Ben Kelley, a board member of the Center for Auto Safety penned a recent opinion piece detailing what he perceives to be America’s “dangerously weak” commitment to stopping death and injury on our roadways. He could not be more wrong.
The Department of Transportation is laser-focused on safety and that includes the staff at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Our broad spectrum of programs tackle both behavioral and vehicle-related causes of highway deaths, and our results show we are succeeding in our mission.
Most tellingly, 2009 saw the lowest fatality and injury rates ever recorded: 1.13 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. In 1966 this rate was nearly five times higher at 5.5 deaths per 100 million miles. This is a remarkable public health achievement — and one that we are very proud of. While the crashworthiness of vehicles is an essential element in helping people survive crashes, Kelley failed to acknowledge that the vast majority of crashes occur because of dangerous behavior.
Drivers that make poor decisions, including drunk drivers, distracted drivers and those that excessively speed, endanger us all. NHTSA’s National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Study showed that driver errors accounted for more than 90 percent of the critical reasons behind serious crashes. Our focus on how a vehicle protects its passengers in a crash is core to our mission, but we must be diligent in attacking all causes of traffic crashes with equal fervor.
We are building momentum on every level in highway safety, and safety performance is our priority. We have the most active defect investigation and enforcement program in the world. We receive more than 30,000 complaints from consumers every year and we review each and every one quickly and carefully, and when warranted we act swiftly to correct defects through safety recalls or other measures.
Over just the last three years, NHTSA’s defect and compliance investigations have resulted in 542 recalls involving more than 20 million vehicles, and, in the past year, we had 530 uninfluenced recalls, the most in the history of the agency.
While Kelley’s assertions about our agency are colorful, they do not reflect the facts of how our agency undertakes its mission. NHTSA research and standards have raised the bar on safety for every passenger vehicle on the road. Some of our most significant actions include the requirements for seat belts, airbags, anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control in every vehicle. While we are proud of these accomplishments, our research and safety program will continue to evolve with the fleet. For example, we plan to issue a rule to help prevent drivers from backing over children. We are researching and encouraging the development of technologies that could prevent cars from ever crashing, along with making the fleet less reliant on oil.
NHTSA’s vigilance and professionalism were exemplified in our investigation of Toyota’s unintended acceleration issues. The agency levied two of the largest fines in its history for Toyota failing to disclose safety defect information in a timely manner as dictated by federal law. We then undertook a 10-month investigation into Toyota’s electronics. We enlisted the top engineers at NASA with expertise in computer-controlled electronic systems, electromagnetic interference and software integrity. NASA’s team found no electronic flaws in Toyota vehicles capable of producing the large throttle openings required to create dangerous unintended acceleration incidents.
NHTSA had already identified the only two known real-world causes of high-speed unintended acceleration in Toyotas (sticky pedals and floor mat pedal entrapment), and at our insistence, Toyota had taken action to correct these defects and ultimately recalled almost 8 million vehicles. While this portion of our investigation has come to a close, we will monitor every manufacturer for unintended acceleration risk.
We are accountable to the Congress and to the American public whom we serve. We will continue to use real data, sound science and careful engineering to make tactical and strategic program, budget, and leadership decisions as we execute our mission to save lives and reduce injuries on our nation’s roads.
David Strickland is the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Read more: Auto Safety in the Breakdown Lane
The central point of my commentary, which Mr. Strickland did not address, was concern over the failure of the last Congress to act on the urgently needed Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010. I hope he will agree that with the advent of a Republican-controlled House in the new Congress, the likelihood of the bill’s passage has become remote. However, a strong show of support for the bill by NHTSA would certainly enhance its chances of success. I assume NHTSA will be urging favorable action on this critically important measure in the current Congress.
Mr. Strickland criticized my commentary because it “failed to acknowledge that the vast majority of crashes occur because of dangerous behavior.” Certainly behavior plays a large role in crash causation, whether driver behavior or the behavior of car companies. From 1967 through 1984 I was, variously, an appointed official at DOT and a senior staff member at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Our emphasis was not primarily on reducing crashes per se, but on reducing the injuries that occur in crashes. Our research repeatedly found that changing driver behavior was the most difficult and problematic approach to injury reduction. NHTSA is confronting just those difficulties in attempting to reduce lethal crashes caused by driver distraction, which is commendable.
It’s correct that significant advances have been made in crash injury reduction over the past half century. But in my opinion, we must also be concerned that the United States has slipped behind many other countries in achieving effective control over motor vehicle crash injuries. As data from the World Health Organization make clear, forty-five countries report lower motor-vehicle death rates than the United States. The U.S. rate is a disturbing 15.3 deaths per 100k population. More than 20 countries report rates of half that number or less. As the Transportation Research Board noted in releasing its little-publicized November report, Achieving Traffic Safety Goals in the United States: Lessons from Other Nations, “There is a notable gap between traffic safety progress in the U.S. and other nations that deserves our attention…The U.S. could learn from the effective strategies in place elsewhere to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities.”
I fully understand Mr. Strickland’s desire, as NHTSA’s new administrator, to put the agency in the best possible light, and I appreciate his work to improve its performance and effectiveness. But as a former Congressional staff member involved in oversight of NHTSA, he must be aware that no government agency is or should be insulated from informed evaluation of its activities and effectiveness. I trust he will agree with me that constructive support for NHTSA’s work, including criticism aimed at improving its effort, is essential to achieving the agency’s public-health mission.
Thank you Ben Kelley for speaking out, and for triggering a response. This is a step forward, and those of us whose voices are not acknowledged by NHTSA are grateful. NHTSA’s method for prioritizing the value of human life is based on negative statistical analyses rather than a comprehensive study of all aspects of an issue.
I believe that the “dangerous behavior,” mentioned by Mr. Strickland is a direct result of the so-called advances in motor vehicle construction without corresponding training and requirements for drivers.
Hopefully this dialogue will be the beginning of “listening” for NHTSA.
I believe Ben did a good job in pointing out the facts about Highway Safety. However I do think that we will be seeing a tremendous more amount of fatilities if NHTSA doesn’t start taking a stance and trying to block the bills that are out there in varies states allowing ATV use on paved roads and highways. It seems our states are taking huge steps backwards when it somes to ATV use and putting them on roads with cars and trucks which will only result in thousands more deaths and injures. It’s time NHTSA takes part in voicing against such warned against activities on our road ways!