THE LAST WORD
Webb, Henry T. Jr.
THE LAST WORD Henry T. Webb Jr. Trouble Beneath the Canvass Sometimes people dismiss me as a grief-stricken, angry father. I am a grief-stricken, angry father. My daughter Amanda is dead. She...
...The official accident report also noted extensive structural problems, including a defective front sway bar and an inadequately repaired frame...
...It occurred because of SANE's policies, not in spite of them...
...On the night of the accident, two other SANE vehicles coming back from Pittsburgh broke down...
...The car hit a bump, veered off the left side of the road, struck a bridge pillar, and split in half...
...My great hope is that Amanda's death will end up saving the lives and improving the working conditions of other canvassers...
...There was a "car buyer" from the national office who Henry T. Webb Jr...
...The SANE vehicle was unsafe to drive...
...We acted quickly to further formalize, tighten up, and enforce very strict safety standards for vehicles and drivers...
...The rear body mounts were rusted apart in front of the rear bumper giving no support," the accident report noted...
...Is she being too idealistic...
...Shortly after beginning to canvass, I felt my enthusiasm and energy level were being taken advantage of...
...Their overloaded, rusted, damaged old station wagon was being driven seventy to eighty miles an hour by a young driver who had just gotten his license...
...The use of such vehicles reflects the general disregard SANE has for its canvassers...
...This station wagon was bought to replace an older one handed down to the New York canvass from the Boston canvass...
...Only persons twenty-one years of age or older are now authorized to drive, and persons with moving violations, regardless of age, generally cannot drive...
...If it doesn't, then by God close the canvass down...
...We had no reason to believe this vehicle, despite its age, was unsafe," responded David Cortright and Board Chair Marcus Raskin...
...The entire vehicle was rusted away around the bottom-door sections and around the rear front fender wells and door post area...
...New York...
...lives in Croton-on-Hud-son...
...But, thankfully, they are beginning to take responsible action to protect the lives of the canvass workers...
...When a fast-food joint demands that teen-agers work long hours for low pay, we call it exploitation...
...In the course of investigating my daughter's death, many people told me, Yes, the car business was despicable, but the other working conditions were, well, if not desirable, at least necessary and in any case inevitable...
...Canvassers earn a meager salary of less than $200 for an average of fifty hours or more a week...
...the next day...
...The problems lie in the unfair treatment of workers," wrote Beth Ravitz, one of the survivors of the crash, in a letter to David Cortright, the executive director of SANE...
...Does it have another name when it's done by an organization advocating peace and justice...
...When a restaurant hires undocumented workers and pays them less than the minimum wage, we call it exploitation...
...They were driving back to New York from a SANE meeting in Pittsburgh...
...Ihave written the leadership of SANE, expressing my concerns and my outrage...
...Amanda died at 3 p.m...
...She was eighteen and working as a door-to-door canvasser for the antinuclear group, SANE, which has since merged into SANE/Freeze...
...SANE regularly budgeted $ 1,000 for the purchase of a canvass vehicle...
...If SANE is truly a progressive organization, it should emphasize its own people as a priority in every way at all times...
...The purpose of the front sway bar is to stabilize the front end at high speeds...
...They did acknowledge that the car was defective, though they say they were not aware of its condition until after the accident...
...The indifference of SANE's leadership made the accident a near certainty...
...went out to supervise the purchase—not to ensure that the vehicles were safe, but to keep the local offices from paying too much for them...
...To minimize future risks, SANE has phased out of its canvass fleet virtually all older cars and is utilizing primarily new vans," they informed me, adding that they have strengthened their safety inspections...
...In addition, rust had seriously corroded the car...
...On Monday, August 18, 1986, at 1:15 a.m., she was in a SANE station wagon with seven other canvassers on Interstate 80...
...Beth is suggesting that SANE betrays the ideals it promotes...
...Two canvassers—Ingrid Binggeli, twenty, and Thomas Masuda, nineteen— were killed instantly...
...It was determined that this vehicle has some prior structural damage which may have contributed to this accident," wrote Major Harry Crytzer of the Pennsylvania State Police...
...It seems the condition of that station wagon was typical of the transport vehicles used by SANE canvassers...
...Why...
Vol. 52 • April 1988 • No. 4
