Transcript 0:00 [gentle music] We need to leverage technology in order to curb these traffic deaths. 0:06 We, we need to understand not to use it to, to listen to that ding, to answer the call, but we need to use it to say, "When do we put down our devices? 0:16 When do we pay attention to the road, and eyes on the road, hands on the wheel?" We need to leverage autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles to help prevent distracted driving. 0:29 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:47 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. I have a very interesting fun fact for all of you who are afraid to fly on airplanes. 1:00 Did you know almost 95% of all the United States transportation deaths occur on the streets, roads, and highways? 1:11 Hopefully, that will make you a little less afraid to fly, although I'm [laughs] not quite sure how it will make you feel about getting behind the wheel of a car. 1:21 So here is the question at hand for all of you today: did traffic fatalities go up or down from 2020 to 2021? 1:32 New numbers out this month paint a very interesting picture of how many people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes here in the United States last year alone. 1:45 Now let me tell you, there is a long road we are going to have to travel to end roadway deaths by 2050, which is the goal of many organizations. 1:56 So for today's first segment, let's talk about where we are today, and I will share with you the raw numbers, and they're very interesting and certainly very startling. 2:08 Then let's plan to talk about what needs to happen next to curb all of these traffic fatalities. But first, let's talk about all the guests that I'm gonna be interviewing today. 2:19 I'll be talking with Jacob Chaikowalski, who is the associate professor of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. 2:28 And then, of course, I'm gonna wrap up the show with Frederic Desbiens, who's the program manager for the IoT and edge computing at Eclipse Foundation. So let's get started. 2:41 The US Department of Transportation's National Highway Safety Traffic Administration released its early estimate of traffic fatalities for the first nine months of 2021. 2:55 Now, here's what it found: roughly 31,720 people died in motor vehicle crashes from January through September of last year. Again, think about all those people who died in crashes. 3:14 This is an increase of roughly 12%. Yep, you heard me, 12% from the 28,325 fatalities projected in the first nine months of 2020. 3:28 Fatalities increased in 38 states. 3:34 Now let me be very clear here, the projection for 2021 is the highest number of fatalities during the first nine months of any year since 2006. 3:48 It is also the highest percentage increase during the first nine months in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System's history. Yes, you heard me correctly. We are absolutely trending in the wrong direction here. 4:07 Now let me repeat that again. We are absolutely trending in the wrong direction here. Now, I know what you are probably thinking. 4:16 Vehicle miles traveled in 2021 were likely higher than it was in 2020 as more people took to the roads as COVID-19 mitigations lessened. I'm sure that's what you're thinking, and you would absolutely be correct. 4:32 So let's take a look at those numbers to better compare, because numbers always reveal a lot of interesting points. 4:40 The Federal Highway Administration says vehicle miles traveled in the first nine months of 2021 increased by about 244 billion miles. Yep, that's a B. This is an 11.7%. 4:56 We're talking about 12% increase from the same time in 2020. 5:01 To put this in, into perspective, the fatality rate for the first nine months of 2021 increased to 1.36 fatalities per 100 mile, 100 miles vehicle miles traveled. 5:20 Now think about that. Even with this taken into consideration, there was still a marginal increase from the projected rate of 1.35 fatalities in the same time in 2020. 5:36 Now, there's some good news, is that the fatality rates in the second and third quarters of 2021 did decline compared to 2020, but there's never any really good news. I mean, fatalities are fatalities. 5:52 Still, even these small incremental improvements are not going to get us to zero deaths fast enough. No every life lost is a life lostSo what can we do to combat all of this? 6:08 The US Department of Transportation also recently released the federal government's new comprehensive National Roadway Safety Strategy. So let's take a look at that because I think it's really important. 6:23 It is a roadmap to address the national crisis in roadway fatalities and serious injuries. It does this by building multiple layers of protection in what they call five key areas. 6:39 So let's look at those five key areas because I think it's kind of important when we examine what this needs to be. It's talking about safer roads, safer people, safer vehicles of course, safer speeds, 6:54 and better post-crash care. Now, it addresses the problem from all sides, all perspective. 7:04 It also is in line with the safety funding included in President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure law, which is the same thing I've talked about here on this show and have covered on connectedworld.com. 7:20 So if you haven't seen it, go up there and, and you can look at what I've been talking about. Generally, it provides roughly six billion dollars for the safe streets and roads for all programs, 7:34 and four billion dollars in additional funding for the Highway Safety Improvement Program, and an additional infusion of about four billion dollars for improved crash data and vehicle behavior and truck safety programs. 7:51 Now interestingly, the National Roadway Safety Strategy recognizes that roadway safety is intri- intrinsically, or I should say inextricably linked with e- equity and climate goals. 8:09 And it's kind of interesting when you think about it, the reality of the situation is fatalities due to traffic crashes are disproportionately affect communities of color, people living in rural areas, people with disabilities, older adults. 8:27 You have to take in lots of consideration. All of this actually needs to change. 8:35 So let's talk about what we need to do to address this and dig into some of the recommended actions in the National Roadway Safety Strategy, because again, this is how we address some of these bigger issues. 8:50 So the ad- a department is actually adopting the safe system approach, which acknowledges both human mistakes and human vulnerability. 9:01 I find that kind of interesting and important that it is addressing both, because you can't have one without the other. 9:08 It's also designing a redundant system to protect everyone by preventing crashes and ensuring that if they do occur, they do not result in serious injur- injury or deaths. 9:23 So let's look at just a few of the key actions it recommends. First, work with states and local road owners to build and maintain safer roadway through efforts such as speed limit setting. 9:40 We all know what happens when people are going too fast, they're driving and texting, they're not paying attention to what they're doing. 9:48 Second, invest in the road safety through the funding in the bipartisan infrastructure law, which I mentioned. We have to improve the roads, the bridges. 9:59 Perhaps safer roads and bridges and infrastructure upgrades are a big part of the solution, and we all know that if we don't improve these, you know, potholes and other things lead to a lot more a- roads and accidents that we're seeing. 10:15 But I digress, because that's a whole nother conversation. And finally, leverage technology. 10:22 How many times do we know that technology can improve the safety of motor vehicles on our roadways, including rulemaking on automatic emergency braking and pedestrian automatic emergency braking and upgrades to the New Car Assessment Program? 10:40 There's so many things we need to know that people need to stop using their technology for bad, but for good. 10:47 There's so many ways that we can do that, and I think we need to stop using our phones when we're driving, but use it for the purpose to help save lives and not to hurt lives. So here's my opinion for today. 11:01 Thirty-one thousand seven hundred deaths in m- in nine months of a time period are far too many. You know, we are still way too far away from our goal of zero deaths. 11:16 I truly appreciate the a- ambition to end roadway deaths, but simply one death is one too many. And I, and w- and we all can say, "Well, we're gonna try to get there," but I'm not sure we are making enough progress here. 11:32 We all know when we lose a loved one, it's, it's one too many. Much work still needs to be done in order to begin to reduce these fatalities. Nobody wants to lose a loved one. 11:45 Even as I said, one death is still way too many when it comes to human life. 11:52 We need to raise awareness to the point that drivers recognize harm and destruction that is being created in families, in communities, in everyone around us, and it needs to startToday. 12:09 We, we can't wait till tomorrow till we put all these pieces together like a giant puzzle. We need to understand how all of this fits together today. So here's my tip. 12:21 We need to leverage technology in order to curb these traffic deaths. We, we need to understand not to use it to, to listen to that ding, to answer the call, but we need to use it to say, when do we put down our devices? 12:35 When do we pay attention to the road and eyes on the road, hands on the wheel? We need to leverage autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles to help prevent distracted driving. 12:47 Much work is already being done to boost the development of self-driving vehicles, but we are still very much in the early days. 12:56 W- just like with COVID, we have expedited the development of things in areas like healthcare. We need to expedite the development to help make safer roads. We need to progress... 13:07 We need progress here to happen faster on our AVs, on our EVs. 13:15 At the same time, we need to make strides for greater safety in our vehicles, and safety in our vehicles has always been foremost on the minds of every automaker, but we need to expedite it even more in everybody's mind. 13:32 This might mean more employer programs for distracted driving. It might mean more community programs. It might mean us using technology to monitor younger drivers who are still learning. 13:44 It might mean a whole host of things. It might mean technology to heighten motorcycle safety, or perhaps there is something we can do to curb speeding. 13:55 The sky is the limit, as I like to say, but we need to apply anything and everything. 14:03 More than anything else, what we really need is a culture of change, and if anything can change our culture at warp speed, it is a fact of technology. Let's use technology for good here. 14:19 Let's use it to help save lives. Here is a chance for safer roads in the days ahead. We can make our roads safer, better for everyone. The last thing we wanna u- do is lose more lives. 14:35 COVID has taken almost a million lives. We don't need distracted driving to continue to add to all the lives lost. 14:44 Let's use technology for technology good, and let's hope that we're all being safer and smarter when we are on the road. So it should always be eyes ahead, you know, hands on the wheel, and focusing at the task at hand. 15:02 So as always, if you have thoughts on what I've just talked about, please send me a tweet to continue this discussion on, on social media at Connected World. 15:12 [upbeat music] All right, listeners, that's all the time I have for this segment. Please check out our website at connectedworld.com, our show website at thepeggySmedleyShow.com. 15:20 All right, we're gonna take a quick commercial break. As always, this is The Peggy Smedley Show, your voice for our connected world. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. 15:31 We'll be right back after this commercial break. [upbeat music]
