MEDIA ALERT
CONTACT: Eric Naing, 217-493-8294, enaing@saferoads.org; Bill Bronrott, 202-270-4415, bronrott@gmail.com
Highway Safety Report Card to Grade Each State and DC
2018 Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws to Name Best & Worst States,
Identify Hundreds of Legislative Loopholes Contributing to Daily Toll of 100 Deaths and 6,500 Injuries on Nation’s Roadways
With the promise of autonomous vehicles reducing the annual death toll potentially decades away, the combination of proven state laws and existing advanced vehicle technologies could be saving thousands of lives each year.
WHAT:
NEWS CONFERENCE & WEBCAST
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) will release its 2018 Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws ranking all 50 states and the District of Columbia on the passage of 16 essential traffic safety laws. State legislative action is critical in light of the 8.4% increase in 2015 and another 5.6% jump in 2016 in highway fatalities. Preliminary figures for the first half of 2017 show no substantial reversal to 37,461 fatalities in 2016.
The report will identify the “Best & Worst” performing states, and provide state-specific data on deaths and related economic losses. As autonomous vehicles are touted as a panacea to eliminate vehicle fatalities, the 2018 Roadmap Report will focus on the successful but largely ignored strategy of coupling existing technologies with proven state highway safety laws. These available technologies include collision avoidance, automated speed and red-light enforcement systems, and ignition interlocks. The needed state laws address distracted and impaired driving, teen driving, seat belts, motorcycle helmets, and child safety seats, which could be saving countless lives today if adopted by each state.
WHEN: MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018, at 12:00 PM EST
WHERE: Reserve Officers Association – “Top of the Hill” Minuteman Ballroom, One Constitution Avenue, NE, Washington, DC
WHO:
Cathy Chase, President, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director, American Public Health Association
Janette Fennell, Founder and President, KidsAndCars.org, and Consumer Co-Chair of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, who survived being kidnapped and locked in her car trunk, which led to her campaign resulting in the trunk release latch standard.
Jackie Gillan, President Emeritus, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
Alan Maness, Vice President of Federal Affairs, State Farm, and Board Member of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
Colleen Sheehey-Church, National President, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), whose 18-year-old son, Dustin, died in a car driven by a drunk driver
Melissa Wandall, President, National Coalition of Safer Roads, and Founder of The Mark Wandall Foundation, whose husband was killed by a red-light runner in her home state of Florida
LIVE WEBCAST of the news conference will be available at SafeRoads.org, with an opportunity for questions from the media tuning in.
ELECTRONIC MEDIA KIT, including the 2018 Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws, will be available on MONDAY, JANUARY 22, at 12:01 AM EST at SafeRoads.org.