NTSB chief to fed agency: Stop using misleading statistics

WASHINGTON – With visitors fatalities spiking larger, the nation’s prime security investigator says a broadly cited authorities statistic that 94% of great crashes are solely because of 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 shocked 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 way of higher highway 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 piece touting the protection potential of automated automobiles, the Nationwide Freeway Transportation Security Administration’s web site states “94% of great crashes are because of human error.”

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“That has to alter,” Homendy stated of NHTSA’s persevering with use of the statistic. “It’s harmful.”

She stated the general public needs to be enraged that almost 40,000 individuals are dying yearly in visitors accidents and tens of millions are injured, however fairly sees it as “only a threat folks take.”

“What’s occurring is we now have a tradition that accepts it,” she stated.

“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’ll be able to’t concurrently say we’re targeted on a secure system strategy — ensuring everyone who shares duty for highway security is taking motion to remove fatalities and severe accidents … — and have a 94% quantity on the market, which isn’t correct.”

Responding, NHTSA stated Tuesday it will replace the wording on its web site within the close to future “to handle that characterization of the information in addition to present extra data.” The division is slated to launch subsequent week a nationwide technique for steps to save lots of lives on the roads.

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The determine stems from a NHTSA memo put out in 2015 stating that “the important motive, which is the final occasion within the crash causal chain, was assigned to the driving force in 94% of the crashes.” Nevertheless, the memo additionally included a caveat {that a} “important motive” is “not meant to be interpreted as the reason for the crash” and pointed to different vital elements.

State transportation businesses and the division, then led by Secretary Elaine Chao, subsequently solid the memo as discovering that 94% of great crashes occurred “because of human error,” typically when selling the event of automated automobiles.

Site visitors fatalities have surged in recent times, significantly in the course of 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% larger than the primary half of 2020, prompting the administration to embark on a broader technique.

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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, significantly by NHTSA itself, distracts from a complete strategy that’s now wanted. Of their letter to Buttigieg final month, teams together with Advocates for Freeway and Auto Security, the Client Federation of America and Middle for Auto Security pressured 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 highway.

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The continued use of the 94% knowledge level, they wrote, “ignores the complexities of crashes and undermines efforts to implement the Protected System Strategy which examines how all elements of the transportation surroundings 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 highway because of inadequate security.

The administration has expressed a better dedication to bettering security for all highway customers. President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure regulation, as an example, broadly promotes a “secure system” strategy urged by NTSB that’s geared toward minimizing the impression of human errors and defending individuals who stroll and bike in addition to drive.

Underneath the regulation, about $5 billion will go for the administration’s new Protected Streets and Roads for All program, which gives 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 vehicles.

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Homendy stated 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 stated what worries her most is the federal government’s potential to maintain tempo in making one of the best use of quickly altering expertise to maintain folks secure.

“I’m very direct on once I assume there’s a security concern and the place individuals are dying,” she stated. “And you already know it’s a obligation and I take this very significantly. … Whether or not it’s DOT or NTSB, we now have to work as onerous as we will.”

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Krisher reported from Detroit.