During the June 23 hearing by the NHTSA on "Bell the Hybrid," Essie Wagner, an NHTSA employee, reported "we do not have enough data" to report the hybrid accident rate. Later, during the questioning, I introduced Dr. Christopher Hogan's report on 5 years of traffic showing the Prius has the same accident rate as ordinary cars. This time another gentleman in the back of the audience repeated Essie's claim,"We do not have enough data." I made note of it in my trip report, which I'd forwarded to Donna Ascone, the NHTSA coordinator.

Submissions for the hearing, NHTSA-2008-0108, ended August 1 and nothing showed up from the NHTSA to backup the claim,"We do not have enough data." So I've filed this Freedom Of Information Act request for their backup analysis and data.

The blind community has realized they are vulnerable on this point and continue looking for lay reports on hybrid-to-blind injuries. This is a good thing as it may get them to start looking at the facts and data and emphasize the importance of making reports. But their past practice has been to use anecdotal stories instead of empirical data. Perhaps we won't hear about the 8 year old boy who didn't look before turning into a Prius and his Mom blamed the car.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Perhaps we could ammend the bill to "bell the congressman or congresswman." At least then we would know when they are getting too close.

1978 Plymouth Horizon - 165,527 miles, still the longest lasting
1985 Dodge Daytona - 62,500 miles and the transmission gave out
1991 Mazda Protoge - A very good car
1997 Ford Contour - This one saved my life in a driver side impact accident
2000 Pontiac Grand Am - I have a bulls eye painted somewhere, this one was rear-ended
2004 Civic Hybrid - My first Honda, My first Hybrid, ran 88,300 miles before the tax rebates came calling
2007 Civic Hybrid - Going strong and a joy to drive
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A corrected version of the transcript is available but I've reduced it to something more easily read:

NHTSA_transcript_06_23.html

So how does the official transcript differ from my report:

• "Don't worry about it ..." - my last question to Brian Medford was answered by "Don't worry about it ..." and the rest is in the transcript. Now Brian held the mike and it is possible I heard 'the tone' and not the text. But it doesn't really matter, I've already acted on what I'd heard.
• "2006" data - well it looks like I might have misread their analysis to be just 2006 instead of all years. I had the Prius years and cited them, they didn't. It doesn't matter since I've already filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get their analysis.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.