Jennifer Homendy may not be a household name. She deserves to be.

Homendy has served on the National Transportation Safety Board since 2018 and as chair since 2021.

Courage to pursue safety for everyone

While the NTSB is obligated to investigate every civil aviation accident in the United States (and to give concrete recommendations to other federal agencies to remediate identified causes and failures), NTSB's mission also encompasses significant events across all other modes of transport (plus pipeline and goods-movement disasters). Chair Homedy has been bold at expanding NTSB's "significant events" to address the safety for people traveling by auto, truck, bus, bike, and foot. A sampling of recent investigations under her leadership of NTSB:

A multivehicle crash, including a motorcoach carrying members of a high school band in Etna, Ohio
A multivehicle crash between a motorcoach and tractor-trailers parked along a rest area ramp in Highland, Illinois
A student struck by a truck while getting off a stopped school bus in Excelsior, Wisconsin
A truck colliding with a group of bicyclists in Goodyear, Arizona
A SUV driver crashing into and killing a family of eight in Avenal, California
A multivehicle crash in North Las Vegas

To expand on that last example (in the words of the non-profit Governors Highway Safety Association, with my own emphasis added):

GHSA applauds National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy for calling out the woefully inadequate implementation of a comprehensive, Safe System approach to roadway safety – including education and equitable enforcement efforts. Chair Homendy described the national safety landscape in remarks during a Board meeting on November 14 to investigate a multivehicle collision in North Las Vegas, Nev., last year involving speeding and impaired driving that resulted in nine fatalities. The driver who caused the crash was traveling at 103 miles per hour, ran a red light, had multiple drugs in his system and had a long history of speeding, including five violations in the 17 months before the crash.

We will not be able to eliminate crashes, deaths and injuries on our roads without utilizing all the tools at our disposal, including infrastructure, vehicle safety, post-crash care and behavioral interventions like education, enforcement and community programs. All create a multi-layered safety net and address traffic safety challenges in different ways. As Chair Homendy noted, when it comes to making our roads safer, instead of reducing or de-emphasizing countermeasures, we should all be saying, “yes, and…” to anything that we can do that might save a life.

Chair Homendy and the Board are also helping bring attention to dire and persistent threats to road safety. All levels of government need to put more focus on speed management. In the past three years, we have witnessed an increase in excessive speeding that is fueling a pedestrian safety crisis. Speeders are also more likely to take other risks behind the wheel, like driving unbelted, impaired and/or distracted.

[...]

GHSA backs Chair Homendy’s call to action for our nation to fully embrace the Safe System approach. A comprehensive approach to roadway safety is the only way we will get to zero deaths on U.S. roads.

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This blog previously discussed the Chair Homendy's remarks regarding NTSB's Avenal crash investigation in the context of an allegedly drunk driver hitting and killing an Alameda resident on Fernside Drive.

To that quip that you shouldn't worry about flying — as it's significantly safer to fly in a commercial American airliner than it is to drive home from the airport — Chair Homendy would reply that that status quo is unacceptable. Our streets should be just as safe as our skies.

Courage to expand institutional capacity

While the US Department of Transportation has over 50,000 employees, the independent agency of the NTSB has only hundreds of staff. NTSB's budget and headcount have remained stagnant even as the agency has been tasked with investigations that are greater in quantity and greater in complexity.

Chair Homedy has been a clear voice for more resources:

In 2023, the NTSB requested and received its "first major funding increase for the NTSB since the mid-1990s."
In 2024, Chair Homendy's testimony to the Senate made a detailed case for further funding. (That bulleted list of investigations I provided above is a sampling from this testimony.)

Chair Homendy's example demonstrates how leaders of public institutions can successfully deliver more results and demand more resources simultaneously.

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Her example also demonstrates the power of clear communication. Have a look at that linked testimony for a sample of how she and her team are communicating in a way that everyone can understand. In place of acronyms and bureaucratese, it's plain English, with real-world stories.

Courage to demonstrate competence

I don't watch TV or cable news, so I skipped the parade of white men in the White House blaming women and racial minorities for this awful aviation disaster in Washington, D.C.

But I did make some time to watch the NTSB's first media briefing on YouTube. It's a vision of American government at its finest: women and men, of various racial backgrounds, speaking with skill and with modesty:

Thank you to Chair Homendy, her fellow board members, and the staff of the NTSB for reminding us all what competence looks like.