1、American Association of State Highway and Transportation Off icials Acknowledgments The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) wishes to recognize the collaborative efforts of the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), the state Departments of Tra
2、nsportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“TSA), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMYA), Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), the International
3、 Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA). With their continued support, AASHTO strives to achieve the goals established by the AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan and the key elements of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation
4、Equity Act of 2003 (SAFETEA). This report was prepared by Kathryn Harrington-Hughes, Director of Operations, EN0 Transportation Foundation. Contents Introduction 1 Painting the Safety Picture . 2 Office of the Secretary 2 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 3 Federal Motor Carrier Safety
5、Administration 5 Federal Highway Administration 7 American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators 8 Governors Highway Safety Association 9 International Association of Chiefs of Police . 10 Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance 10 Success Stories . 11 Washingtons Highway Safety Partners Panel . 11
6、 Pennsylvanias Highway Safety Partners Panel . 15 Conversation Circle 18 Next Steps . 19 Introduction Highway safety has always been a priority for state, local, and federal transportation agencies and law-enforcement agencies. But despite the continued attention, more than 42,000 people die on U.S.
7、 streets and highways each year. Because these deaths occur one or two at a time in locations spread across the nation, they have not generated the public outcry that would result were the same number of people to die annuaily as a result of airline crashes or terrorist attacks. The American Associa
8、tion of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), which represents transportation deparments in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, con- vened a one-day Highway Safety Leadership Forum in Lexington, Kentucky, on June 2,2003, to address the issue of highway safety. Ji
9、m Codell, Secretary of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and President of AASHTO, moderated the forum. We are here today to discuss a very serious subject, and to break down silos and barriers to accomplishing our objective of cutting the number of highway fatalities and injuries,” he said. Codell
10、 reported that highway fatalities total almost 43,000 annually, and more than three million people are injured each year. When you stop to consider that it takes only one death-r one serious injury-to completely devastate a family or terminate what might have been an extremely promising career, and
11、deny hundreds of thousands of dollars of spending money to our economy, there cant be any higher priority than what were here to talk about today,” said Codeli. Explaining that the forum would be an “opportunity to hear from some of our most important colleagues in the U.S. DOT and to compare notes
12、with some states that have had great success in improving safety,” Codell urged the participants to think about what they could and would do to improve safety and reduce the death toll. He stressed the need for collaboration and communication, both at the forum and back in attendees home states. Cod
13、ell said that the purpose of the forum was to lay the groundwork for improvements in highway safety and substantial reductions in the number of highway deaths and injuries. He announced that AASHTO has just adopted an ambitious goal of reducing the highway fatality rate to no more than 1.0 fatalitie
14、s per 100 million vehicle miles of travel 07ilIT) by 2008. The current fatality rate is 1.51 per 1 O0 million VMX a reduction to 1 .O would save 9,000 lives per year from todays levels. Codell distributed a pledge form and urged participants to “sign on the dotted line” and join with AASHTO “on the
15、journey to substantially reduce highway deaths.” The U.S. DOT reports that the highway fatalities in 2002 reached the highest level since 1990, at 42,815 fatalities. The fatality rate remained at 1.51 per 100 million vehicle miles of travel. Vehicle miles of travel increased in 2002 to 2.83 trillion
16、, up from 2.78 trillion in 2001. Highway- related injuries were at a record low, at 2.92 million (down from 3.03 million in 2001). 1 The pledge form asked the states to agree to: Convene key state safety partners to discuss current highway safety activities and start to develop a comprehensive state
17、 safety plan, and Identify areas in which departments will work to reduce highway deaths in each state. Painting the Safety Picture To provide an overview of highway-safety improvement actions, goals, and programs within the US. DOT and other organizations to improve highway safety, representatives
18、from several modal administra- tions within the federal transportation department and trade and professional associations addressed the forum participants. Office of the Secretary Michael Jackson, Deputy Secretary of the US. DOT, expressed appreciation for all those organizations that had sent repre
19、sentatives to the forum ?to ponder this vitally important issue regarding highway safety.? He stressed that the department wants to make its resources dovetail with those of the forum participants, and that US. DOT will support and encourage the important work being done by the states and others to
20、improve safety. He said the ?three E?s? (engineering, education, and enforcement) need be augmented by a fourth ?E?-?call it energy, Cali it enthusiasm, call it what you will, but it is the fire in the belly, the passion,? to make roadways safer. Jackson shared four thoughts to keep in mind in devel
21、oping and implementing strategies for improving highway safety: Safety is not a partisan topic. Jackson pointed out that President Clinton and his staff were as committed to safety as is the Bush administration. He noted that safety is politics, and ?we as political actors have to organize our gover
22、nments to do this. The things that need to be done have to be done first by people who have government positions.? The focus must be on states and the uniqueness of each state. The US. DOT wants to provide states with the tools, funding, and moral support to help them succeed. No single state depart
23、ment can do it alone-it will require a coalition of the various agencies within each state. States need leaders with ?a passion in their bones to make this work.? He exhorted the state DOT chefs to be that person. ?The only way that we are going to succeed in all the states is if a couple of men and
24、 women just take it on and say ?this will happen because of me.? Citing the tremendous number of lives that can be saved if people wear seat belts, Jackson urged the forum participants to build coalitions to advance the cause of primary seat-belt laws in the state legislatures. ?Don?t let a week go
25、by without giving it your attention,? he said. ?Figure out who the 6 or 8 or 10 people are in your state who can help make this work. Call upon the rest of us to help you.? 2 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Jeffrey Runge, M.D., who heads the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrat
26、ion (”TSA), empha- sized that safety is the top priority of the US. DOT. NHTSAs role is to advocate for highway safety while rec- ognizing the importance of freight and commerce. Runge said that he and the other modal administrators are committed to “fostering the safest, most secure national transp
27、ortation system in the world, even as we seek to enhance the mobility of Americans and reduce congestion and expand our economy.” He said that Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has com- mitted the department to reducing the national highway fatality rate by one-third by 2008. “This is a huge ch
28、al- lenge, but it is do-able,” said Runge. “It is going to take commitment from all of our partners-and that is why this forum is so important. It wont get done by Washington-it will get done at the state and local level.” Highway fatalities increased 1.7 percent from 2001 to 2002, when the toil rea
29、ched 42,815. “Thats the equivalent of a fuiiy loaded jet crashing every single day in our country. I dont think I need to tell you what would be happening with the Federal Aviation Administration and with our aviation system if that were in fact happening. There would be no resource spared to fix th
30、at problem, and yet we have that situation on our high- ways every single day. The good news is that the number of persons injured is down a statistically significant amount for the second year in a row.” Runge attributed the decrease in injuries to higher levels of seat-belt use and safer vehicles.
31、 The mileage that vehicles travel in the United States has tripled over the past 30 years. Despite a signifi- cant lowering of the fatality rate-from 3.2 deaths per 100 million VMT in 1980 to 1.51 in 2002-the number of deaths has risen since 1992, reflecting the increase in miles traveled. Runge sai
32、d he did not want to understate the progress that has been made in the past 30 years, “but unless we get our hands around this problem right now, were going to be in serious trouble.” “If the fatality rate stays the same, well have 50,000 deaths per year in five years-which is right where we were in
33、 1966,” said Runge. “If we achieve the DOTS goal, which is also AASHTOs goal, well see the num- ber of deaths drop to 33,000.” Runge said this reduction could be achieved through planning at the state level and through enforcement at the local level. Motor-vehicle crashes are the leading cause of de
34、ath for Americans between the ages of 2 and 40. Runge stressed that this is a huge public-health problem for the nation, both in terms of human toll and eco- nomics. In 2000, the total annual cost of highway crashes was $231 billion. “Failure to use safety belts costs our nation $20 biiiion per year
35、. Impaired driving costs us $50 billion per year. Speed costs our nation about $40 bil- lion every year. Medical costs are $33 billion annually-thats about the cost of our highway fund,” said Runge. Runge mentioned two key means of reducing the death rate. If 90 percent of automobile passengers used
36、 seat belts, 4,200 lives could be saved annually. Each one percent increase in seat belt use means 2.8 million more people are buckling up, which equates to 250 lives saved. Seat belts cut the risk of death in half in any crash. Increased enforcement has led to an increase in use of the safety belts
37、, but without primary seat-belt laws, l it wili be tough to achieve 90 percent usage, he cautioned. I 2Primary seat belt laws allow the police to pu11 a motorist over if the driver or a passenger is not wearing a seat belt. With secondary laws, citations for not using a seat belt can be issued oniy
38、if the motorist is pulled over for another offense. States with primary seat belt laws have 11 percent higher average use. 3 If incidences of impaired driving could be cut by one-third, between 3,400 and 5,000 lives could be saved each year. The U.S. DOT has set a goal of reducing instances of alcoh
39、ol-related fatalities to no more than 0.53 per 100 million VMT by 2004 (the current rate is 0.64). Runge pointed out that reducing alcohol-related fatalities is not just a car and truck issue-that it also involves motorcyclists and pedestrians. Runge stated that the administrations proposal for the
40、reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (IEA-21), known as the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003 or SAFETEA, is about “putting money where we can get results.” He described SAFETEA as incorporating flexibility and accountabilit
41、y, allowing states to spend money where they need to. A key element of SAFETEA is a comprehensive highway-safety plan, which is developed by the states and is based on states crash data. Everyone with a stake in bringing data to the table should be involved in developing and implementing the plan. I
42、n an acknowledgment that state traffic records are incomplete, SAFETEA includes a $50 miilion grant program to help states improve data collection and analysis. Runge said it was imperative that states collect better traffic data in order to pinpoint problems, and he emphasized that this program und
43、erpins the flexibility in SAFETEA. “Its flexibility with accountability,” said Runge, “so we are determined to make this data-based.” Under SAFETEA, the state and community formula grants (S.402)+ would be augmented by a program of performance grants. These performance grants will provide incentive
44、funds to the states based on the per- formance of their highway-safety programs in three categories: Motor-vehicle crash fatalities Alcohol-related fatalities Motorcycle, bicycle, and pedestrian crash fatalities The biil includes two incentives for increasing seat-belt compliance and decreasing impa
45、ired driving: If a state passes a primary seat-belt law or achieves 90 percent compliance with a secondary law in place, it would receive five times the Section 402 grant amount for fiscal year 2003. “If you are in a state with a secondary seat belt law, you are in for a windfall under SAFETEA, prov
46、ided you do the right thing and pass a primary seat-belt law, or achieve 90 percent compliance without it,” said Runge. “In Florida, for example, it would mean 937 million, to be spent on any highway-safety improvement. This is real money-and were hoping it wdl get the attention of your legislatures
47、.” Beginning in 2004, $50 million would be distributed to states with the highest number or rates of impaired-driving fatalities. The funds would be used to identifj the causes of these high numbers and rates and develop and implement programs to reduce fatalities. SAFETEA was proposed by US. DOT on
48、 May 14,2003. It is a six-year, $247 biion surface transportation reauthorization proposal. The State and Community Highway Safety Grant Program, established by the 1966 Highway Safety Act, is commonly known as the 402 program (Section 402 of US Code Title 23). 4 Emergency medical services (EMS) wou
49、ld receive $60 million in enhancement formula grants under the administrations proposal, aimed at helping states better coordinate and communicate among EMS systems. federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Annette Sandberg, Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), reiter- ated Runges point that the “real work must be done at the state and local levels. Its through those efforts that we will see the 9,000 lives saved.” Five thousand of the almost 43,000 lives lost on the nations highways annually are a result of crashes i
