LEAWOOD, KS. October 17, 2018 – Rouse Frets White Goss Gentile Rhodes Attorney Doug Gentile was chosen to participate in a 17-member panel of nationally recognized safety and transportation experts for the Children in Autonomous Vehicles Blue Ribbon Panel.
The panel, convened by Safe Kids Worldwide, worked over nearly a year to create the nation’s first-ever set of recommendations to protect children from birth up to age 13 in self-driving or autonomous vehicles. The Blue Ribbon Panel’s (BRP) official preliminary report was released on October 17, 2018.
Gentile was chosen for the Blue Ribbon Panel after working closely for over 20 years with highly qualified experts in the field of child occupant protection. He has studied the extensive work on child occupant safety done for decades by the researchers from Riley Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and the American Academy of Pediatrics, all represented on the panel, but had not worked directly with the esteemed researchers at these organizations.
The initial report prepared by the BRP calls on autonomous vehicle technology developers to take proactive steps to protect children in developing these self-driving vehicles, and also outlines recommendations the traffic safety community can address. Gentile stresses that this new and cutting edge technology is moving very quickly, and it is critical that the child safety community be involved in the early stages of development to decrease risks to children. The BRP’s work will continue going forward.
“With the strong and respected leadership of Safe Kids Worldwide, we have what we need to keep that community involved and actively working toward our common goal of protecting children in automobile crashes,” said Gentile. “It is an honor and privilege for me to be a small part of this effort.”
The official press release from SafeKids Worldwide can be found here.
About Doug Gentile:
Doug Gentile began his legal career in a civil litigation defense firm and worked on a local, regional and national basis for numerous Fortune 500 companies in the defense of product liability cases. By 1991, he began to transition his practice from defense work to the representation of persons who had experienced catastrophic personal losses, and this was completed in 1995 with the formation of the firm now known as Rouse Frets White Goss Gentile Rhodes, P.C.
Gentile’s practice has been primarily dedicated to the representation of individuals who have suffered injuries, or whose family members have been killed as a result of defective products. He has also worked with clients who have suffered life-altering losses because of vehicle occupant protection systems that, instead of preventing injuries, actually cause them, as well as manufacturing equipment and chemicals that maim and kill. In addition, Gentile has also been active in class action litigation on cases involving defective vehicles, hazardous substances, consumer fraud, the wrongful use of personal information, the theft of private, financial information, violations of personal privacy statutes and violations of ERISA vested benefits plans. Doug Gentile is rated as a “preeminent AV” attorney and is a frequent speaker at national seminars and conventions on the issues surrounding the use, and all too common failure of, child safety seats, and he has authored numerous papers on the subject of child seat crashworthiness.