William S. Lerner, FSRA

 

William brings more than fifteen years of experience in lithium-ion battery safety, vehicle safety, standards development, and risk assessment to VISTA. His work has focused on the evolving challenges that electric vehicles and other forms of e-mobility can present to first responders, law enforcement, EMS, transportation agencies, and infrastructure operators.

William first met Chief Steven LaPenta at Newark Liberty International Airport while supporting education and outreach involving outside first responders, Port Authority ARFF firefighters, and law enforcement personnel. Their shared concern was simple: responders need reliable, immediately accessible information about the vehicles and hazards they are approaching.

Over the course of his career, William has participated in more than thirty ISO standards activities as a U.S. delegate and has contributed to SAE standards work related to vehicle and responder safety. He has also supported broad risk-assessment work involving electric vehicle and e-mobility hazards across complex transportation environments, including aviation, rail, maritime, roadway, and parking facilities.

That work reinforced a recurring operational challenge. Modern vehicles can differ significantly in propulsion systems, energy storage, electrical hazards, structural design, emergency disconnects, and extrication considerations, yet those differences are not always readily apparent to responders arriving at an incident.

William has also spent much of his career developing technologies addressing vehicle safety and emergency information. He is an inventor and holds more than twenty issued patents, experience that gives him a technical perspective on the challenges of making safety-critical information available to responders.

At VISTA, his role is broader than any particular technology or solution. He contributes technical and standards expertise to VISTA’s responder-focused work and its broader mission of helping ensure firefighters, EMS personnel, law enforcement officers, and other responders have the information they need to recognize hazards, make informed decisions, and operate as safely as possible.

VISTA advocates for safety outcomes and performance requirements, not the adoption of any specific proprietary technology or product.