The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-27)

C2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MARCH 27 , 2022

commuter

BY MICHAEL LARIS

When Jennifer Homendy saw
the Toyota RAV4 hurtling her
way as she sat in Northern Vir-
ginia traffic, the chair of the Na-
tional Transportation Safety
Board had only a moment to pre-
pare before experiencing the
type of violent collision she has
tried to reduce across the coun-
try.
The former union official and
Democratic staff director for the
House subcommittee on rail-
roads, pipelines and hazardous
materials was nominated by
President Biden lasts May to lead
the independent safety agency.
On a morning in early November,
sitting in her Subaru Crosstrek,
she did not think she would walk
away from what was coming.
She did, with a concussion and
some bruising, but otherwise in-
tact.
“I felt like that seat belt really
saved my life,” Homendy said.
In an interview with The
Washington Post, she discussed
the agency’s work of trying to
save lives through increasing
safety on the nation’s roads, rails
and airplanes — and how she
grills her daughter’s school about
bus safety before a field trip. The
following was edited for length
and clarity.

Q: As someone who has talked a
lot about cutting the nation’s
road deaths from more than
38,000 a year to zero, how do you
deal with the reality of how
difficult that is while still trying
to push people to get there?
A: There is this great video that
Toward Zero Deaths did, where
they interviewed people in
different areas and said, “What
do you think about zero? Could
we ever get to zero?” And
everybody’s response was, “No
way. That’s never going to
happen. It’s totally unrealistic.
Why would that even be the
goal?”
And then they changed the
question and asked, “What if it
was your family member?” And
they stopped and they were like,
“Well, of course it should be zero!

Why? I wouldn’t want them to

die.” It’s interesting when you

personalize it how different

people feel.

For the NTSB, safety is our

mission. It’s also personal. We’re

the ones who are out there, when

we investigate crashes, talking to

the family members. And when

we tell them that we’ve had a

safety recommendation for five,

10, 15, 20, 30 years that would

have prevented this crash had it

been implemented, they’re

astounded. It’s very hard for us

to do. When I look at, ‘Is zero

possible?’ Damn right, it’s

possible.

Q: Does the NTSB have further

insights into what caused the

wheel problems with the

Washington Metropolitan Area

Transit Authority’s 7000-series

rail cars, and whether those

problems are being seen in other

transit systems?

A: My understanding is Metro is

still working on a failure analysis

to figure that out and working

through the [Washington

Metrorail] Safety Commission to

move their plan forward. We

have not been made aware of any

other transit properties that have

identified wheel migration.

Q: As a transportation reporter,

I’m constantly warning my

family to look out for this, be

careful of that, pointing out

dangers on the road. How do you

deal with all these risks in your

own life?

A: There’s always going to be risk

in everything we do, literally

everything we do all day long,

whether it has to do with

transportation or not. And it’s

just making sure we’re informed

and make decisions based on

that information. There was a

little battle in my household a

few years ago where I caught my

daughter riding her bike in the

neighborhood without a helmet

on. For me, that’s a no-go, right? I

pulled her aside, and we talked

about the importance of

protection for your head. It was

an educational moment.

She’s 14 now and going to a

new school. She understands

how focused I am on safety. I told

her, “I’m going to have to ask the

school about safety on the bus

for field trips. Who’s operating

it? Is it the school bus? Is it an

outside operator for this trip?

Are seat belts on the bus? You

know, I’ve got some questions,”

and she just rolls her eyes like,

“Oh, there she is again.”

I was rear-ended in November

by somebody going 45 or 50. I

was stopped in Stafford County

at about 6:30 a.m. It was not

fully light out, and I was behind

a long line of traffic at the

stoplight and I saw somebody

coming. There was an island on

my left and traffic on my right. At

that point, it was just sort of

bracing for the crash. He hit me

and then I hit the vehicle in front

of me. There was damage all

around. It really speaks to the

safety of vehicles nowadays. I

really thought, when I saw him

coming, that I was probably not

going to walk away.

Q: The roadway safety plan

released by Transportation

Secretary Pete Buttigieg earlier

this year relies on a “safe system”

approach, something you have

long advocated. How would you

describe what that means to my

mom or a teenager out there?

A: Everybody has a role to play,

and it’s making sure everybody

plays that role to save lives. That

includes all stakeholders —

federal, state and local

governments; educators; public

health officials; law

enforcement; emergency

responders; organizations that

are invested in traffic safety. It’s

everybody. In road safety, we

tend to say, “Oh, it’s just all

enforcement or it’s just all

education.”

In aviation, we got to zero for

years because we took a holistic

approach. That’s what’s needed

on our roads. Imagine if we said,

“It’s just the pilot,” without

looking at everything else that

could be done.

What’s the role [of] the

manufacturer of that plane, the

systems in the plane? How about

the infrastructure? How about

the safety culture at the airline?

How about the policies that are

in place?

All of that is what goes into

saving that life. But in road

safety, we seem to have this view,

“Oh, it’s just a speeder or it’s just

somebody who is impaired.”

There are ways to address that,

like by deterring drunken

driving, as Utah did by lowering

its blood-alcohol limit.

Q: It’s interesting to think about

other things that could have that

kind of impact.

A: So, take my crash. The person

who hit me had a Toyota that

should have had automatic

emergency braking. Why it

wasn’t working, I don’t know. It

could have been turned off.

There are no performance

standards for automatic

emergency braking. And then

when the tow truck operators

and the police showed up, they

said to me, “Oh, there’s a crash

here every week.” You know what

that says to me? That there’s a

problem with that road design.

What do you mean there’s a

crash here every week? Is the

speed limit too high? Is there a

problem with the curvature in

that road when you come around

the corner and all of a sudden

you’re going down the hill and

you have to stop at a stoplight?

A lot of that can go into

preventing a crash. That’s not

reflected, by the way, in the crash

reporting, and that is a problem.

Q: Those factors aren’t included?

A: When the NTSB goes out and

we do an investigation, it’s very

in-depth. But the resources

aren’t there to do it for millions

of investigations of crashes on

our roads. That’s where states

and local governments really

need to be proactive, including

with road safety assessments. If

there’s a high-risk area, they can

go out and assess the area to see

what is really causing all these

crashes.

Q: Why did you want this job?

A: I love this agency. When I

started on the Hill, I didn’t do

pipelines and I called the Office

of Pipeline Safety and said, “I

need everything you’ve done

back to 1968.” And they were like,

“What?” I’ve always said, you

have to know where we’ve been

to know where we need to go.

Then I called a guy named Bob

Chipkevich who was the director

of the NTSB’s Office of Railroad,

Pipeline and Hazardous

Materials Investigations. And I

said, “Bob, I don’t know anything

about pipelines.” He was so

gracious with his time and just

taught me about pipeline safety.

And it was through that

education, really, that I became

so supportive of the NTSB and its

safety mission. The agency is

nonpolitical. I love that. We don’t

look at anything through a

political lens. We focus on facts.

And our mission is to save lives.

I can’t think of a better calling

in life than to save a life, I really

can’t.

NTSB chair t alks path to fewer deaths, crashes on roads

CHRIS EHRMANN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jennifer Homendy, chair o f the National Transportation Safety Board, at a news conference in 2019.

“We focus on facts. And our mission is to save lives,” Homendy said of the agency and its overall goal.

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