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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > September > 18
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Bluffton father testifies before Senate panel
A Senate committee Thursday, Sept. 18, heard testimony on a bill introduced by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, that would beef up safety standards in motor coaches, but it’s unclear whether Congress will be able to pass the bill before it adjourns at the end of this month.
The hearing is the first step toward action on the bill, which was spurred in part by a March 2007 motor coach accident in Atlanta, Ga., that killed five members of the Bluffton University baseball team as well as the bus driver and his wife. John Betts, a Bryan man who lost his son David in the crash, was among those who testified.
Betts, occasionally choking back sobs, told how one week after he lost his son, he read a 1999 National Transportation Safety Board report calling for seatbelts in motor coaches. He said he was shocked Thursday to hear a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official testify that such a rule could be done within two years. If that had happened, he said, motor coaches could’ve had seat belts back in 2001, long before David died after being thrown from the Bluffton motor coach.
Brown said he and Hutchison are optimistic that the bill - which would require seat belts, window glazing and stronger roofs, among other safety precautions - could pass before Congress adjourns.
Opponents of the measure say it is too costly and that motor coaches are still one of the safer modes of transportation. But the bill itself received backing Thursday from the acting chair of the National Transportation Safety Board and the acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Both told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation’s subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security that the bill would help speed up current studies on how to enhance motor coach safety.
David Kelly, acting administrator of NHTSA, called the bill “a step in the right direction.”
Families have been critical of NHTSA for not acting even after the NTSB first started recommending enhanced safety requirements on motor coaches 40 years ago. NHTSA is currently conducting studies on motor coach safety, but Betts and other families say studies should have been done long ago. NHTSA has openly weighed the cost of requiring such measures, arguing that motor coaches are one of the safest modes of transportation available. The American Bus Association, meanwhile, said they favor “rigorous scientific research” before requiring new features such as seat belts on motor coaches.
Brown and Hutchison said such measures are overdue.
“You can’t tell me putting seatbelts on a bus is too costly,” Hutchison said. “It does not wash.”
- photo of John Betts, Joy Betts and Sen. Sherrod Brown by Rick McKay.
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527 airs ad in Dayton criticizing McCain
A group called “Catholics United” will release a new 527 ad in Dayton beginning Friday, Sept. 19, that urges Sen. John McCain to crack down on legalized abortion. The ad criticizes McCain for being inconsistent on pro-life issues, criticizing McCain’s August 2007 vote against the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and his support of the Iraq war.
The group describes itself as a Catholic organization devoted to issues of social justice.
Here’s the script:
“I’m a mother of three children and I am pro-life. John McCain, it’s not enough to say you’re pro-life. Actions speak louder than words. You voted against one of the largest support programs for pregnant women. You voted against health care for our children. And you voted for a war that has killed thousands of Americans. Senator McCain, when will you start defending all human life, without exception?”
The ad will also run on cable television in heavily Catholic neighborhoods in Youngstown and Cleveland.
Catholics United plans an expanded ad buy beginning in early October. Their current ad will air in south Dayton on CNN, Fox News and Home and Garden television and run for seven days.
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Obama edges McCain in new national poll
With a big lead among women and black likely voters, Democrat Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain in a new national presidential poll.
In the Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday, Sept. 18, Obama leads 49-45 among likely voters, compared to a 47-42 percent lead for Obama in an Aug. 19 Quinnipiac University poll. For full poll results, click here.
Obama leads 54-40 percent among women voters and 93-2 percent among black voters. McCain leads 50-43 percent with men and 52-43 percent among white voters.
The poll, taken Thursday, Sept. 11-Tuesday, Sept. 16, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
In a separate Gallup Poll daily tracking update for Sept. 15-17 also released on Thursday, Obama led McCain, 48-44 percent among registered voters. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points. For full Gallup Poll results click here.
