2012 Roadmap To State Highway Safety Laws Shows Fiscal Impact Of Highway Safety Gaps

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety released on January 11 the 2012 Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws, the ninth annual report card grading all fifty states and the District of Columbia on their performance when it comes to adopting fifteen basic traffic safety laws. This year the report focuses on the state fiscal impact of highway safety gaps.

"This report shows that too many states have unacceptable and deadly gaps in their traffic safety laws. Political leadership and action are needed now," said Jacqueline Gillan, President of Advocates.

Among the fifteen model laws evaluated in the 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.

The federal government estimates 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.

"The National Transportation Safety Board has made safety recommendations on every one of the fifteen laws included in the report and some of those are also on the NTSB Most Wanted List this year," said Mark R. Rosekind, Board Member, National Transportation Safety Board.

"Drunk driving costs the United States more than $132 billion annually," said Jan Withers, President of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). "Effective laws like ignition interlock for all convicted drunk drivers will save lives and save money for states. With the technology at hand there is no excuse for states to delay enacting this lifesaving law."

In 2011, thirteen states enacted one or more of the recommended highway safety laws for a total of sixteen new laws. No state enacted an all-rider motorcycle helmet law although there were thirteen attempts to repeal existing laws. The new laws enacted in all state legislatures are:

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)

All-Driver Text Messaging Restriction: Indiana, Maine, Nevada, New York (upgraded to primary enforcement), North Dakota, and Pennsylvania

Eighteen states still need an optimal primary enforcement seat belt law
Thirty states still need an optimal all-rider motorcycle helmet law
Twenty-one states still need an optimal booster seat law
No state meets all the criteria of Advocates' recommended GDL program (180 laws still needed)
Forty-five states and D.C. are missing one or more critical impaired driving laws (81 laws still needed)
Eighteen states still need an all-driver text messaging restriction.

"Crash-related deaths and injuries are highly preventable," said Ileana Arias, Ph.D., Principal Deputy Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Policymakers can play an important role in making the safe choice the easy choice. We can reduce the human and economic toll of motor vehicle-related injuries by supporting prevention strategies that have been shown to save lives."