Posts Tagged ‘NHTSA’
NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind to address 2016 Washington Auto Show
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Dr. Mark Rosekind, Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, will deliver the annual government keynote address at the 2016 Washington Auto Show’s Public Policy Day Jan. 21, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
“The Washington Auto Show has long championed the theme of sustainable mobility, and we’re honored that one of the world’s leading safety experts will speak on behalf of the Administration at our Public Policy Day,” said Geoff Pohanka, chairman of the 2016 Washington Auto Show and metro area representative on the board of the National Automobile Dealers Association.
The 2016 Washington Auto Show: The Power of Mobility preview opens Jan. 20 with the first of two Public Policy Days. Geared toward officials in industry, government and media, these events kick off with a Capitol Hill forum on Wednesday, Jan. 20 and continue Thursday, Jan. 21 at the show site, the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, for a full day of press conferences and special events highlighted by Dr. Rosekind’s government keynote.
“As the Washington Auto Show puts it, ‘the power of mobility’ is a force that, literally, transports our lives to new vistas and possibilities,” says Rosekind. “With new technologies from automated driving to improved blind-spot monitoring, we also have the opportunity and responsibility to put safety first.”
The 15th Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Dr. Rosekind is pursuing NHTSA’s core safety mission of saving lives, preventing injuries, and reducing crashes through all of the tools at NHTSA’s disposal —including enforcement authority, public awareness campaigns, support of technical innovation, and research into human behavior.
Administrator Rosekind is an internationally recognized expert on human fatigue, credited with leading the field in innovative research and implementing programs in all modes of transportation. His work has been widely published, and his awards include NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal, the Mark O. Hatfield Award for Public Policy from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and two Flight Safety Foundation honors: the President’s Citation for Outstanding Safety Leadership and the Business Aviation Meritorious Service Award.
Before becoming NHTSA Administrator, Dr. Rosekind served as the 40th member of the National Transportation Safety Board from 2010 to 2014. He was the on-scene board member for seven major transportation accidents and participated in numerous NTSB public events on diverse safety topics. Dr. Rosekind advanced the agency’s advocacy goals on substance-impaired driving, fatigue, fire safety, and rail mass transit. Prior to his appointment to the NTSB, Dr. Rosekind founded Alertness Solutions, a scientific consulting firm that specialized in fatigue management, and served as the company’s first president and chief scientist. He launched his professional career as the director of the Center for Human Sleep Research at the Stanford University Sleep Disorders and Research Center. Administrator Rosekind earned his A.B. with honors from Stanford University, his M.S., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Yale University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Brown University Medical School.
The public policy show on the auto show circuit, The Washington Auto Show connects industry leaders with public policy makers, a nexus underscored at the show’s Public Policy Preview Days. Held in advance of the 10-day public show, the preview days convene thought leaders at the intersection of industry and policy to tackle some of the most pressing issues in the automotive sector.
For more information and to register for Public Policy Days, please contact Barbara Pomerance, communications director for The Washington Auto Show, at 800-697-7574 or bp@pomeranceassociates.com.
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P&A Applauds LaHood on “Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving
We all know better.
A recent telephone survey conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that 90 percent of respondents considered a driver reading or sending texts and emails to be very unsafe. At the same time, respondents admitted to few circumstances when they themselves would not text or use their phone while driving. Perhaps that explains why in 2010, at least 3,092 people were killed due to distracted driving. That’s one in every 10 fatalities on America’s roads.
Those statistics were noted last week in Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s press release announcing the launch of his “Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving.” Among its efforts, the new plan encourages the 11 states without distracted driving laws to get them on the books, asks the auto industry to develop safety standards to ensure devices don’t cause distraction behind the wheel, and provides educational material to young drivers, who are most likely to engage in distracted driving.
More information on this effort and others can be found on www.distraction.gov.
The issue of distracted driving has become one of the great public health and safety concerns of our time. We are proud that Secretary LaHood has thrown down the gauntlet. Let’s all rise to the challenge.
