National Safety Council Applauds Congress For Passage Of Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill
The National Safety Council applauded Congress on July 5 for including safety provisions in the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill to provide states with incentive to enact distracted driving and teen driving laws. According to the National Safety Council, cell phone use is involved in nearly twenty-four percent of all crashes. Additionally, crashes are the leading killer of teens in the U.S. and strong teen driving laws are proven to save lives.
"We are grateful to see that Congress has taken action to reduce distracted driving and to help protect our youngest, most inexperienced drivers," said President and CEO of the National Safety Council, Janet Froetscher. "This bill will help states make roadways safer. We've seen the effectiveness of state incentives with other traffic safety issues, such as impaired driving and primary seat belt laws. We are confident that incentives will provide encouragement to state legislators to enact distracted driving and teen driving laws that will reduce crashes. I would especially like to thank Senator Jay Rockefeller, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Representative Tim Bishop, and Representative Randy Hultgren for championing these critical life-saving provisions. We also are grateful to Senator Barbara Boxer, Congressman John Mica, and Senator James Inhofe for their leadership of the Conference Committee and the bipartisan effectiveness they instilled."
Enactment of the transportation measure would create or save three million jobs, said Senator Boxer, chief sponsor of the Senate version of the bill. The two-year highway bill would prevent the government’s authority to spend money on highways, bridges, and transit systems from lapsing, along with its ability to collect gasoline and diesel taxes. Democrats and Republicans say the highway measure will be Congress’ top job-creation initiative until the November elections.
As the price for the highway agreement, lawmakers said Republicans dropped a House-approved provision requiring the government to approve the proposed Keystone pipeline, which is to move oil from western Canada to Texas’ Gulf Coast.
The bill includes a $13 million incentive grant program to encourage states to adopt best practice elements of a Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) system, which gradually introduces teens to driving by phasing in full driving privileges over time in lower risk settings. The legislation also includes a $23 million distracted driving grant program to provide incentive funding to states that adopt laws prohibiting texting by drivers of all ages and cell phone use by teen drivers. The bill also includes funding for distracted driving research.