PARENTS AGAINST TIRED TRUCKERS (PATT) FOUNDER HAS BEEN NAMED A 2014 TRANSPORTATION CHAMPION OF CHANGE
Daphne Izer Honored by the White House for her Truck Safety Advocacy
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 12, 2014)—It was announced today that Daphne Izer, founder of Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT), will be recognized by the White House as a 2014 Transportation Champion of Change. As PATT marks its twentieth anniversary this month, Daphne will be recognized for her tireless efforts to improve highway safety at an event being held at the White House on May 13, 2014. The 2014 White House Champions of Change will honor eleven Champions in total who have demonstrated exemplary leadership to ensure that transportation facilities, services, and jobs help individuals and their communities connect to 21st century opportunities.
“Daphne’s work to create awareness of truck driver fatigue and seek legislative and regulatory changes to reduce fatigue related truck crashes has undoubtedly saved lives and prevented debilitating injuries,” said John Lannen, Executive Director, Truck Safety Coalition. “Her courage after losing Jeff and his friends, and her strength and passionate advocacy for change over the last twenty years is what makes Daphne a great safety leader.”
With her husband Steve Izer, Daphne founded the nonprofit safety organization, PATT, after her son, Jeff Izer (17), was killed in a preventable truck crash by a fatigued truck driver. The crash killed three other teenagers and seriously injured one more. Since then, Daphne has worked to advance truck safety to help prevent other families from suffering a similar, devastating loss. PATT has focused its efforts on reducing truck driver fatigue and seeking a requirement for the use of Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) to accurately record truck driver hours behind the wheel to reduce the falsification of driving logs. PATT took a step toward realizing this goal on July 6, 2012, after President Obama signed into law the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), which included a mandate for rulemaking for requiring ELDs in all commercial trucks.
“I was grateful for the inclusion of ELDs in MAP-21, and the final rule for ELDs cannot happen soon enough,” said Izer. “The ELD rule will address a problem that occurs far too often in certain segments of the industry—the falsification of log books tracking hours worked. While this is a significant milestone for safety, unfortunately, for every safety rule or legislation that is passed, there are numerous proposals for exemptions to existing safety regulations and attempts to reduce their effectiveness. Right now, as we’re taking a step forward to reduce truck driver fatigue with ELDs, Members of Congress are considering proposals to roll back safety benefits of the new hours of service (HOS) rule by removing the restart provision. We should not allow any step backwards in safety, and urge the White House Administration and DOT to vigorously defend its HOS rule.”
Since its beginning in 1994, PATT has transformed from the small Maine grassroots group created around the Izer’s kitchen table into a nationally recognized organization. In 2002, PATT combined efforts with Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) and formed the Truck Safety Coalition (TSC) to reach a wider audience and maintain a presence in Washington, D.C. Together, these organizations are dedicated to reducing the number of preventable deaths and injuries caused by truck-related crashes, providing compassionate support to truck crash survivors and families of truck crash victims, and educating the public, policy-makers, and media about truck safety issues.
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