WASHINGTON—Scientists, safety advocates and tire industry professionals are slated to participate in the six panel discussions scheduled for the National Transportation Safety Board Tire Safety Symposium Dec. 9-10 in the NTSB Conference Center in Washington.
The symposium will begin at 9 a.m. Dec. 9 with opening remarks by NTSB Board Member Earl Weener, Pete Kolowski of the Office of Highway Safety and Roderick Koehler of the American Center for Van and Tire Safety.
The first panel, “Tire Disablement and Vehicle Dynamics,” will run from 9:30 to 10:45. It will feature Thomas Giapponi of TRGtech Tire Consulting L.L.C. and Ashley Dunn of Scientific Expert Analysis. The second, “Identifying and Analyzing Tire Disablement-Related Crashes,” will feature John Kindelberger of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Randy Whitfield of Quality Control Systems, and run from 10:45 to 12:15.
The symposium will resume at 1:30 with “Tire Registration and Recall,” featuring Jack Chern of NHTSA, Kevin Rohlwing of the Tire Industry Association and Tracey Norberg of the Rubber Manufacturers Association. The last panel on Dec. 9, “Tire Aging and Service Life,” will feature George Soodoo of NHTSA, Sean Kane of Safety Research and Strategies Inc. and Dan Zielinski of the RMA.
On Dec. 10, the program will begin at 9 a.m. with “Advances in Tire Technology,” featuring Russell Shepherd of Michelin North America Inc., Jay Spears of Continental Tire the Americas L.L.C., Jim Euchner of Goodyear and David Johnson of Bridgestone Americas.
The final panel, at 10:45 a.m., will be “Tire Maintenance and Consumer Awareness.” It will feature Susan McMeen of NHTSA, John Nielsen of AAA, Kevin Rohlwing, Dan Zielinski, Eugene Petersen of Consumer Reports and Edna Johnson of Michelin North America.
The symposium is open to the public, with no preregistration required. It will also be webcast here. The Twitter hashtag for the symposium is #ntsbsymposium.