October 1, 2024

October Newsletter

Good afternoon and happy October.

After another busy month at Drive – with conferences, interviews, and Senate co-sponsors – I want to take a minute and thank you for your ongoing support. Every dollar donated, every Senate call dialed, and every Instagram story shared makes a difference. Thank you for your help in getting us this far.

Now, without further ado, the updates.

First, bipartisan momentum continues to build around the She DRIVES Act. This month, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), and Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) all joined together to cosponsor S. 4299.

While each of these Senators is powerful on their own – Senator Collins is the Appropriations Committee Vice Chair, Senator Wyden is the Finance Committee Chair, Senator Cornyn is the former Republican Whip, and Senator Welch is the Rural Development and Energy Subcommittee Chair – the whole is more influential than the sum of its parts. We are grateful for the bipartisan leadership of these four Senators, and the seven who came before them.

Vermont Senator Welch, a new co-sponsor of the She DRIVES Act, and me.

Second, Politico’s Dana Nickel published a story on the She DRIVES Act last Friday, and I was lucky enough to be included.

In Danger: The gender disparity behind the wheel, Nickel writes:

“A really important thing to remember is that [NHTSA] is not testing any kind of female crash test dummy in the driver’s seat for most fatal crashes,’ says Maria Weston Kuhn, founder of Drive US Forward, a nonprofit working to raise awareness of the issue.

Kuhn tells Women Rule that the act is an important step in ending gender discrimination in the world of automotive safety and that the issue is personal to her and her family.

‘I am a car crash survivor,’ she says. ‘My family and I were on Christmas vacation in December 2019, … and we were driving down a winding, countryside road. All of a sudden, an oncoming car cut into our lane … and hit us head-on. Thankfully, we all survived, but my mom and I suffered really severe injuries.”

Thank you for including us, Dana.

Several other articles came out on our work this month – check them out in the US Sun, WGME, Bangor Daily News, KTVZ, and KDRV.

Have an idea of an outlet that you think would be interested in covering Drive? Shoot me an note – just respond to this email.

Third, thank you to the National Organization on Youth Safety (NOYS) for hosting me as a mainstage panelist at the 2024 National Youth Transportation Equity Convening, or #NYTEC2024. I was honored to join Elise Joshi, Executive Director of Gen Z for Change, Haleema Bharoocha, national transit safety expert and author of Ride Fearlessly: A Framework for Reimagining Transit Safety, Abré Conner, NAACP Environmental & Climate Justice Director, and Jacob Smith, NOYS Executive Director, to discuss how individuals can create equitable change on a systemic level.

Thanks again for your help in the fight and, as always, don’t hesitate to reach out.

More soon.

Warmly,

Maria