Jacqueline Gillan, president of the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, stressed the importance of stronger motor vehicle laws Wednesday. Sylvan Lane/Medill News Service.
WASHINGTON – Motor vehicle accident fatalities increased in 2012 while state legislatures passed fewer traffic safety laws than in recent years, according to a report by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
The road safety advocacy group released its 11th annual “Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws” on Wednesday, ranking each state and the District of Columbia by how many key traffic laws they have enacted from a set of 15 standards. These proposed laws are aimed at preventing impaired and distracted driving, ensuring driver and passenger safety and giving teen drivers significant training and experience before they earn unrestricted licenses.
In 2012, 33,561 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes, a 3.3 percent increase from 2011 after six consecutive years of decline, Advocates said. The group aligns consumer, health and safety groups with insurance companies and insurance agents with the goal of improving road safety.
Ten states and the District of Columbia made it to this year’s best list, which means they have enacted at least 11 of the favored laws. States that don’t ticket a driver when someone in the car isn’t wearing a seatbelt, or ones that have repealed an all-rider motorcycle helmet law within the past decade don’t make the best list.
Illinois, Oregon and the city of Washington top the group’s list with 12 laws each, and are followed by six more states—Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Rhode Island and Washington state—that have passed 11 laws.
States land on the worst list if they have fewer than seven of the recommended laws, including primary front and back seatbelt enforcement laws. South Dakota is the lowest ranked with only two laws, and Mississippi is next with four.
Jacqueline Gillan, president of Advocates, said, “A lot of these legislatures consider these laws, and for whatever reason—there’s a new story in every state—they set them aside.”
“Nothing could be more important when you’re looking at the number of people killed as the result of motor vehicle crashes and the cost that we all bear for this,” she continued.
The report placed an emphasis on teen drivers and young passengers in cars, highlighting driver cell phone use, inexperienced teen drivers and backseat seatbelt enforcement as key issues.
Drivers between the ages of 15 and 19 years old are responsible for the most distracted driving crashes, and 11 percent of all drivers in that group involved in a fatal crash were distracted at the moment of impact.
Thirty-seven states have passed bans on all driver text messaging, as 3,328 people died and 421,000 were injured in incidents involving distracted drivers in 2012, according to the report. However, texting and driving is only a secondary offense in four of these states.
Gillan said she is hopeful that more of the Advocates’ proposals will pass in the states. But she said it will likely require federal action because state legislatures have been slow to move.
“I think a lot of these laws that you’re looking at in this road map report are ripe for that kind of federal leadership right now,” she said. “That’s one thing about motor vehicle crashes,” she said. They don’t “really distinguish between red states and blue states. All states are affected by it.”
