With visitors fatalities spiking increased, the nation’s prime security investigator says a broadly cited authorities statistic that 94% of great crashes are solely resulting from driver error is deceptive and that the Transportation Division ought to cease utilizing it.
Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the Nationwide Transportation Security Board, instructed The Related Press on Tuesday that she’s stunned the wording stays on the division’s web site even because the Biden administration pledges to embark on a broader technique to stave off crashes by higher street design, auto security options and different measures.
Auto security advocates have been calling on the division for years to cease utilizing the statistic, together with requests by Homendy in current months in addition to a letter from auto security teams to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg final month. They name the determine an unacceptable “excuse” for surging crashes. In a bit touting the protection potential of automated automobiles, the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration’s web site states “94% of great crashes are resulting from human error.”
“That has to alter,” Homendy mentioned of NHTSA’s persevering with use of the statistic. “It’s harmful.”
She mentioned the general public needs to be enraged that just about 40,000 persons are dying yearly in visitors accidents and thousands and thousands are injured, however moderately sees it as “only a danger individuals take.”
“What’s occurring is we’ve a tradition that accepts it,” she mentioned.
“On the similar time it relieves everyone else of duty they’ve for bettering security, together with DOT,” she added, referring to the Division of Transportation. “You may’t concurrently say we’re centered on a `secure system’ method — ensuring everyone who shares duty for street security is taking motion to eradicate fatalities and severe accidents … — and have a 94% quantity on the market, which isn’t correct.”
Responding, NHTSA mentioned Tuesday it might replace the wording on its web site within the close to future “to deal with that characterization of the information in addition to present further info.” The division is slated to launch subsequent week a nationwide technique for steps to avoid wasting lives on the roads.
The determine stems from a NHTSA memo put out in 2015 stating that “the vital cause, which is the final occasion within the crash causal chain, was assigned to the motive force in 94% of the crashes.” Nevertheless, the memo additionally included a caveat {that a} “vital cause” is “not meant to be interpreted as the reason for the crash” and pointed to different important elements.
State transportation companies and the division, then led by Secretary Elaine Chao, subsequently solid the memo as discovering that 94% of great crashes occurred “resulting from human error,” typically when selling the event of automated automobiles.
Site visitors fatalities have surged lately, notably through the coronavirus pandemic. The variety of U.S. visitors deaths within the first six months of 2021 hit 20,160, the very best first-half complete since 2006. The quantity was 18.4% increased than the primary half of 2020, prompting the administration to embark on a broader technique.
Fatalities Spike
Site visitors deaths started to spike in 2019, and NHTSA blamed rushing and different reckless driving conduct for the will increase. Earlier than then, the variety of fatalities had fallen for 3 straight years.
On Tuesday, Homendy echoed different security teams in saying continued use of the determine, notably by NHTSA itself, distracts from a complete method that’s now wanted. Of their letter to Buttigieg final month, teams together with Advocates for Freeway and Auto Security, the Shopper Federation of America and Heart for Auto Security harassed the necessity for a multifaceted plan to cut back crashes, together with issuing lengthy overdue security requirements mandated by Congress and extra carefully overseeing the deployment of autonomous automobiles on the street.
The continued use of the 94% knowledge level, they wrote, “ignores the complexities of crashes and undermines efforts to implement the Secure System Method which examines how all elements of the transportation setting contribute to crashes.”
In a separate roadmap for security launched Tuesday, Advocates for Freeway and Auto Security pointed to rising crashes amongst AVs and cited them as one of many better threats on the street resulting from inadequate security.
The administration has expressed a better dedication to bettering security for all street customers. President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure legislation, as an illustration, broadly promotes a “secure system” method urged by NTSB that’s geared toward minimizing the affect of human errors and defending individuals who stroll and bike in addition to drive.
Below the legislation, about $5 billion will go for the administration’s new Secure Streets and Roads for All program, which supplies grants to cities, metro areas and cities to enhance security, particularly for cyclists and pedestrians. It additionally contains new federal mandates to automakers to put in anti-drunken driving expertise in automobiles.
Homendy mentioned she is “cautiously optimistic” that the division is taking the required steps to spice up security, together with bettering knowledge assortment to find out when and why accidents are occurring. However she mentioned what worries her most is the federal government’s capacity to maintain tempo in making the most effective use of quickly altering expertise to maintain individuals secure.
“I’m very direct on after I suppose there’s a security concern and the place persons are dying,” she mentioned. “And you already know it’s a obligation and I take this very severely. … Whether or not it’s DOT or NTSB, we’ve to work as laborious as we will.”
Krisher reported from Detroit.
Copyright 2022 Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials might not be revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Subjects
Personal Auto
