The AP reports National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy – “the nation’s top safety investigator” – “says a widely cited government statistic that 94% of serious crashes are solely due to driver error is misleading and that the Transportation Department should stop using it.” While the government has used the statistic to promote “the safety potential of automated vehicles,” Homendy and other auto “safety advocates” have called for DOT “to stop using the statistic,” claiming the figure is “an unacceptable ‘excuse’ for surging crashes.” Homendy “said the public should be enraged that nearly 40,000 people are dying annually in traffic accidents and millions are injured, but rather sees it as ‘just a risk people take.’” She is quoted as saying, “What’s happening is we have a culture that accepts it. … At the same time it relieves everybody else of responsibility they have for improving safety, including DOT.”
From the news release of the American Association for Justice.
