Biographical Sketch of Barry M. Sweedler
Barry M. Sweedler is a founding partner in the consulting firm, Safety and Policy Analysis International. Previously, he served as the Director of the Office of Safety Recommendations and Accomplishments of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. In his 31-year career with the NTSB, he was involved in safety in all modes of transportation. He was responsible for achieving the highest rate of acceptance possible for the recommendations made by the Safety Board to improve safety. This included managing the Safety Board's "Most Wanted" safety recommendations program. He participated in accident investigations and conducted studies on many of the nation's major transportation safety issues, including: impaired driving, young drivers, seatbelt and child restraint use and technology, air bags, heavy trucks, operator fatigue, train collison aviodance, school buses, rail and maritime operations, rail-highway grade crossings, damage to underground pipelines and the transportation of hazardous materials.
He served on the NTSB Board of Inquiry on many high profile accidents, including the ValuJet crash in the Everglades in Florida, the TWA 800 in-flight explosion of a B-747 off the coast of Long Island, New York, and for issues such as truck and commercial bus safety, air bags and school bus safety.
He holds both a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master's degree in Business Administration, and is a licensed professional engineer. He currently chairs a group of the United States Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board that covers many highway safety issues, such as the older driver, pedestrians, bicycles, traffic law enforcement, driver licensing, motorcycles, and alcohol and drugs. He was the Founding Editor of the ITSA Report, the newsletter of the International Transportation Safety Association. He was recently named to the Board of Advisors of the Southern California Safety Institute and edited their SCSI Safety Monitor newsletter. He also co edits the ICADTS Reporter newsletter.
He has been awarded both the U.S. Presidential Rank Awards of Meritorious Senior Executive (from President Reagan) and Distinguished Senior Executive (from President Clinton) for his leadership role in NTSB's efforts to help improve safety in all modes of transportation.
He is the immediate past Chairman of the TRB Committee on Alcohol, Other Drugs and Transportation and is the Past President of the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS).
