Highway safety advocates upgrade 4 states’ safety improvement status
“If states want to save lives and save money, they should look to the 2012 Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws for guidance," said Jacqueline Gillan, president of Advocates. “This report shows that too many states have unacceptable and deadly gaps in their traffic safety laws. Political leadership and action are needed now."
The Trucker News Services
1/11/2012
WASHINGTON — Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (AHAS) Wednesday said it had upgraded the efforts of four states to adopt 15 basic traffic laws the organization deems paramount to improving safety on the nation’s highways.
The national advocacy group revealed road safety information on all 50 states in its 2012 Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws report released during a news conference at the National Press Club here.
This year’s report focuses on the state fiscal impact of highway safety gaps.
“If states want to save lives and save money, they should look to the 2012 Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws for guidance," said Jacqueline Gillan, president of Advocates. “This report shows that too many states have unacceptable and deadly gaps in their traffic safety laws. Political leadership and action are needed now."
The organization has three state ratings — green (good), yellow (state needs improvement) and red (state falls dangerously behind).
Placement in one of the three ratings was based solely on whether or not a state had adopted a law as defined in the report, and not on any evaluation of a state's highway safety education or enforcement programs, Advocate officials said.
In 2011, two states improved from yellow to green — Maine and Rhode Island.
Two upgraded from red to yellow — North Dakota and Pennsylvania.
In all, the District of Columbia and 17 states were rated in the highest rated category of green, including New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, North Carolina, Georgia,
Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Washington, Delaware, Maine, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Louisiana and California.
The states with the worst rating of red are South Dakota, Arizona, Mississippi, Virginia, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio and Wyoming. All other states received a yellow rating indicating caution because there was a need for improvement because of gaps in traffic safety laws.
Among the 15 model laws Advocates evaluated in its 2012 report are seat belt, booster seat and motorcycle helmet measures, in addition to restrictions and requirements for teen drivers, all-driver texting bans and tougher impaired driving laws.
A complete list is available at saferoads.org.
Gillan said the federal government estimated that motor vehicle crashes cost society $230 billion every year. In 2010, nearly 33,000 people died in crashes throughout the nation and over two million more were injured. This is equivalent to a “crash tax” of more than $750 for every person, she said.
“The National Transportation Safety Board has made safety recommendations on every one of the 15 laws included in the Advocates’ report and some of those are also on the NTSB Most Wanted List this year,” NTSB board member Mark R. Rosekind said at the news conference.
In the report, advocates said that in 2011, 13 states enacted one or more of Advocates’ recommended highway safety laws for a total of 16 new laws.
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No state enacted an all-rider motorcycle helmet law although there were 13 attempts to repeal existing laws.
The new laws enacted in all state legislatures included:
• Primary enforcement of seat belts: Rhode Island
• Booster seats (children ages 4 through 7): California and Georgia
• Graduated driver licensing (GDL) for teen drivers: New Mexico (optimal cell phone restriction), North Carolina (supervised driving), North Dakota (nighttime and optimal cell phone restrictions) and Pennsylvania (passenger restriction)
• Impaired driving: Connecticut (ignition interlock devices for all offenders) and Kansas (ignition interlock devices for all offenders), and
• All-driver text messaging restriction: Indiana, Maine, Nevada, New York (upgraded to primary enforcement), North Dakota, and Pennsylvania.
The 2012 report found that an additional 348 new laws need to be adopted in all states and D.C. to fully meet Advocates’ 15 legislative recommendations:
• 18 states still need an optimal primary enforcement seat belt law
• 30 states still need an optimal all-rider motorcycle helmet law
• 21 states still need an optimal booster seat law
• No state meets all the criteria of Advocates’ recommended GDL program (180 laws still needed)
• 45 states and DC are missing one or more critical impaired driving laws (81 laws still needed), and
• 18 states still need an all-driver text messaging restriction.
The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at editor@thetrucker.com.
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