Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) sent the message below to Congress on August 6, 2021:
Please take two minutes to read this message from Melissa Wandall, President, National Coalition for Safer Roads (NCSR): “My husband Mark was taken from our family following a senseless red light running crash in 2003, that also seriously injured my brother, Philip. I was nine months pregnant with our first child at the time. Today, I am asking Congress to ensure that lifesaving safety technology is required in all new vehicles as part of transportation and infrastructure legislation so that no family has to bear the same enduring loss. Automatic emergency braking (AEB) is proven to reduce crashes and must be required as standard equipment to help end preventable crashes, deaths and injuries.”
WATCH MELISSA & HER BROTHER PHILIP DISCUSS THE CRASH
What Melissa asks you to do:
Congress must take action now to advance crash avoidance technology in the infrastructure/transportation bill.
- Advance requirements and performance standards for automatic emergency braking (AEB) in ALL new cars and trucks that detects and responds to vulnerable road users (VRUs), with clear deadlines for rulemaking and compliance.
- This technology can help prevent or mitigate crashes that involve red light running, speeding, distraction, and impaired and drowsy driving.
- Conservatively, AEB in all new cars and trucks could prevent 1.9 million crashes, nearly 900,000 injuries, and more than 4,700 deaths annually.
In honor and memory of the tens of thousands of families like Melissa’s who lose loved ones each year, safety advances must be prioritized.