“Naderites†and the regulations they inspired have been widely credited with subsequent reductions in auto fatality rates, usually by those who are either unaware of, or choose to ignore, the (already existing) downward trend. In short, the era of so-called corporate greed and the presumably ignorant and helpless consumer saw dramatic improvements in safety before the anointed came to the rescue.
But in many organizations safety programs have missed these opportunities, which renders them (and often practitioners) more irrelevant to upper management. That’s primarily due to a decades-long preoccupation on regulatory compliance, instead of effecting change in management systems and the behavioral environment.