Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
Highway crashes impose a tremendous cost burden on society estimated to exceed one trillion dollars annually. Sufficient funding and resources for NHTSA can be the catalyst for implementing effective safety countermeasures to prevent crashes, save lives, reduce injuries, and contain costs.
read moreMay is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, an annual event to focus on reducing the persistent death and injury toll due to motorcycle crashes. In 2020, the number of motorcycle riders killed, 5,579, was the largest in a single year since data collection began in 1975. This was also an alarming 11 percent increase from 2019 and accounted for 14 percent of all roadway deaths.
read moreIn November 2021, IIJA was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden. It includes a provision that addresses hot car tragedies by requiring an ‘audio and visual reminder alert to check the back seat’ in new passenger vehicles. Unfortunately, the provision does not specify the requirement for the system to detect a child alone in a vehicle. Without detection, a system will be inadequate. A reminder alert alone falls short of what is needed to prevent hot car deaths and injuries and creates a false sense of security for families.
read moreSafety technology that detects and alerts to the presence of unattended children must be required as standard equipment on all new passenger vehicles. Absent requiring that new cars be equipped with a system to detect occupants in the whole passenger compartment, children will continue to be imperiled and families will be left with a false sense of security.
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