Time is sliding away again, as it does, and I want to tell you about our time at the end of September in Washington DC.

This year we did something different in that we combined the big fundraising dinner with our biannual Sorrow to Strength conference. We’ve been doing the conference for as long as I’ve been with the Truck Safety Coalition, more than 20 years. But we’ve only done the annual fundraising Gala twice before.

The objective in doing it all during the same weekend was to save everybody some money. The hotel gave us a discount for doing 2 events, back to back. And we, as volunteers would only have to pay to travel to DC once.

The Gala, on Friday night, was fun, the food was delicious, and we raised a decent amount of money between sponsors and volunteer donations. But we still have a long way to go before we can say we’ve raised our entire annual budget –we’ll be scrambling at year end just like every year, but we’re getting better at finding funding sources.

Satrday morning people were invited to attend a session where the staff and a few volunteers showed us the ‘roadshow’ they’ve been doing the last two years.

In 2023 we received a grant from the DOT (Department of Transportation) to meet with at least six police departments across the country and talk about underride crashes, and how to designate them on crash reports.

We and the DOT feel these types of crashes, where a passenger vehicle goes under a tractor trailer, are under reported, both because some police departments don’t know enough about them, and because on most police crash reports there is nothing to indicate underride.

We heard from a volunteer who had spoken at some of the shows, and with the manufactor of an underride guard that is being put on some trucks in some cities now. It was all very interesting and hopeful.

Then Saturday afternoon we met with the families and survivors and shared our stories. As usual this was a traumatic and overwhelmingly emotional time. This year there were so many new families. More than half of us in the room were there for the first time, and their families had suffered loss so recently.

It breaks my heart. We’re glad they found us, but we wish the trends were going down. They are not. More than 5500 people died in crashes with commercial trucks in 2023, the last year we have data for. Over 150,000 were injured.

And some if not all of the safety measured we’ve fought years for are being rolled back.

Sunday we learned about the issues, and there are many. We focused, though, on a couple we think we can make progress on. We think safety is nonpartisan, but not all issues are. The two we spoke most about certainly are.

We think AEB (Automatic Emergency Braking) should be required to be included on all new builds of all sizes of commercial trucks. For awhile we actually had the DOT headed that way, but then the trucking industry pushed back and the smaller trucks, those like box trucks, dump trucks, utility trucks, were taken out of the rule. We want all trucks to be required to have AEB. There are all sorts of little delivery trucks running around our neighborhoods now. Why wouldn’t we want them to stop when someone pulls out of a driveway or a kid rides his bike across the road? AEB is already on many cars, people are getting used to it. Why not include it on all trucks?

And drug testing in fatal crashes. It’s already a thing that is supposed to happen. Companies are required to get their drivers tested if there is a fatal crash. But 40% of these drivers are NOT being tested. The companies just blow off the requirement and if caught pay a fine. In my dad’s case the driver was not tested. My dad, dead and at the morgue, had blood pulled and tested. Why, I don’t know. A 75 year old man, stopped in traffic, was tested for being impaired, but the driver of the truck that hit and killed him was not.

Then Monday we went to the Hill to talk to staffers about our issues. DC and the area around the Hill was uncharacteristically quiet. It was two days before the potential government shutdown. Members, if they were in town, were on the floors of their chambers. Staffers were nervous and preoccupied.

In addition to Hill meetings I was also lucky enough to attend and speak at a meeting with other volunteers and a TSC staff person at the DOT where I met the probable new Administrator for FMCSA (Federa Motor Carrier Safety Administration). He hasn’t been confirmed yet, but he likely will be. I think he’s going to be good, his background is police work and he said all the right things. But then, they all say all the right things in the beginning. I will reserve judgement until I see what he does.

Overall I think our meetings went well, or as well as we can expect in these times. Best of all? The new families rocked it. They moved out confidently, told their unimaginable stories of loss, and talked about our two issues (and any others that they felt called upon to talk about) with folks who have the ears of those who need to make the changes.

That’s why it’s called Sorrow to Strength. They come to the conference in overwelming grief, they share that grief and it gets a tiny bit easier to bear among others like them. They learn some new skills, they practice those skills, and they go back out into the world a little stronger, more confident and maybe feeling less hopeless.

And that’s how our four days in Wasington DC went.

Of course I’ll be asking for donations again during our Giving Tuesday campaign in November. And maybe next April for my birthday. But you can donate any time. Just go to trucksafety.org and push the DONATE button.

Dad and I thank you. And thanks for reading all of this.