NTSB Chairman Rosenker to Deliver Patterson Lecture April 11

Mark V. Rosenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), will discuss the promise and challenges of new highway technologies designed to prevent accidents when he delivers the 26th Annual William A. Patterson Transportation Lecture Wednesday, April 11, at Northwestern University.

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Mark V. Rosenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), will discuss the promise and challenges of new highway technologies designed to prevent accidents when he delivers the 26th Annual William A. Patterson Transportation Lecture Wednesday, April 11, at Northwestern University.

Rosenker's lecture, “On the Road to Safety -- Milestones in Progress,” will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Tribune Auditorium, James Allen Center, 2169 Campus Drive, on Northwestern's Evanston campus. Sponsored by the University's Transportation Center, it is free and open to the public.

Rosenker will discuss highway safety, which remains a significant priority of the NTSB. The past decade has seen significant improvements in crashworthiness of vehicles, resulting in a reduction in the number of highway fatalities. Practical limits in combating the physical forces involved in crashes may have been reached, ushering in a new era where technology will help prevent accidents. Telematics and automation of vehicle control are beginning to move from research and development into the market place. Rosenker will talk about the safety promises offered by these new highway technologies as well as the concerns that the NTSB has for their implementation.

Rosenker became the 11th chairman of the NTSB in August 2006, a position he will hold for two terms until December 2010. He became a member of the NTSB in March 2003 and was designated by President Bush as vice chairman that April.

Rosenker was the board member on scene for the NTSB's investigations into the derailment of Amtrak's City of New Orleans near Flora, Miss. (April 2004); the crash of a charter jet aircraft in Houston, Texas (November 2004); the derailment of a Metra commuter train in Chicago (September 2005); and the capsizing of the passenger vessel Ethan Allen in Lake George, N.Y. (October 2005), among others.

From January 2001 until his NTSB appointment, Rosenker served as deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House military office. Prior to his White House appointment, Rosenker was managing director of the Washington, D.C., office for the United Network for Organ Sharing and spent 23 years as vice president of public affairs for the Electronic Industries Alliance.

The NTSB is an independent federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant accidents in the other modes of transportation -- railroad, highway, marine, pipeline -- and issuing safety recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents.

The Patterson Transportation Lecture is an annual event supported by the Patterson Transportation Endowment, which was established at Northwestern in 1978 honoring the late William A. Patterson, founder and chief executive officer of United Airlines.

The Transportation Center is an interdisciplinary education and research institution at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, dedicated to the long-term improvement of global transportation and supply chain systems.

For further information, call (847) 491-2280 or visit the Transportation Center's Web site at <www.transportation.northwestern.edu>.