Malave Child Care Center Llc - Lancaster PA Child Care Center

To: Jon Ferguson, LNP Lancaster Online Cc: GHSA Representative (Pennsylvania) Ashley Schoch Stephen Zerbe, Chief of East Lampeter Township (*) Malave Child Care Center (*) *Note form submissions. Supporting documentation missing. Will be provided upon request. From: Trevor Frith, leftfootbraking.org Subject: Request for a journalistic investigation. Jon sorry this is so long but if you read, digest, investigate and expose you may well save a lot of lives, especially those of the children. When you listen to the podcast we suggest you listen to it with some wine or beer, it is not an easy listen. ‘Hit the gas instead of the brake’ Malave was very lucky or should I say the children were. Usually there are deaths and injuries. Another right foot pedal error. The price we all pay for being forced to use the ‘Killer’ right foot braking method! Jon our organization is trying to stop this type of crash. It accounts for the deaths of 7000 of the roughly 40,000 who will die due to automotive deaths each year. Our problem is not with the drivers but with NHTSA, GHSA, the state governments and all the other organizations who claim to care but don’t want to admit they are the problem. Since we went public regarding this issue one would have expected to see a statement from those in charge to the effect that;’ While we realize the long term complexities, the inefficiencies and the dangers of the right foot braking method used on automatic transmission vehicles, we have tested other methods of braking and have scientifically determined that the right foot braking method is the best. The listing of the peer reviewed scientific studies that have been carried out are listed below.’ No such statements have been made, no such scientific studies exist, and the answer to the 150,000 DEAD pedestrians and cyclist is the same as it has been for the last 50 years, just blame the driver! Jon I will list below my comment to your story. You can consider it sort of an executive summary. Then we hope you will consider this situation important enough to ask those in charge of driver legislation and training in Harrisburg some serious questions regarding their defense of the right foot braking method. Jon All we are asking for is a scientific study comparing the right foot braking method with the left foot braking method which we know is simpler to learn and retain, allows for shorter stopping distances and is immune to right foot pedal error. (Pedal misapplication). Note to all readers - when was the last time your right foot slipped off the brake pedal and you were willing to admit it? Hope you will not be reluctant to take on the boys who got us into this mess. The comment: ‘Hit the gas instead of the brake’ Another right foot pedal error, part of the right foot braking epidemic. But let’s make sure we blame the driver, especially if they are a women or old (Over 40!). Never blame the guys in charge of driver legislation and training who set the driver up to fail. They forced this driver to brake an automatic car with only the right foot. They did this knowing they had 0 Scientific Justification and that right foot braking is too complicated and difficult to mentally maintain with age, inefficient (poor reaction time and stopping distance) and dangerous (subject to right foot pedal error) compared to the simpler and safer (But girly!) left foot braking method. See DOT HS 811 597, 812 058 and 812 431 (spaces required). NHTSA refuses to use the term “right foot pedal errors” but instead calls it “pedal misapplication” and always blames the drivers for not being experts. Score to date, 150,000 dead (19 Every Day!), millions injured, and billions in costs. The price male drivers, both in and out of government, are prepared to pay to maintain their systemic belief in a “Killer” braking method based on the scientific foundation of, “That’s the way it’s always been taught”! This is not about which braking method is safer but rather why they refuse to scientifically compare the two methods and continue to produce misinformation about other proposed braking methods. Jon this is not a question of a better mouse trap. This is a question of a cover up by those in charge of driver legislation and training because of their systemic belief in a dangerous and obsolete braking method and to simply keep blaming drivers for the crashes. They knew or should have known (This was their job!) that the right foot braking method on automatic vehicles was: 1. Complicated to learn and difficult to mentally retain especially for older drivers (Over 40!) and women with non-racing footwear. 2. Very dangerous and inefficient, requiring at least ¾ of a second longer to initiate and 30 – 40 feet longer to stop even at slow school zone speeds. How many students can you put in a 40 foot space! 3. Even more dangerous due to its susceptibility to right foot pedal error (pedal misapplication). We do not want you to try out the Left Foot Braking Method on your own. All we want is the scientific study. First of all you are prejudice. When you first trained to get your driver’s license you were indoctrinated to believe that the right foot braking method was the perfect braking method and that any use of the left foot was bad. You didn’t ask the driving instructor to prove it which he would not have been able to do! You wanted to get your license so you kept your mouth shut. “The earth is flat because my father and his father before him said it was so don’t be stupid and question that!” Secondly like any other braking method, you must receive training before you use it. Jon what we do want you to do is to get an interview with those in charge of driver legislation and training at the state level in Harrisburg and expose this whole mess. We have previously written to the governor and to the representative of the Governors Highway Safety Association regarding this epidemic. If you dig into this story you will find that the data that exposes the magnitude of these car-building/parking lot crashes was not sought out by NHTSA. Someone in North Carolina inadvertently kept this data and probably wishes they had not! NHTSA has never investigated the way drivers are taught to brake an automatic transmission vehicle! They only go after the cars or the driver! NHTSA doesn’t even forecast the annual number of these crashes unless you push them. They and those in charge of driver legislation and training at the state level don’t want to admit that it is their recommended method of braking that is the cause of all these deaths! Jon we hope you will pursue this issue however should investigative journalism not be your forte, please pass this on to a young female graduate or student of journalism. They have by far been the most productive in terms of exposing this situation. After 4 years of feedback (Hate mail?) to our website we believe ME TOO is not the only victim of a male systemic belief! If your organization has ANY scientific data or other verifiable information that contradicts ANY information on our site (leftfootbraking.org) or ANY of our correspondence please inform us. Neither NHTSA nor those in charge of driver legislation and training at the state level have yet put forth ANY creditable justification for the use of the right foot braking method given its extremely high death and injury rate. They simply refuse to discuss our request for a scientific study. We don’t consider, “That’s the way it’s always been taught” a credible response! The following is a more detailed background: Today (And every day!) on the nation’s roads and parking lots, approximately 19 pedestrians and cyclists will die, hundreds will suffer life changing injuries as the result of car-cyclists and car-pedestrian (Both in and out of buildings) crashes. The breakdown will surprise you: 5 Died as the direct result of right foot pedal error in an automatic car-building/parking lot crash. 14 Died because a vehicle, on a roadway did not stop in time, due to either right foot pedal error and/ or the poor stopping distances of the right foot braking method used on automatic cars. Right foot pedal errors occur 40,000 times each day. They result in 60 car-building/parking lot crashes and an estimated 100 plus car-cyclist/pedestrian crashes during that same day! Seldom is the driver questioned about difficulty with the right foot braking method and seldom are records kept. Your reaction to this information will put you in one of two groups: Group One – I have never heard or thought about any danger with the right foot braking method on automatic vehicles. The authorities always say it’s the drivers fault and that we need to do a better job of driver training and perhaps get older drivers off the road. Group Two – Yes I have heard about it but it must be the driver’s fault because I was always told by my father and the driving instructor (Bring back memories?) that right foot braking on automatic cars was the gold standard and any other method was dangerous. I will support this systemic belief in right foot braking and no amount of scientific facts will change my mind. We are looking for investigative journalists who are in Group One who did not realize right foot braking on automatic cars was such a problem and would welcome scientific studies comparing it to other braking methods. We treat right foot braking on automatic cars like the free throw in basketball. Even a young professional player will miss from time to time. As he gets older he misses more and more and our answer is to get rid of him. Braking an automatic car is not a game. Everybody should be able to do it and that is why teaching student drivers to brake with their right foot on automatic cars should be banned and replaced with a simpler method that is foolproof. Indeed right foot braking plays a negative role in a much larger number of crashes than the authorities care to record. Ever hear of an officer refer to a pedal error accident as a Right Foot Pedal Error? To hear an interview with the late Professor Richard Schmidt, who we also worked with, concerning the dangers of right foot braking, download podcast Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell, Episode 8, Blame Game. In Toyota’s case DOT concluded that the incidents were mostly caused by drivers using the wrong pedal. No! They were caused by those in charge of driver legislation and training who set these drivers up to fail! Also search “Car Crashes into Building” – The all too common headline. Ameriprise Auto and Home Insurance Company. I close with a summary of similar comments received at our website by many young drivers: As a kid I played video games so when it came to driving, it just seemed natural to use two feet for two pedals but THEY BROKE ME! Please feel free to contact us for additional information, comments etc. Thank you for your time. Trevor W. Frith B.S.M.E. P. Eng. (R) Was it driver error or the way we taught them to brake? PS: Attached please find editorial and technical data that will help you in your investigation. Hope you will help and possibly win a journalism award at the same time. Should you write an expose’ concerning this situation, we would really appreciate it if you send a link to our website. PS: Two additional heads up points should you chose to launch an investigation and are given an interview with those in charge of driver legislation and training: 1. They may say that the Left Foot Braking Method appears to be a safer method of braking but that they have zero money to gather evidence which might give them the right to ban the teaching of right foot braking and anyway the autonomous vehicles (Google car) is going to save us all. Remind them that not long ago we had our first Tesla X right foot pedal error car-building crash. They forget to mention that the people who are buying semi-autonomous vehicles like to play with them in the autonomous mode but then when the thrill is gone will switch back to the more comfortable,” I am in control” manual mode. The Tesla X was in the manual mode when it crashed into the building. The latest model cars can also have their automatic forwards and backwards braking systems, lane alarms etc turned off as well. 2. They may say, what’s the fuss? We allow left foot braking. What do they mean by that? If you ask four of them you will get four different answers! If for example they are telling their student drivers to leave their left foot flat on the floor and then use it to brake, that might produce a reaction time that is longer than right foot braking. Left foot braking must be the Left Foot Braking Method and most of these guys don’t know what that means. The Left Foot Braking Method (LFBM) is not, repeat not just trying to brake with your left foot! Hope you will investigate. You won’t be popular with the average male driver as you are criticizing their “Rite of passage”, (Using the right foot for both gas and brake), but as we know good investigative journalists are not popular until they win the awards! Was it driver error or the way we taught them to brake? Jon All we are asking for is a scientific study. www.leftfootbraking.org LEFT FOOT BRAKING METHOD MISSION STATEMENT To save the lives of 19 pedestrian/cyclists who will die today and every day. The equivalent of a Las Vegas massacre every 3 days! For every 19 who die hundreds will receive life changing injuries. They will be killed walking on a cross walk, cycling on a road, just sitting in their favorite coffee shop or wherever. They will die because they were crushed to death by an automatic transmission vehicle that did not stop in time. The vehicle did not stop in time because the driver committed a right foot pedal error. The driver committed a right foot pedal error because the driver was forced to use the right foot braking method. This dangerous method used to brake automatic transmission vehicles is very complicated to learn and retain with age, extremely inefficient requiring 30-40 more feet to stop even at slow school yard speeds and is susceptible to pedal misapplication. We want those in charge of driver legislation and training to stop blaming the drivers and commit to a scientific study comparing the right foot braking method with the left foot braking method which is easier to learn and retain, has shorter stopping distances and is immune from pedal misapplication. Then we want the teaching of the “Killer” right foot braking method banned.