From Current Executive Order Petition Signers 9 II Executive Order 13 4 Why do we need a Vision Zero Executive Order? 15 5 What is Needed to Bring About a National Vision Zero Goal? 21 5.1 Action One: Set a National Vision Zero Goal . 22 5.2 Action Two: Establish a White House Vision Zero Task Force To Achieve Significant Crash Death Reduction . 23 5.3 Action Three: Sign a Vision Zero Executive Order To Au- thorize Vision Zero Rulemaking Policies . 27 vii viii CONTENTS III Vision Zero 33 6 What is Vision Zero? 35 7 Why Are We Advocating For Vision Zero? 37 8 Traffic Injuries & Fatalities Data 41 9 Truck Underride: A Practical Application of a Vision Zero Goal 43 10 Comments on the NPRM for Rear Underride Guards on Trailers by Jerry Karth 47 11 Cost Effectiveness Analysis in OMB A-4 55 11.1 OMB Circular A-4 ..................... 55 IV Petition 59 12 Petition Letter to Secretary Foxx 61 13 About the Signers 63 14 Selected Comments by Signers of the Vision Zero Petition 65 15 Signatures to the Petition 69 16 Comments by Signers of the Petition 623 A Vision Zero Posts from AnnaLeahMary.com 633 A.1 Chronologically archived: . 633 A.2 Alphabetical listing of Vision Zero posts: . 639 Introduction In the aftermath of losing our two youngest daughters, AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13), due to a truck underride crash on May 4, 2013, we became aware of far too many facts about traffic fatalities. Along the way, we discovered that a global movement is underway-called Vision Zero. This term was coined in Sweden and has as its basis acouple of “ethical rules” 1: • “Life and health can never be exchanged for other benefits within the society” • “Whenever someone is killed or seriously injured, necessary steps must be taken to avoid a similar event” Every life is worth saving; there is no person who will not be missed by someone: 2 In an effort to do more than just put a bandaid on the problem, we launched a campaign to call for major change in how safety laws and regulations are determined. This book is a compilation of our request for a National Vision Zero Goal and for a Vision Zero rulemaking policy. It includes our petition letters to President Obama and DOT Secretary Foxx—along with the signatures and comments of thousands of people who signed the petitions and are speaking up with us to call for a move Towards Zero Crash Deaths & Serious Injuries. 1http://www.monash.edu/miri/research/reports/papers/visionzero 2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsyvrkEjoXI ix Part I Letter to President Obama 1 1 Petition Letter to President Obama Dear President Obama: After losing two daughters, AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13) in a truck underride crash on May 4, 2013, the Karth family took over 11,000 en- velopes with signed petitions from the “AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up For Truck Safety Care2 Petition” to Washington, DC, one year later on May 5, 2014. At that time, they met with administrators from FMCSA and NHTSA and discussed, at length, their concerns about truck safety issues. Since that time, they have set up a non-profit, AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety, to promote highway safety research and federal regulations to protect motorists, pedestrians, & cyclists. And, in fact, there has been some progress with the issuing of a final rule for Electronic Logging De- vices and the initiation of rulemaking steps related to underride guards and minimum liability insurance for truck companies. However, we are concerned that these safety measures, as well as oth- ers, are being unnecessarily delayed and/or weakened by the restrictions placed upon the rulemaking process by President Clinton’s Executive Or- der 12866. As you know, the Department of Transportation makes high- way safety rules based upon how much safety measures will cost. Instead, we want to establish a U.S. Vision Zero goal and move toward Zero Deaths, Zero Injuries, Zero Fear of Traffic. One of the biggest challenges to making change is the cost/benefit anal- ysis. On the one side there are lives to be saved and on the other side there are companies working to make money. The trick is to try and meet everyone’s needs. The solution has to be effective in saving lives while 3 4 CHAPTER 1. PETITION LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA still being affordable for companies so that they can make the changes necessary without a lot of struggle. The problem comes in when human life and health get the short endof the stick. The result is that many safety measures are blocked because they would cost more to implement than the “worth” of the “small” number of human lives which would be saved. That’s just not right. Therefore we are asking you to write an Executive Order which would set a Vision Zero goal for our country. This EO will pave the way for stronger safety measures to be established in a more timely manner; saved lives will be a higher priority than saved dollars. This Executive Order should also provide DOT with resources andau- thority to hold appropriate parties responsible for implementing the rules, as well as hold them accountable to meet performance outcomes which ensure human life and health. Furthermore, the Executive Order should include a requirement for annual progress reports. On average, 33,000 people die each year in crashes on our roads. Our fam- ilies cannot continue to sustain this unacceptably high number of losses and injuries. We urge you to take immediate action so that more lives will not be lost and to assure us that safety is your number one priority. Sincerely, The AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety Vision Zero Petition on Change.org1 1https://www.change.org/p/obama-adopt-a-vision-zero-goal-and- sign-an-executive-order-to-save-lives-not-dollars 2 Letter of Support for the AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety Vision Zero Executive Order Petition Due to a shared interest in reducing preventable traffic fatalities and serious injuries, we are working together to raise awareness and garner widespread support for a national Vision Zero Goal and to petition President Obama to sign a Vision Zero Executive Order. This effort is supported by the following individuals and organizations: Jerry & Marianne Karth AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety Rocky Mount, North Carolina http://annaleahmary.com/ Andy Young Husband, father, truck owner, Class A CDL driver, truck accident at- torney, and trial attorney fighting for you and your loved ones to havea SafeDriveHome, Cleveland, Ohio http://www.nphm.com/about-us/attorneys/andrew-young/ 5 6 CHAPTER 2. LETTER OF SUPPORT Neil Arason Road Safety Researcher, Author of No Accident Victoria, British Columbia http://neil.arason.ca/ Lance Hamm Road Safety Advocate Kingsville, Texas Stephen Hadley, Coordinator Underride Network, Victim/Survivor Washougal, Washington http://www.underridenetwork.org/ Emily Stein, President, Safe Roads Alliance Daughter against distracted driving, safety advocate who aims to increase awareness of the dangers caused by distracted driving https://twitter.com/emstein30?lang=en Louis Lombardo Auto Safety Researcher and Advocate Publisher of safety resources at Care for Crash Victims http://www.careforcrashvictims.com/ Carol S. “Cally” Houck, Attorney at Law Mother and Survivor of Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act Advocate and activist for highway safety and Auto Industry accountability Ojai, California Support the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act1 1https://www.change.org/p/rep-fred-upton-repfredupton-support- the-raechel-and-jacqueline-houck-safe-rental-car-act 7 Laura Christian Birth mother of Amber Marie Rose, who died in 2006 due to the ignition switch defect that GM covered up for a decade https://www.facebook.com/gmrecall.survivors/?fref=ts John Lannen, Director Truck Safety Coalition http://trucksafety.org/ Michael Lemov, author Car Safety Wars: 100 Years of Technology, Politics, & Death http://www.amazon.com/Car-Safety-Wars-Technology- Politics/dp/161147745X http://www.johnemossfoundation.org/bio/lemov.htm Leah Shahum Founder & Director, Vision Zero Network Nonprofit campaign supporting Vision Zero efforts across the U.S. http://visionzeronetwork.org/ Paul and Sue Oberhauser, National Co-Chairs, Traffic Safety Coalition http://www.trafficsafetycoalition.com/ Melissa Wandall President of the National Coalition for Safer Roads The Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Act of Florida Reducing the Risk at our Intersections http://www.MelissaWandall.com 3 Selected Comments From Current Executive Order Petition Signers We need truck laws to improve highway safety Trucks kill too many people every year. —Pamela Batchelor, Hendersonville, NC I’m signing because as a Texan, my state has shamefully av- eraged 3,500 annual road deaths in the past 20 years. Based on historical data, I seriously doubt the Texas state legislature or state DOT has the skill or the desire to improve in the area of fatality reduction on Texas roads.