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Statement on the 50th Anniversary of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was established by the Highway Safety Act of 1970 with the mission of reducing the number of deaths, injuries, and economic losses resulting from motor vehicle crashes. While a series of “pat on the back” online discussions this week will focus on progress made over the last 50 years, in reality this agency is failing to meet the moment. Just today, the National Safety Council released statistics for the first half of 2020 showing fatality rates on our roadways are estimated to have increased 20 percent. Clearly more can and must be done to address this disturbing and distressing uptick. NHTSA’s lack of progress on minimum performance standards for crash avoidance technology is a prime example of a missed opportunity to save lives through improved auto safety.
5 reasons why self-driving cars are still not on our roads
Analysis: despite what Elon Musk might think, there are still obstacles ahead for fully autonomous cars
Congress looks to force automakers to make changes after keyless ignition-related deaths
Congress looks to force automakers to make changes after keyless ignition-related deaths
Hot Cars and Child Safety
We’ve heard the heartbreaking stories of a sleep-deprived parent, a hot car, an infant and a mistake that will haunt them for the rest of their life. In 2019, 52 children lost their lives in this manner. The reality is that non-traffic child/car-related deaths are not limited to a child’s being left unattended in a vehicle. There are many dangers when it comes to kids and cars, but there are also steps we can all take to eliminate fatal outcomes.
The Government Must Decide If It Wants Pedestrians to Die or Not
More than 36,000 people were killed in car crashes in the United States in 2018, but nearly one in five people killed in those crashes were not inside of a car. They were pedestrians or cyclists, who are dying in increasing numbers every year on American roads. In 2018, 6,283 pedestrians were killed by cars and trucks—that’s 17 every day—up 43 percent from 2008. A new report from the Government Accountability Office about pedestrian safety found that at least part of this death toll is due to the total inaction of government safety regulators, who have known about the dangers to pedestrians increasingly large vehicles on American roads present, but have done nothing about it.
