Building the Road Safety Profession in the Public Sector Special Report 289 (2007) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Safety Challenge and the Public-Sector Role
2 The Safety Challenge and the Public-Sector Role
Pages 15-34
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. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injuries and the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.
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For the first 50 years of motor vehicle use in the United States, the public sector concerned itself mainly with providing orderly and accessible roads and regulating driver skills and compliance with traffic rules. State and local governments took the lead through the setting and enforcing of traffic laws, driver licensing standards, and vehicle safety inspection requirements.
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calculates that the five most effective vehicle safety features required by NHTSA (apart from the requirements governing safety belt installation) have reduced occupant fatality risk by about 10 percent.1 He further estimates that the combined effect of all of the NHTSA motor vehicle safety standards has been to reduce occupant fatality risk by 15 to 20 percent (Evans 2004, 117)
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, states that have passed safety belt laws increased driver and passenger usage levels by a median of 33 percent, resulting in a 9 percent median reduction in fatalities. NHTSA estimates that safety belts and child safety seats have saved more than 220,000 lives since 1975 (NHTSA 2006b)
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, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, and the Governors Highway Safety Association] have established the goal of reducing the fatality rate to less than 1 death per 100 million vehicle miles traveled by 2010 (AASHTO 2005)
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He concludes that an unbalanced emphasis in the United States on crash protection and a reluctance to adopt laws that require safety belt use, curb drunk driving, and dissuade other risky driving behaviors were major causes. He acknowledges the critical importance of the public sector in ensuring safety, maintaining that public policies have failed to address the main behavioral factors influencing safety performance.
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The laws and programs are administered by several federal agencies, often in the form of regulations, grants to states and local authorities, and technical information and advice. Although highway legislation directed at safety is discussed in this report, even congressional actions that are not directed at highway safety per se can have important safety implications.
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Its main area of focus is promoting safe vehicles and driving, as well as occupant and pedestrian protection. To fulfill this mission, NHTSA sets and enforces standards for new motor vehicles and equipment; provides highway safety grants to state and local governments for data collection, safety education, emergency medical services, and traffic enforcement activities; and promotes the use of safety devices such as safety belts and child safety seats.
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NCIPC's Motor Vehicle Injury Prevention Team works closely with NHTSA on developing and evaluating behavioral and engineering solutions to prevent motor vehicle crash injuries and deaths. Center scientists, for example, have conducted reviews of government programs and community-based efforts to increase the use of safety belts and to decrease alcohol-impaired driving.
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In a few states, such as Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, the state highway agency also administers, maintains, and operates secondary roads and local streets. While a few state highway agencies have a separate highway safety office, most house safety functions in the traffic engineering office.
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They administer state injury prevention programs that maintain trauma and injury databases and coordinate with other public agencies and community groups to promote child passenger safety, pedestrian and bicycle safety, and young-driver safety. Such programs are often funded with federal grants administered by the governor's highway safety office.
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Most county and municipal governments also establish traffic laws in their jurisdictions and apply sanctions for noncompliance. Many local police work with the state police in implementing DUI, heavy truck, safety belt, and work zone safety education and enforcement programs.
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KEY POLICIES AFFECTING THE PUBLIC-SECTOR SAFETY ROLE Before the 1960s, the government's role in ensuring highway safety rested largely with the individual states and local governments, which established and enforced traffic laws and oversaw driver education courses, vehicle inspection, and driver testing and licensing programs. For the most part, the federal government limited its involvement to
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Highway Safety Act The Highway Safety Act created a federal highway safety grant program and required governors of states to be responsible for the administration of the program. As mentioned earlier, Section 402 established national standards to guide state and local highway safety programs and authorized federal grants to support their implementation.
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After the plan was released, a number of states developed their own strategic safety plans modeled on the AASHTO plan, including Maryland, Florida, Iowa, and Pennsylvania. AASHTO's strategic safety plan, updated in 2005, focuses on 22 specific highway safety challenges or "emphasis areas." Safety strategies are outlined for each emphasis area.
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AASHTO has also tasked NCHRP with developing a Highway Safety Manual that will quantify and predict the safety effects of changes in specific elements of roadway design, maintenance, construction, and operation. The goal is to produce a manual that is widely accepted within the field of transportation engineering and that presents state-of-the-art, quantitative information on safety measures.
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The enactment of federal legislation such as the Highway Safety Act of 1966 has prompted more coordinated and rational public-sector efforts to address the safety problem. New initiatives such as evidence-based safety planning in some states are intended to further this harmonization of public safety programs.
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2005. AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan: A Comprehensive Plan to Sub stantially Reduce Vehicle-Related Fatalities and Injuries on the Nation's Highways.
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2003–2006. NCHRP Report Series 500: Guidance for Implementation of the AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan.
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