WASHINGTON — Only 14 states and the District of Columbia made significant progress towards ratifying key highway safety laws in 2012, according to a report released Tuesday by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
The 10th annual highway safety report released by the group gave each state a grade based on its adoption of 15 key laws it identified as deterrents to roadway fatalities. These legislative measures fall into five categories: adult occupant protection, child passenger safety, teen driving, impaired driving and distracted driving.
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety President Jacqueline Gillan called for the implementation of 15 key legislative measures to reduce roadway fatalities on Tuesday. (Alyssa Howard/Medill)
Speaking at the National Press Club, Advocates President Jacqueline Gillan said despite improvements made over the past year by some states, she saw a “general sense of complacency” in other state legislatures.
The idleness of states on these issues came with a high price last year, she said. The number of highway fatalities jumped 7 percent from the first nine months of 2011 to the same period in 2012. That is the largest jump in number of roadway deaths since 1975, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report released in December.
“We cannot continue to let common-sense laws languish in state legislatures as death tolls continue to grow,” Gillan said.
Such “common-sense laws” include all-rider motorcycle helmet laws and the installation of ignition interlock devices to monitor the blood alcohol content of drivers previously convicted of an intoxicated driving offense. Installation of these devices reduced re-arrest for further impaired driving offenses by two-thirds, according to
a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving National President Jan Withers and Sherry Chapman, president of Mourning Parents Act, Inc., spoke in support of Advocates’ suggestions for measures to combat intoxicated and distracted driving. Both women lost a child to a fatal car accident.
“Preventable crashes, like the one that took my son, Ryan, can and must be stopped,” Chapman said.
Although some states are making more of these improvements to halt avoidable roadway accidents than others, no state has enacted all of the group’s recommended measures.
“We have the game plan in place,” said Gillan. “It’s time state legislatures stepped up and implemented solutions to these problems.”
She praised a new law signed by President Barack Obama in July that awards grants to states implementing measures like seat belt laws and texting bans.
“Here’s an opportunity to save lives, reduce your own state costs and get money from the federal government,” she said. “This is a triple bonus.”
