You probably haven't heard of Mark Rosekind, a former NASA member who's been on the National Transportation Safety Board since 2010. But he soon may head to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the country's top auto-safety agency. The Detroit News reports the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved Rosekind's nomination on Dec. 9. If nominated, he would replace a chair vacated by outgoing NHTSA chief David Strickland nearly a year ago.
Related: New York Times: NHTSA Has 'Record of Missteps'
Deputy Administrator David Friedman has been at the helm since then, fueling speculation he might be the eventual heir, but that isn't the case. After being nominated by President Barack Obama in November, Rosekind's committee approval moves him to the Senate floor for a vote. One senator told The Detroit News he thinks the chamber will confirm Rosekind this week. His NTSB biography describes eminence in the field of human fatigue, having launched a Cupertino, Calif., consulting firm called Alertness Solutions, which consulted on the science of fatigue management. He also directed an anti-fatigue program at NASA and oversaw human-sleep research at Stanford University's Sleep Disorders and Research Center.
The upshot for consumers? If Strickland's legacy was distracted driving, Rosekind may clamp down on tired driving.
It's a serious problem. In 2013, AAA said, more than a quarter of drivers reported being so tired in the past month that they had difficulty keeping their eyes open behind the wheel. In turn, some 17 percent of fatal crashes involve a drowsy driver, AAA said.
Rosekind reportedly wants to increase NHTSA's personnel and technology, and he stresses that the agency must enforce safety issues if automakers don't act. He'll have plenty on his plate, including driving an expansion of airbag recalls from supplier Takata Corp. to all 50 states and campaigning to raise the agency's $35 million penalty ceiling to something that has more teeth as automakers file quarterly profits in the billions. In May, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx called the maximum fine a "rounding error" for automakers; he's pressing to raise it to $300 million.
NTSB image
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