Hersman to Depart After Decade at NTSB to Become National Safety Council President
By Jonathan S. Reiskin, Associate News Editor
This story appears in the March 17 print edition of Transport Topics.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman will leave the independent federal agency she has led for five years to become president of the National Safety Council, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization.
An NTSB member for a decade, Hersman will serve her last day April 25. She will be replaced on an acting basis by Vice Chairman Christopher Hart.
Hart has been in the No. 2 position on the five-member board throughout Hersman’s tenure as chairman beginning in 2009. He also has served as an NTSB member from 1990 to 1993 as well as held appointments with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The decision to leave the NTSB ends Hersman’s 22-year federal career in Washington as she takes the helm of the Itasca, Ill.-based, 100-year-old, congressionally chartered council that works on safety issues in homes, workplaces and transportation.
“I will depart Washington with the knowledge that the traveling public is the beneficiary of an accountable, transparent government agency with a great mission focused on saving lives and preventing injuries,” Hersman said in an NTSB blog post the day her new job was announced.
“Debbie is a recognized leader in safety, with a frontline understanding of the value of protecting human life through thoughtful attention and management of risk,” said Jeffrey Woodbury, chairman of the NSC’s board of directors and an Exxon Mobil Corp. vice president. “Her proven leadership and expertise made her the ideal candidate to take the council successfully into its second century.”
Hersman, 43, will succeed Janet Froetscher, who was president of NSC from 2008 to October 2013 when she left to become CEO of Special Olympics Inc. The position had been vacant since then.
NSC spokeswoman Lyn Corbett Fitzgerald said the council has about 240 employees and offices scattered nationwide. She said a three-member committee of board members hired a recruitment firm to find Hersman to lead the council, which has an annual budget of about $50 million.
Moises Huntt, a UPS Inc. vice president, is the council’s board member representing freight transportation.
NTSB said it has more than 400 employees and an annual budget of more than $100 million. The board was founded in 1967, and Hersman has been its 12th chairman — appointed by President Obama.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, lauded Hersman.
“Debbie Hersman has been an absolutely effective and fearless chairman,” he said. “Her reassuring confidence has helped lead this country through some of our most difficult recent transportation accidents, from last summer’s tragic plane crash in San Francisco to this winter’s terrible series of incidents on Metro-North.”
The NTSB investigates major transportation accidents and makes recommendations on safety policy. Hersman said earlier this year in a Transport Topics editorial forum that highway deaths and injuries are far more common than the aviation and railroad crashes NTSB is known for investigating. She has supported the rollout of mandatory electronic logging of commercial drivers’ hours of service.
Hersman’s board has played a major role in the fight against distracted driving for truck and car drivers. She said hands-free devices are not a solution to the problem as she has read accident reports of crashes where the driver was using such equipment and not holding a phone.
During her chairmanship, NTSB issued four “most-wanted lists” of safety issues across all modes. She said she was concerned about alcohol and drug-impaired driving, and the safety of vehicle occupants other than drivers, including passengers in truck cabs.
Her first list, from 2010, included electronic logging devices for commercial vehicle drivers, closer scrutiny of motor carrier operations, advanced road-safety systems and health screening for commercial drivers.
Before joining NTSB as a member in 2004 after an appointment by President George W. Bush, Hersman worked on Capitol Hill for 12 years.
When Obama nominates a replacement to be the 13th NTSB chairman, the nominee will have to have a hearing before Rockefeller’s committee before going to the full Senate for a final vote.
