Skip to main content

Americans want more action and enforcement to improve highway safety

At a time when there is intense debate about the role of government, a majority of Americans support additional laws and want more action by government officials to improve highway safety, a new survey released yesterday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety claims.
May 16, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
At a time when there is intense debate about the role of government, a majority of Americans support additional laws and want more action by government officials to improve highway safety, a new survey released yesterday by the 477 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety claims.

"Despite shrinking federal and state transportation budgets and a public debate over the most appropriate role of government, it's clear that a majority of Americans want government officials to do more – not less – about highway safety," said 4939 AAA president and CEO Bob Darbelnet. "From passing and enforcing laws about teen drivers and distracted driving to programmes that improve the safety of our roadways and add safety equipment to vehicles, there are many steps government can take to reduce crashes, injuries, and deaths in the US."

The survey was released just ahead of the United Nations' official launch of the 'Decade of Action for Road Safety' campaign, which aims to stabilise and then reduce global road deaths by 2020. Major economies of the G20, including the United States as well as leading developing countries and public institutions like the  2000 World Bank and the 1819 World Health Organisation, have all endorsed the Decade of Action.

"At a time when more and more U.S. highway safety agencies are adopting "Toward Zero Death" goals, it is very heartening to see motorist support for more, not less action by government to make our roads safer," added J. Peter Kissinger, president of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, that commissioned this survey.

The survey shows that a majority of Americans are in agreement that the US needs more laws to prevent people from doing dangerous things while driving; that their respective state government needs to do more to make their roads safer;  that all new drivers should be required to complete a driver education course before they can get a driver's license; that both auto manufacturers and the federal government need to do more to make cars safer; while 70 per cent of Americans agree that driving safety laws should be enforced more strictly with only six per cent disagreeing.

Full details of the survey are available at %$Linker: External 0 0 0 oLinkExternal www.AAAFoundation.org. AAAFoundation false http://aaafoundation.org./ false false%>

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New report looks at the crucial next steps in active safety
    December 18, 2015
    Released in conjunction with Active Safety Europe Conference 2016 to be held in Munich from 17-18 May, TU Automotive’s report, The Future of Active Safety, What’s Happening Now? looks at the challenges and opportunities that advanced driver assistance systems face now and in the imminent future. The concise five-page report sums up insight from four industry experts including Frost & Sullivan, Denso, MIT and Axinn on how these challenges are being overcome today. They discuss the ‘here and now’ of ADA
  • Risky driver behaviour in the US and UK revealed
    March 28, 2012
    GreenRoad, a specialist in driver performance and safety management, has released details about UK fleet driving behaviour revealing that the most common risky manoeuvre is harsh braking; January is the most dangerous month and 11 pm is the most dangerous time to drive. By analysing driver performance data GreenRoad discovered that HGV truck drivers are the safest, followed by cars, vans and buses. By contrast, speeding is the most dominant unsafe driving behaviour in North American fleets, and cars are ope
  • Image Sensing Systems introduces wrong-way alerting solution
    March 20, 2018
    Image Sensing Systems is promoting the addition of a wrong-way alerting solution. An all-in-one system, it provides reliable wrong-way detection on ramps. Drivers wrongfully entering the highway from an off-ramp pose a serious safety risk that can result in severe, and sometimes, fatal accidents. The detection of these wrong-way drivers is vital to reducing these risks. The automatic incident detection (AID) wrong-way alerting solution can monitor any portion of the ramp with a single zone. This module
  • ITS Canada annual conference a sell out
    May 17, 2012
    ITS Canada has announced another capacity conference well in advance of the event. Some 40 exhibitors and 300 delegates will gather in Vancouver, British Columbia from 12-15 for ITS Canada's 14th Annual Conference and General Meeting.