Personal Injury Blog

American Motorist Safety Continues to Be at Risk From Failure to Implement NTSB Recommendations

September 29th, 2010
American Motorist Safety

Icing on planes has been a major issues for many years now.

Thousands of people have been killed in automobile accidents, truck accidents, plane crashes, train accidents and other disasters caused because the federal agencies responsible for safety of Americans delayed acting on recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board.  It is a matter of frustration not just to the NTSB, but also to California personal injury lawyers that these agencies continue to fumble over safety measures, exposing Americans to risk.

The statistics are stunning.  According to News 21, more than 700 people have been killed over the past 30 years in airplane crashes caused because of ice accumulation on aircraft wings.  These deaths occurred even as the Federal Aviation Administration delayed acting on recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board to deal with these icing dangers.

Thousands of commercial trucks and tractor trailers continue to ply American highways with no antilock brakes in place.  It’s been 24 years since the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that trucks come with antilock brakes that can reduce chances of an accident.

36 years ago, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended an enhanced railcar design that would keep passengers and workers safer during a train accident and increase their chances of surviving a crash.  It took that many years for the Federal Railroad Administration to actually act on these recommendations.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has chosen to sit on a recommendation made by the NTSB requiring medically unfit drivers and operators to be taken off the roads.  The recommendation was made in 2002.  Since then, more than 800 people have been killed in truck accidents involving medically unfit drivers.

It’s not just federal agencies that have been guilty of blatantly ignoring the NTSB’s safety recommendations, to the detriment of passengers and motorists.  In 1993, the NTSB recommended that boating education classes be made compulsory for anyone who wanted to take a boat out on the water.  13 states have chosen to ignore that recommendation altogether.  Even worse, Virginia and Wisconsin refuse to require that children be made to wear life jackets when they are on a boat.

The time taken for federal and state safety agencies to implement recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board has actually increased over the years.  Between the year 2000 and 2010, the average number of years taken by federal safety agencies and transportation agencies to implement National Transportation Safety Board recommendations has increased from three years to 5.4 years.

There are several reasons for this delay in implementation of recommendations.  There was interference from transportation groups and special interest groups who lobbied to block these measures.  For instance, recommendations to require seatbelts in all buses were delayed for decades because the powerful bus manufacturer lobby lobbied to block such measures.  It also doesn’t help that the National Transportation Safety Board is only empowered to make recommendations, and has no powers to force state and federal agencies to comply with these.

However, there are signs that things are improving.  There is now a new Department Of Transportation Safety Council that is entrusted with the responsibility of seeing that implementation of NTSB recommendations are sped up.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of auto accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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