MADD president calls for improved highway safety and enforcement

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) national president Wendy Hamilton has this to say about the need to improve highway safety:

ADMINISTRATION OUTLINES HIGHWAY SAFETY AS A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS; HOWEVER, FUNDING REQUESTS DO NOT ADEQUATELY ADDRESS PROBLEM

According to DOT, motor vehicle crashes are responsible for 95 percent of transportation sector deaths and 99 percent of all transportation-related injuries within the United States as well as the leading cause of death for people ages 4 through 33. In 2002, an estimated 42,850 people died on the nation?s highways, up from 42,116 in 2001.

This alarming amount of injury and death on our nation?s roadways creates a tremendous drain on the nation?s economy. Economic losses due to motor vehicle crashes cost the nation approximately $230.6 billion each year, an average of $820 for every person living in the United States.

DOT?s announcement of preliminary 2002 fatality estimates calls for ?better state laws that address the causes of the problem and stricter enforcement.? But DOT?s FY04 request and its reauthorization proposal cut funding for behavioral safety initiatives, even while DOT?s own research demonstrates that human behavior is overwhelmingly the leading factor in death and injury on our nation?s roads.

One of the main purposes of MoBikeFed's proposed 2004 highway safety legislation is to improve road safety, for exactly the reasons Hamilton outlines.