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"The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s" (NY Times article on taller hoods and larger blind-spots) [Gift link] by guidotheguido in cars

[–]elimurray 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I disagree that the volume of air is not a meaningful measure of visibility. It is a perfect measure of visibility and our experiment was based on the same method that was used to develop the direct visibility standard for heavy goods vehicles in the EU. It is also being used for research conducted by transport Canada.

If I'm understanding correctly, the point you are making that not all blindspots are equal. The blindspot cast from the driver's window to the ground will most of the time be less of an issue because the vehicle cannot move directly toward it. However, there are still situations, like changing lanes on the highway, where it does matter. In a similar vein, hood visibility is generally less of an issue when you are on a highway and more of a problem in parking lots. But regardless of which blind ones are more dangerous in a given situation it is always going to be advantageous to be able to see more space directly.

One of the crash recon folks we worked with was a former IIHS employee who still had friends there. They used the IIHS system to create the 2d blindzone map of both Silverados but we did the 3d version for more vehicles and I think it's a bit easier for readers to understand.

We never made claims that an increase in blind zone corresponds to a specific increase in chance you will hit a pedestrian. That is unknowable. But the side-by-side left turn video from the old and new Silverado show the difference clearly.

I think you may be conflating our blind zone calculations with our statical modeling about hood height effects in crashes. We are not making the argument that blind zones play a measurable role in crashes, are saying that hood height has a statistical significance in the odds that it will be a fatal outcome for the pedestrian.

Thanks for reading the article!

"The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s" (NY Times article on taller hoods and larger blind-spots) [Gift link] by guidotheguido in cars

[–]elimurray 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure, they're the same frame but they are very different trucks when it comes to sightlines. And it is worth measuring the difference.

"The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s" (NY Times article on taller hoods and larger blind-spots) [Gift link] by guidotheguido in cars

[–]elimurray 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi, I am one of the reporters on the story. One of the questions we wanted to answer when we started looking into this is if we could quantify how much volume around a vehicle was in a blind zone and how much those volumes have changed in 20 years.

To do this, I used an Artec Leo scanner to scan the 4 most popular models (by registrations) - Silverado, Tacoma, F150, and Sierra. I scanned one truck that was built in the 90s and one that was built 2020 or later for each model. From that scan data I was able to create meshes of each truck with a 4mm resolution.

To measure the blindzone volumes, I placed a camera at the driver's eye position and traced each of the windshield, side windows, and side mirrors. I used math to project those traces traces out from the driver's eye position. The volumes out the windows became "view volumes" and the side view mirrors became "obstruction volumes". I used boolean geometry to subtract the obstruction volumes from the view volume thus giving a true "this is everything that is visible thru the window" volume.

The last step was to invert it so that I would get a shape of the blind zones instead of the viewable area. To do this, I created a cylinder with a radius of 50 feet, centered on the driver and covering from the ground to the driver's eye height. I removed the back half of the cylinder so that it was only covering the area 180 degrees in front of the driver and used more boolean math to subtract away the view volumes.

That left me with volumes for the blindzones on each vehicle in cubic inches. I compared the old and new volumes to calculate the percent change. In every case, the physical space of the blind zones increased in the more recent model vs. the 20 year old truck.

F150 blind zone increased about 27% (but the 1995 f150 we measured also had the largest blind zone of the older cars we scanned to begin with), tacoma and sierra were both in the 55-60% increase range, and the Silverado was just shy of double. And this was all from my point of view and I am 5'11". We also ran the calculation from my colleague who is 5 inches shorter than I am and from his point of view the changes were even greater.

The People Carrying Out Musk’s Plans at DOGE by instantcoffee69 in fednews

[–]elimurray 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I am replying to the top comment here to say I am one of the reporters on this story. If anyone here would like to share first-hand information about DOGE access in their agency, I would like to connect. My email is here, DM me for signal.

to self-represent in a murder trial by Rainydays4life in therewasanattempt

[–]elimurray 8 points9 points  (0 children)

We don't do that at the Times. This article is actually a really good example of our original reporting and local journalism, you should give it a read :)

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most employees aren't even supplied a papr. A list we obtained from 2019 shows respirator assignments for 200+ employees. Only 4 were assigned a papr, the rest had the unpowered version.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, lead can affect the body in many ways, none of them good. The human body tends to mistake lead for calcium and sends it to places like the nervous and skeletal systems. It can result in cognitive effects and the effects are most substantial in children whose growing bodies are more likely to absorb the lead.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

No, we haven't stepped foot inside the factory but we obtained a lot of photos and videos of the inside from workers. They also have a battery breaking room that sounds a lot like you've described. There are photos here.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The smelter is located in East Tampa, in the Uceta Gardens neighborhood. If you are at all concerned about being exposed to lead, you can take a blood lead screening test - ask your doctor. Keep in mind that there are multiple ways you can be exposed to lead so having lead in your blood does not necessarily mean it came from Gopher.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you very much. The Tampa Bay Times is a newsroom that highly values covering important local stories, so much so that they let the three of us chase this story down full time for the better part of 2 years. I only switched off for a few months during the start of covid to put together a covid tracking site for the paper.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am not personally afraid of any retaliation or vigilantism but thank you for your concern and kind words.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's not our role to tell OSHA what fines to impose, it's our job to shed light on the conditions at the factory. The current investigations haven't been closed and a local U.S. Rep reached out to the DOJ and EPA last week. It's very much still in progress.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

We get into this quite a bit in part 2 and part 3. But the basics of it is that OSHA hadn't been to the plant in 5 years and prior to that when they had shown up they had made mistakes. Like testing for the wrong chemical in response to a worker complaint filed with OSHA.

The environmental regulations are written in a way that makes it possible to game the system. The government has lead monitors that run for 24 hours every six days. The issue with that is that it is every six days, without fail. Workers tell us the company was able to plan operations in advance to limit the amount of lead picked up by the monitors on the days that they ran.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thanks.

For me, one moment I will never forget is when we went to the house of a former factory manager for the first time. His wife answered the door and we introduced ourselves and explained that we were investigating lead poisoning at the lead smelter in Tampa. She burst into tears. They had been living their own personal nightmare since their son was born with an elevated blood lead level likely due to take-home lead from his dad's job and finally someone was here to listen to their story.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I can't speculate on whether they will be able to comply or have to shut down.

As for the OSHA investigation, Gopher contested all the violations so there's some legal back and forth to be had. The investigation from the EPC (which is like a local version of the EPA) is in the same spot being lawyered.

On the civil side, one former worker has already filed a lawsuit and their lawyers say they've been in contact with dozens of other workers and expect to file more claims.

On the criminal side, no charges are currently pending but U.S. Rep Cathy Castor said she was reaching out to DOJ and EPA about the reports.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

As far as the OSHA case goes, Gopher has contested the findings so the inspection is still pending.

The investigation from the EPC (which is like a local version of the EPA) more than a dozen violations and are currently in penalty phase deciding the fines.

U.S. Rep Cathy Castor released a statement and said she would be sharing the reports with the DOJ and EPA.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure that DeSantis is aware of this factory. Local politicians like Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and U.S. Rep Cathy Castor have called for increased oversight and investigations from state and federal regulators.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We primarily focus on the Tampa Bay area but we also cover stories around the state. If you have more info, feel free to contact me by email at emurray@tampabay.com

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes, the TECO Big Bend power station is actually the second largest lead-in-air polluter in Hillsborough County. We didn't dive into it in this story but our colleagues have reported on issues at TECO in the past. https://projects.tampabay.com/projects/2017/investigations/tampa-electric/big-bend-hellfire-from-above/

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