On Eve of Senate Debate on Surface Transportation Bill, Safety Advocates, Crash Victims’ Families, and Members of Congress to Launch Renewed Push to Adopt Pro-Safety Provisions and Dump Pro-Industry Rollbacks
Partisan Bill Departs from Historical Bipartisan Senate Actions to Combat Highway Deaths and Injuries
Nearly 200,000 People Will Be Killed and 14 Million Injured in Crashes over 6 Years Unless Commonsense and Cost-Effective Solutions are Enacted
Transportation Reauthorization Bill May Come to U.S. Senate Floor as Early as Tuesday
WHAT: MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL
On the day before the multi-year, multi-billion dollar surface transportation reauthorization legislation may come to the U.S. Senate Floor, consumer, public health and safety groups and crash victims’ families will join Members of Congress to launch a renewed push to include lifesaving highway and vehicle safety provisions in the “Safety Title.” On July 15, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee failed to include significant safety advances and rolled back numerous current safety laws when they voted along party lines to send the Comprehensive Transportation and Consumer Protection Act (S.1732) to the full Senate. This bill allows 18-year-old truck drivers to traverse across the country, turns a blind eye to the General Motors and Takata recall failures, and sets back truck, bus, car, and motorcycle safety for years to come.
The group will discuss their plans to press for Senate adoption of provisions in the “Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2015” (S. 1743) sponsored by Commerce Committee Ranking Member Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and co-sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), and the “Truck Safety Act” (S. 1739) sponsored by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). The bills would reduce the growing number of deaths and injuries on the nation’s roadways, correct deficiencies in identifying and investigating vehicle safety defects, increase penalties for automakers that purposely hide defects that lead to deaths and injuries, advance truck safety and consumer information and protections.
WHEN: Monday, July 20, 2015 at 10:00 am EDT
HOW: Toll-Free Tele-Conference Call-In Number: 1-877-366-0711
Participant Code: 49253737#
- WHO:
• Jackie Gillan, President, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
• Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Member, Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, co-sponsor “Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2015” (S. 1743)
• Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), Member, Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, co-sponsor “Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2015” (S. 1743)
• Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director, American Public Health Association
• Angelina Sujata, Takata airbag victim who sustained serious injuries when her 2001 Honda Civic was involved in a rear-end collision in Chapin, SC in March 2012. Upon impact, the Takata airbag inflator exploded with alleged excessive force, shooting sharp, metal shrapnel into her chest multiple times. Angelina was hospitalized and has had to undergo two surgeries, the most recent of which was to remove shrapnel that was later discovered in her body and was causing chest pain.
• Lindsey Rogers-Seitz, Esq., child safety advocate and Colorado mother of Benjamin Seitz who lost his life after being unknowingly left alone in a hot vehicle in Ridgefield, CT by his father on July 7, 2014.
• Jackie Novak, a Hendersonville, NC mother whose son Chuck and his girlfriend Theresa Seaver were killed in a crash in October 2010 when a speeding tractor-trailer crashed into a line of stopped cars without slowing down. The trucking company had a long history of unsafe operations. A total of five were killed and several others were seriously injured.
• Jack Gillis, Director of Public Affairs, Consumer Federation of America
• Joan Claybrook, Chair, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH), and former Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
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