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Table at end of this HTML document not easily readable. View this report HERE in Adobe Acrobat in an easy to read document and charts, but longer to load. If you don't have Acrobat, click HERE for free and legal download. STUCK IN NEUTRAL: A COMPREHENSIVE
REPORT ON THE MAJOR September 16, 1999 ADVOCATES FOR HIGHWAY AND AUTO SAFETY Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) is an alliance of consumer, health and safety groups and insurance companies and agents working together to make America's roads safer. Advocates encourages the adoption of federal and state laws, policies and programs that save lives and reduce injuries. By joining its resources with others, Advocates helps build coalitions to increase participation of a wide array of groups in public policy initiatives which advance highway and auto safety. Advocates was founded in 1989 by the heads of a number of major property and casualty insurance companies and several prominent consumer and safety leaders. These two communities share virtually identical goals on highway and auto safety issues. This Report is being distributed on the 10th anniversary of the establishment of Advocates. Throughout the ten years during which Advocates has worked on safety issues affecting the vehicle, the driver, and the highway, important safety concerns have been addressed related to occupant protection, vehicle crashworthiness and crash avoidance, impaired driving, red light running, speeding, highway safety issues including intersection safety and highway design, as well as issues affecting consumer protection and information. On these and numerous other issues, Advocates has played a dynamic role in developing legislative and regulatory policies at both the state and federal levels of government, expanding public understanding of auto and highway safety issues, and encouraging coalition efforts to further reduce the devastating human and economic costs of death and injury on the nation's roadways. ABOUT THE REPORT This Report is the work product of Advocates. The Report presents the views and recommendations of Advocates on many but not all of the major safety issues that are facing the nation today or that will confront society in the near future. More detailed discussions of a number of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards are attached as an appendix to the Report. For more information about any particular safety issue contact Advocates. The Report generally relies on data contained in the Fatal Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and as reported in Traffic Safety Facts 1997 NHTSA (Nov. 1998), and on public information and studies published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) as well as other organizations. Except as otherwise noted, final statistics for calendar year 1997 are relied on because the 1998 FARS data was released too late to be included in the Report. Specific references and citations are available from Advocates. This report was prepared by the staff of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. Advocates wishes to express sincere gratitude to Amy Buckler, Kimberly Peterson and Brendan Gill for their contributions to the Report. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Report, Stuck In Neutral: Recommendations for Shifting The Highway And Auto Safety Agenda Into High Gear, is an assessment of both current and future safety needs at the crossroads of two centuries. The premise of this Report is that with over 40,000 deaths a year, and more than 3,000,000 cumulative recorded traffic fatalities, as well as millions of serious injuries every year, there is a pressing need to renew and revitalize efforts and actions to address this most severe public health epidemic. The Report provides analyses and discussion of 35 of the most prominent safety issues organized in sections according to the fundamental principles of motor vehicle fatality and injury causation propounded by Dr. William Haddon, who served as the first administrator of the federal highway safety agency. In keeping with the categories of the "Haddon Matrix," safety countermeasures, including legislative and regulatory reforms, that address pre-crash (crash avoidance), crash (crashworthiness), and post-crash safety are divided into those issues that involve vehicle design and equipment, driver behavior or, more generally, human factors, and the highway environment. In the Introduction, the Report begins with a discussion of the safety successes of the last decade. The approaches used to improve traffic safety include a mix of state and federal actions. The combination of the enactment of a state or federal safety law, in conjunction with a public education campaign and serious enforcement efforts has repeatedly proven to be a successful safety strategy. Youth advocacy efforts can be included as an emerging method for developing strong safety activists and improving safety policies. Safety improvements have been achieved on a wide variety of issues, but they have not met with success in all areas of concern. While new laws addressing driver and occupant behavior have been enacted, variation among laws, gaps in coverage, and lack of uniform enforcement have blunted the overall safety impact of such laws. In addition, many people believe that federal regulation of passenger and commercial vehicles is no longer essential. The Report emphasizes that not only does federal regulation of passenger and commercial vehicles remain a critical area in which safety performance must be upgraded and new standards established, but that the American public overwhelmingly wants such action by its government. A set of discussion papers on necessary upgrades to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards , included as Appendix B, stresses the need to revise vehicle safety performance standards to provide state-of-the-art crashworthiness and crash avoidance protection. The Report's Introduction also discusses the demographic facts of life that population changes will increase the numbers and percentage of both teenage and older drivers. Since both of these age groups present special auto and traffic safety issues and needs, the Report attempts to point out where and how safety policies can and should address those needs. The Report provides recommendations based on current law and knowledge that will better prepare the nation to address these crucial safety issues. The Report also makes the case that the public continues to espouse high levels of support for actions that advance vehicle and highway safety. Three polls conducted by Louis Harris on highway safety-related issues, including one released in conjunction with the Report , indicate that the American public wants and expects vehicles and highways to be as safe as reasonably possible. The overwhelming public support is especially true for the important role that federal performance standards play in assuring the public that high levels of safety are standard in every passenger vehicle sold in America. The body of the Report discusses the major safety issues facing the nation, but by no means attempts to address every important existing and prospective safety concern. The Report provides an agenda for the critical safety issues that must be faced in the immediate future. Areas of particular concern that require concerted action include increased safety belt use, drunk driving, teenage driving, intersection safety, truck-related fatalities, rollover crashes and excessive speed. The over 80 recommendations in the Report lay out a detailed blueprint for specific ways to improve auto and highway safety. Issue by issue, the Report makes the case that to meet safety expectations and to provide a reasonable level of safety protection, much more can and must be done by policymakers in this nation. Not only must legislators and regulators respond to current safety issues, but pressing concerns based on demographic realities, emerging trends and new technologies must be met if motor vehicle travel in the next 20 years is to be at least as safe, if not safer, than the past 20 years. SUMMARY OF REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SAFER MOTOR VEHICLES AND HIGHWAYS THE VEHICLE FEDERAL MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY STANDARDS (FMVSS) NHTSA must revise and upgrade existing motor vehicle safety standards to establish a new generation of safety standards that will meet the needs of modern vehicles. ADVANCED AIR BAGS
PASSENGER VEHICLE COMPATIBILITY
ROLLOVER PROTECTION
ROOF CRUSH
SIDE IMPACT PROTECTION
HEAD RESTRAINTS
CHILD RESTRAINTS
ON-BOARD CRASH RECORDERS
EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND AUTOMATIC CRASH NOTIFICATION (ACN)
PEDESTRIAN CRASH PROTECTION
COMMERCIAL VEHICLE ROLLOVER
COMMERCIAL VEHICLE BRAKES
COMMERCIAL VEHICLE DESIGN COMPATIBILITY
COMMERCIAL VEHICLE SIZE AND WEIGHT
THE DRIVER: HUMAN FACTORS STANDARD ENFORCEMENT OF STATE SAFETY BELT USE LAWS
CLOSING GAPS IN STATE CHILD RESTRAINT LAWS
MOTORCYCLE HELMETS
BICYCLE SAFETY
RIDING IN PICKUP TRUCK CARGO AREAS
BLOOD ALCOHOL CONCENTRATION: .08% BAC
REPEAT OFFENDERS
OPEN CONTAINER LAWS
ADMINISTRATIVE LICENSE REVOCATION
NEW PENALTIES FOR IMPAIRED DRIVING
DRIVER ALERTNESS AND FATIGUE
RED LIGHT RUNNING
SPEEDING AND EXCESSIVE SPEED
GRADUATED LICENSING
LICENSE RENEWAL
DRIVER DISTRACTIONS
THE DRIVER AND HIGHWAY DESIGN
THE HIGHWAY INTERSECTION SAFETY
HIGHWAY WORK ZONE SAFETY
HIGHWAY ALIGNMENT AND WIDTH (CROSS-SECTION)
ROADSIDE ENVIRONMENT
TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICES
TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS ES 1 FORWARD -- THE "HADDON MATRIX" i INTRODUCTION iii Where We Are Now: Safety Accomplishments of The Past Ten Years iii Where We Are Going: Future Trends in Safety v 1. An Aging Driving Population vi 2. Expansion of the Teenage Driving Population vii 3. "New" Safety Issues viii How We Will Get There: Public Support for Effective Safety Approaches ix THE VEHICLE 1 A. PASSENGER VEHICLE SAFETY - INTRODUCTION 1
B. COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY - INTRODUCTION 17
THE DRIVER: HUMAN FACTORS 25 A. OCCUPANT PROTECTION LAWS -- INTRODUCTION 25
B. IMPAIRED DRIVING - INTRODUCTION 35
C. OTHER CRITICAL BEHAVIORAL ISSUES 45
THE HIGHWAY 55 THE HIGHWAY ENVIRONMENT - INTRODUCTION 55
APPENDIX 67
FORWARD THE "HADDON MATRIX" This Report on the current status and future of highway and auto safety issues relies to a great extent on fundamental principles established by Dr. William Haddon. A full appreciation of both the methodological approach and the particular safety countermeasures addressed in this Report requires some understanding of the epidemiological context in which safety researchers and advocates work. This forward attempts to briefly explain that context and provide some basic insight into the systematic approach used by the safety community. Dr. William Haddon, Jr., the first administrator of NHTSA, revolutionized highway safety when he discarded the fragmented attempts at regulating highway safety and replaced them with a coherent framework within which safety efforts could be organized. Dr. Haddon recognized that the focus on driver behaviors alone was not sufficient to prevent or reduce injuries, and that other factors had to be considered. The achievement of the Haddon Matrix was the demonstration of the dynamic intersection of the three major sub-systems comprising vehicle operation and crash production - the driver, the vehicle, and the highway - with the time line of crash causation composed of pre-event conditions, the crash event itself, and the injury consequences of the crash once it had occurred (post-event). The Haddon Matrix is usually depicted as follows:
However, when prevention fails in some cases, the next order of business is to reduce crash severity and the incidence of injuries and fatalities in crashes that occur. Finally, the post-crash cell addresses actions and interventions that reduce post-crash safety problems such as vehicle fires, and the response of emergency medical services which is crucial to the amelioration of both the acute and long-term consequences of the injuries sustained in the crashes. The Haddon Matrix also pointed the way for use of "systems engineering" as the controlling philosophy for reducing crashes and preventing or lessening injuries even when crashes take place. By approaching traffic safety problems through system engineering, designers and regulators can take into account the interactions of human behavior, the design of the vehicle both for crash avoidance as well as for occupant protection, and the need to design highways to be "forgiving" operating environments where driver errors should not result in deaths and serious injuries. This Report revisits the Haddon Matrix and reexamines the highway and auto safety issues within the familiar categories of the vehicle, human factors (drivers, occupants, and pedestrians), and the highway (roadside environment). Vehicle crash avoidance and crashworthiness, although much improved since the early 1970s, still have serious deficiencies. As to human factors, it is clear that driver errors still occur for a wide variety of reasons, the result of inadequate attention to both vehicle and highway design. Lastly, highway design failures continue to plague traffic safety. Both inadequate geometric designs and traffic engineering measures still create dangerous opportunities for driver mistakes and serious injuries and deaths are the tragic result. INTRODUCTION Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates ) was founded ten years ago to actively press for policy solutions that reduce motor vehicle crashes and the resultant deaths and injuries that occur on our nation's highways. The need for this effort is self evident. Since the introduction of the automobile in the United States, motor vehicle crashes have claimed over 3 million lives on U.S. roadways with uncounted hundreds of millions of serious and minor injuries. The accumulated death toll on our roads far surpasses the loss of American lives in all the wars and battles this nation has ever fought. Moreover, traffic and highway crashes continually take a toll of over 40,000 lives, incurs hundreds of thousands serious physical injuries and head trauma, and costs society more than $150 billion in medical and related costs each and every year. As an organization, Advocates has a decade of experience in highway and auto safety and brings to those issues a wealth of information and institutional knowledge. This Report reflects this knowledge and is presented as a means of focusing attention on the existing and emerging safety issues that will lead America into the 21st century. Not all of the safety problems that faced the nation 30 years ago have been solved and new threats to public safety have developed. It is time to take stock, reevaluate the safety challenges and take action. This Report will document the safety problems that confront the nation and discuss the areas that still have not been properly addressed by safety standards and other countermeasures. The report recommends solutions based on what Advocates and other safety experts know will work. Experience has shown that one effective strategy that brings about behavioral changes that improve safety is to motivate people to alter their individual actions by enacting strong laws backed by public education and committed enforcement. Equally important is the resolve and determined political will of regulators, policy makers and elected leaders who have the responsibility of setting and enforcing highway and auto safety standards. Implementing the recommendations in this Report will lead to even greater advances in public safety on American highways at a time when fatality and injury rates have plateaued. As Advocates celebrates the accomplishments achieved over the last ten years, we also look forward to the next century and recognize the challenges that an increasingly mobile society will encounter. This Report will elaborate on the safety challenges, old, new, and emerging and provides a blueprint for the future safety agenda of America. The agenda includes new and improved performance standards for vehicles, better protection of occupants and pedestrians and safety countermeasures in the highway environment. Where We Are Now: Safety Accomplishments of The Past Ten Years When Advocates was founded in 1989, 45,582 people died and approximately 3,284,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes on American highways that year. The preliminary data from the Fatal Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for 1998 reveals that in the past decade there has been an overall nine percent reduction in annual fatalities since 1989 (41,480) and a more modest one percent reduction in injuries since 1989 (3,251,000). During this period, annual fatalities reached a record low in 1992 (39,250), falling below 40,000 for the first time since 1962 (38,980), but have been on the increase in the last six years. The fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) has dropped from 2.2 in 1989 to 1.6 in 1997 and 1998. The decrease in the fatality rate is part of an historic trend and the result of many factors. The fatality rate, however, has leveled off in recent years after having reached 1.7 in 1992. Despite the fact that VMT has increased from 2,096 billion to 2,618 billion in the past decade, and a number of safety setbacks have taken place, there has been some progress in certain areas of highway safety. Achievements in safety policy have been accomplished over many years because of the combined efforts of numerous individuals and organizations. In the last decade, advances in a number of areas of highway and auto safety were pursued at both federal and state government levels. At the federal level, enactment of major safety legislation has improved the quality of people's lives by providing a greater degree of safety. For example, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) required the installation of dual front air bags in all new passenger vehicles. To date, air bags have been estimated to have saved more than 4,000 lives. The National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 (NHS ) required all states to enact "zero tolerance" blood alcohol concentration laws for underage drivers. However, that legislation also repealed the National Maximum Speed Limit law enacted in 1974. Enactment of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) in 1998 encompassed a number of key safety provisions including a schedule for the introduction of advanced air bag systems and requirements that states enact minimum penalties for repeat offenders and prohibit possession of open alcoholic beverage containers. Among the states, success can be measured in the adoption of important safety legislation. A summary of certain highway safety laws adopted by states is included in Appendix C. As of August of 1999:
At the regulatory level some progress has also been achieved. The initial Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) were issued in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In large measure, these safety standards are responsible for the general level of vehicle and occupant safety. The current FMVSS and related regulations administered by NHTSA are listed in Appendix A of this Report. A number of these standards have been revised and the core safety requirements have been extended to light trucks and vans. However, the existing FMVSS do not cover all aspects of safety performance and occupant protection and a number of new vehicle safety standards need to be established, especially given the changes in the vehicle fleet in recent years. Furthermore, many of the safety standards have not been significantly updated since they were first adopted and are in dire need of upgrading and revision to reflect state-of-the-art engineering and safety practices. A series of discussion papers on the need to establish new standards and to revise and upgrade existing standards is presented in Appendix B of this Report. On another regulatory front, there has been little progress on improving the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) , which govern commercial truck and bus operations. These regulations, many of which were originally developed by the now-defunct Interstate Commerce Commission in the 1930s and 1940s, are the responsibility of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Safety advances in this area have been quite limited, and the existing safety regulations have not been effectively administered or enforced. As a result, progress on advancing greater truck and bus safety has been slow and difficult to achieve in the past decade. Recent recognition by auto manufacturers that "safety sells," and that consumers are willing to pay for greater personal safety, has also contributed to advancing safety. If consumers are provided with accurate and reliable safety information, they can and will make choices based on safety concerns. Where We Are Going: Future Trends in Safety While there have been substantial advances in the field of highway and auto safety, there is still much work to be done and new challenges to confront. Upgraded and expanded motor vehicle and motor carrier safety standards remain an important concern. In addition, traffic safety will have to meet challenges posed by changes in technology (in-vehicle applications), business practices (just-in-time delivery), lifestyles (night-time and shift work), and population demographics. Since 1975, the number of licensed female drivers has increased and has nearly reached parity with the number of licensed male drivers. In the future, it is also expected that greater access to mobility will also spur an increase in the percentage of disabled drivers. The two most important areas which require particular attention are the population trends that inevitably and dramatically will increase the numbers of older and younger (teenage) drivers on American highways, two groups that are overrepresented in motor vehicle fatality statistics. 1. An Aging Driving Population (Click HERE for Graphic Chart) In general, a larger percentage of the American population is living longer than ever before. At the beginning of the 20th century, when motor vehicles were getting a foothold in society, life expectancy was only 46 years. Now, at the close of the century, life expectancy has reached 76 years. Demographers refer to this as the "squaring" of the aging pyramid and it has major implications for our country's social policies, including how the U.S. responds to important topics of public health and safety. Currently, there are about 25 million people in the U.S. who are 70 years of age and older, representing almost 10 percent of the population. Even more startling, U.S. census data show that this age group grew at more than double the rate of the rest of our population over the last decade. This trend will continue as the "Baby Boom" generation begins to reach retirement age in 2010. By the year 2020, the U.S. will have over 40 million people who are 70 years of age or older, and about 50 million who are 65 or older. These figures must be considered in light of the fatality statistics involving older people. Drivers age 75 years and older have fatality rates above the national average. The fatality rate for drivers 85 years and over is nine times higher than for drivers 25 through 69 years old, based on estimated annual travel. In fact, while people age 70 and older comprised 9 percent of the nation's population in 1997, they were involved traffic in 14 percent of traffic fatalities, 13 percent of occupant fatalities, and 17 percent of pedestrian fatalities. This indicates that older populations, above age 70, in general are overrepresented in traffic fatalities. Personal mobility in passenger vehicles has produced an all-time high in the number of licensed drivers over 70 years of age - currently about 18 million - and many more older citizens regularly or occasionally rely on personal transportation as passengers in cars or light trucks. As this segment of the population increases it will be necessary to address and, where possible, accommodate the inevitable changes which occur in health and functioning associated with ageing. As people enter their 70s, 80s, and, nowadays, even their 90s, age or illness can compromise physical abilities and lead to reductions in functional capacity, which can adversely impact motor skills, cognition, attentiveness or alertness, and dexterity. Everyone experiences certain decreased capabilities as they get older, such as longer perception-reaction time, decreased peripheral vision, increased sensitivity to glare, and more limited torso flexibility and range of limb and neck motion. While persons of all ages are subject to such concerns, the process of aging itself often compromises one or more functions that are necessary to the driving task. Functional changes occur at different times and to different degrees for every individual, but are increasingly likely with advancing age. It also should be stressed that most of these physical decrements also lead to increased vulnerability of older persons to serious injuries when involved in a crash as a driver, passenger or pedestrian. In addition, riding in or driving a passenger vehicle produces specific risks for older people which need to be addressed by highway and street designers, traffic engineers, motor vehicle manufacturers, and government regulators. As a result, whether as driver or occupant, older people have specific needs which, unfortunately, are largely not being met with today's roadways and cars. Numerous highway design features and traffic control devices are not only inadequate for the general driving population, but critically fail to respond to the specific capabilities of older drivers. Similarly, passenger vehicles are designed, tested, and marketed primarily to meet the driving and occupant protection needs of far younger drivers and passengers. 2. Expansion of the Teenage Driving Population (Click HERE for Graphic Chart) Even as America experiences dramatic growth in the older driving population, it will also see steady increases in the number of teenage drivers on our roads. As the children of the Baby Boom generation, or the "Baby Boom Echo" as they are often called, reach driving age more teenagers than ever before will be behind the wheel. The teenage driving population, on an upswing since 1993, will continue to grow so that by 2010 there will be 23 percent more 15 to 20 year-old drivers than there were in 1995. This increase in population is expected to be matched by a similar increase in teenage traffic fatalities. Data show that teenaged drivers are overrepresented in motor vehicle crashes, far exceeding their percentage among licensed drivers. Even though teenagers as a group tend to drive fewer miles per year than other age groups, they are involved in 3 times as many fatal crashes as are all drivers. Not surprisingly, motor vehicle deaths are the leading cause of fatalities for young people 15 to 20 years of age. There are a number of factors that contribute to this situation. While younger drivers tend to have good eye sight, reflexes and hand-eye coordination, they frequently lack experience and good judgment, especially behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. In addition, they have a greater propensity to engage in risky behavior compared to other age groups. Teenage drivers are less likely than adults to perceive danger and more likely to commit driving errors that lead to a crash. Teenage drivers are also more likely to be involved in a single vehicle crash due to speeding, driving recklessly, or over-compensating during sudden maneuvers. Finally, teenagers are statistically less likely to be wearing their safety belts either as drivers or occupants of motor vehicles. These factors all contribute to teenage drivers having the highest crash rate of all age groups of drivers. 3. "New" Safety Issues In addition to population trends which will require new approaches and safety countermeasures, other trends are developing that deserve attention. These new safety issues include the phenomenon of aggressive driving, the production of smaller and lighter low-speed vehicles (such as golf cars and neighborhood electrical vehicles), and the development of intelligent vehicle technology. Aggressive driving usually refers to traffic infractions such as speeding, tailgating, following too closely, unsignaled lane changes and similar offenses often committed in combination with each other. While the term "aggressive driving" has been applied in recent years as a unique phenomenon, it is essentially a modern twist on well known poor driving practices. States already have laws and regulations that deal with the underlying traffic violations. To the extent that aggressive driving as a new safety issue is based on the malicious intent of drivers, some law enforcement agencies have begun special monitoring programs to identify aggressive driving behavior. Enforcement efforts are frequently combined with driver education and public information efforts, including courteous driving campaigns, in an attempt to reduce the incidence of aggressive driving. The use of smaller, lighter non-traditional vehicles for local transportation on public highways is a safety issue that is only beginning to take shape. Recent actions by several states and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) now permit the use of low-speed vehicles such as golf cars on public highways along with passenger cars, light trucks, vans, and commercial motor vehicles. At present, the number of vehicles in this class are small, and the on-road use is limited. In the future, as the older driving population increases and a new generation of small, light vehicles, including neighborhood electric vehicles, are developed and marketed, these vehicles may present a new safety issue regarding the compatibility of the vehicle fleet on American highways. Finally, the development of intelligent vehicles, which is supposed to provide greater safety through crash prevention, or crash avoidance, remains on the safety horizon. It is unlikely that intelligent vehicle technology will ever bring about large reductions in crashes and fatalities. Most of the ideas referred to as intelligent vehicle systems either have no safety component or rely on sophisticated technology that has not been proven practical for safety applications in mass production vehicles. The Report does address a few good ideas that involve technological solutions and in-vehicle communications, such as more advanced crash and occupant sensors, safety technology for commercial motor vehicles, and automated crash notification. These ideas rely on existing technology and have practical applications that are likely to have safety benefits. In addition, the Report discusses the disadvantage of increasing technology, the potential for driver distraction from an overload of in-vehicle technology. How We Will Get There: Public Support for Effective Safety Approaches The experience of the past decade makes it clear that different safety issues require varying approaches. In general, however, the combination of safety laws, explained through public education and information campaigns, which are coupled to committed enforcement efforts provides the best possible atmosphere for public acceptance and observance of safety measures. As part of this mix, Advocates is spearheading attempts to develop a burgeoning youth advocacy movement in which young citizens speak out on safety issues on their own behalf, while learning how government works. In any event, it is evident that there must be a mixture of efforts at both the state and federal levels of government. A number of safety problems can only be tackled through state intervention and through state and local law enforcement. However, traffic safety is also a national concern that affects public health across the nation. Frequently, however, safety countermeasures are not dependent on local conditions but need to be addressed in a uniform manner regardless of political boundaries, especially in regard to issues of public health and safety. The public has long supported the need to adopt national solutions to deal with national problems The American people have continually supported state and federal legislation and regulation aimed at improving highway and auto safety in order to achieve a greater degree of personal safety for themselves and their loved ones. On three separate occasions, Advocates has commissioned the national pollster, Louis Harris, to conduct surveys of the American public's opinions on a range of highway and auto safety topics. The results were released in May 1996 , April 1998 , and September, 1999 , contemporaneous with the issuance of this Report. The polls reveal that the public has a continuing and growing interest in the safety of highways and vehicles, as well as a strong resolve that there be a heightened government presence to ensure safe cars and roads. The 1999 Louis Harris poll reflects the largest support yet for a strong federal presence in safety matters including highway and auto safety. A record 93 percent of respondents said that it is "important" for the federal government to be concerned about uniform safety standards. This continues the trend of increasing support for federal activity to ensure uniform safety standards. In the 1998 poll 89 percent of respondents thought this was an "important" federal responsibility, and in the 1996 poll 85 percent of respondents called the federal presence "important." While more people think that federal safety standards are important today compared to three years ago, a constant percentage believe that such a federal role is "very important." There was no erosion in support among the 61 percent of the population, or six out of ten respondents, who deemed federal safety regulations to be "very important" between the 1999 and 1996 polls. In response to a question in the 1998 poll, public supported more federal funding for auto safety by a margin of 77 to 21 percent. . The 1999 poll also inquired about the need to revise or renew the safety standards that regulate motor vehicles. More than two-thirds of the respondents, 69 percent, agreed that it is time to set new auto safety standards. Only 25 percent thought that the existing motor vehicle safety standards were sufficient. In light of the changes in fleet mix, vehicle design, technology and equipment it is understandable that the public would express a desire for the issuance of up-to-date vehicle safety standards. Toward this goal, Advocates has provided in depth discussion papers, in Appendix B of this Report, regarding the need to establish several new motor vehicle safety standards and the improvements required to upgrade the level of safety provided by a number of the existing safety standards. In the 1999 poll, the public also expressed overwhelming concern about other key auto and highway safety issues. For example, 85 percent of those polled want more attention paid to intersection safety problems, including making intersections safer for pedestrians, with over half of all respondents (57 percent) saying that much more attention should be given to this safety issue. In a related question, over two-thirds of those responding said that "somewhat more" (39 percent) or "much more" (31 percent) attention is needed for intersection safety improvements. In addition, three-quarters of Americans, 74 percent, identified red light running as a safety problem and favored the use of red light cameras, automated photographic technology, to reduce the incidence of red light running by drivers. On other safety concerns included in the poll, more than four of five persons asked (81 percent) supported the mandatory installation of technology to improve truck safety including the use of so-called "black box" data recorders and technology to provide warnings to truck drivers when they are getting tired. Widespread support was also found for more frequent license testing of younger and older drivers. Among those polled, 72 percent supported more frequent license tests for younger drivers, and 83 percent for older drivers. Significantly, 69 percent of respondents ages 18 to 29 supported more frequent license tests for younger drivers, and 80 percent of respondents aged 65 and over supported more frequent license tests for older drivers. In a number of surveys, and in the two earlier polls conducted by Louis Harris for Advocates, the public expressed strong opinions about federal regulation of underage drinking and impaired driving. Seventy-eight percent of adults surveyed opposed any effort to roll back the legal drinking age from 21 years of age. A decisive majority of 91 percent favored uniform laws mandating that teenage drivers who test positive for any alcohol are subject to immediate revocation of their driver's license and are subject to strong penalties for driving under the influence. As of spring 1998, this desire of the public became a reality. All states currently have zero tolerance laws under which any driver under the age of 21 may not have greater than a 0.02 percent BAC. Similar action must be taken in other highway safety areas in which there is such sweeping public support and need for a policy response. Another such area with overwhelming public support is the realm of child restraint laws. An impressive 90 percent of adult respondents believed that "all people driving children, whether they are related to the children or not, should be made responsible for ensuring that the children are properly belted in." Americans responded that they favored stronger enforcement of child safety laws that require all children to be buckled up. Eighty-four percent of adult respondents favor making it mandatory for states to require that all children traveling in vehicles operated by anyone, not just their parents, no matter where the children are riding must be buckled in child safety seats. These results emphasize that the American public wants and expects the federal government to continue to assure high levels of safety in the vehicles we drive and the roads we travel. It is clear that where necessary, the public assumes that strong safety measures have be taken and that adequate safety standards exist. These and other public opinion surveys, as well as the desire of American consumers to purchase vehicles built with greater levels of safety, is a call for action that simply cannot be ignored. The public would like to see strong federal regulation of car safety standards, large truck safety, safe highways, laws mandating safety belt use and availability of consumer information. On other issues, the public desires an active state presence to protect child passengers, ensure the use of seat belts by older children and adults, and in setting reasonable speed limits and controlling excessive speed on highways. The determination of which measures are effective and should be pursued must be the result of a systematic analysis of the interactions between vehicles, occupants, and the roadside environment. In the forward to this Report, we briefly set out the basic philosophy of prevention in highway and vehicle design and mentioned how an integrated policy approach called "systems engineering" is needed to form an interconnected set of design and performance characteristics for both roads and vehicles that directly responds to the needs of promoting safer driving and increasing occupant protection when crashes occur. Broad public concern for highway safety, rapidly changing driver demographics, unacceptably high fatalities and injuries each year and, at times, government inertia in pressing for substantial progress, require a review of the unfinished highway safety agenda and a road map for advancing safety in the 21st century. The following Report is Advocates' assessment of the highway and auto safety issues that need attention and action in our effort to reduce traffic deaths and injuries. The most valuable lens through which to view the entire driving environment is the Haddon Matrix which integrates the need for prevention in transportation decision-making with the concept of systems engineering. For this reason, Advocates' relies on the Haddon Matrix as the basic outline for our analysis. By using a systems engineering approach, the Report reviews and recommends safety strategies dealing with the vehicle, the occupant, and the roadway environment. HADDON MATRIX PART ONE: THE VEHICLE A. PASSENGER VEHICLE SAFETY - INTRODUCTION Passenger vehicle safety is separated into three major areas in accordance with the Haddon Matrix: pre-crash safety performance, often called crash avoidance, protection of vehicle occupants when crashes occur, usually referred to as crashworthiness, and post-crash integrity of the vehicle and emergency response in the event of a crash. Crash avoidance standards and designs address a number of vehicle operating systems, some of which are often taken for granted as direct contributors to the safe operation of a car or light truck. For example, windshields and side windows near the driver must be able to transmit sufficient light day and night to ensure adequate visibility, and driver controls and displays need to be easy to locate and use, and provide a clear and uniform message that assist drivers and ensure consistently safe vehicle operation. A number of important vehicle crash avoidance standards are overdue for revision. Advances in technological capabilities or new information showing the inadequacies of certain designs and their performance have not been accommodated quickly enough. As a result, many benefits of safe operation through crash prevention have been denied to the motoring public. Some of these standards will be reviewed in the sections that follow. Similarly, passenger vehicle crashworthiness standards have also lagged in many respects even though research and crash data over the past several years clearly have shown the need to revise and upgrade major standards for the prevention of serious injuries and deaths to car and light truck occupants. This Report will address important crash safety performance issues that are overdue for attention. Many of the FMVSS have not been significantly revised since first adopted thirty years ago. In the case of both crash avoidance and crashworthiness, a more detailed treatment of the major policy and safety issues pertaining to the federal motor vehicle safety standards are provided as an appendix to this Report. Post-crash issues include vehicle integrity as well as the response of emergency medical services and hospital care. The latter has long been left to the domain of individual, local emergency response units. Recent technological and other developments are improving the role that post-crash intervention can play in saving lives and reducing injuries. The addition of automatic crash notification would improve emergency response time that would greatly benefit the medical outcomes for crash victims. ISSUE: FEDERAL MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY STANDARDS (FMVSS ) Performance requirements for crash avoidance and crashworthiness features of motor vehicles are contained in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) , which govern most major safety systems in cars, pickups, and vans. The FMVSS are issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and each standard is categorized based on the Haddon Matrix and whether the standard provides pre-crash, crash, or post-crash protection. While the FMVSS are the backbone of American passenger vehicle safety, they do not cover all aspects of vehicle safety. Moreover, many of the standards in the FMVSS were issued early in the history of NHTSA and while some have been updated over the ensuing 30 years, others remain in need of major revision. Many of the original standards were issued by the agency based upon prevailing motor vehicle manufacturer industry voluntary standards in order to quickly achieve regulation of new vehicle safety design and performance. The initial FMVSS reflected engineering and safety practices prevalent in the 1960s. Unfortunately, some standards have languished for many years without appropriate revisions and others been either proposed for adoption or amendment without success. In a number of other instances, significant areas of vehicle safety design and performance are unregulated, leaving the quality of either crash avoidance or crashworthiness to the discretion of motor vehicle manufacturers. In the following sections, this report will briefly review major motor vehicle safety standards which need to be improved or newly established. More detailed analyses of the issues related to each of the major FMVSS standards which require upgrading are contained in the appendix to this Report. RECOMMENDATION: NHTSA must revise and upgrade existing motor vehicle safety standards to establish a new generation of safety standards that will meet the needs of modern vehicles. ISSUE: ADVANCED AIR BAGS Air bags have proven to be a key occupant safety device which can minimize or eliminate head, face, and chest injuries in high speed motor vehicle crashes. Air bags are 31 percent effective in reducing fatalities in frontal crashes and they are estimated to have saved more than 4,000 people to date, mostly unbelted occupants. Teenage and young male drivers who do not buckle up are primary beneficiaries of air bags. About a third or more of all occupants still do not wear safety belts and for them air bags are the main method of occupant protection. However, air bags also provide safety protection for belted occupants. In combination with lap/shoulder safety belts, air bags are 75 percent effective in preventing serious head injury and 66 percent effective in preventing serious chest injury. This safety record could be improved if safety belts were equipped with pre-tensioners and load limiters as standard equipment. These devices would improve safety belt performance when interacting with air bags. This would be particularly beneficial to older people who suffer broken bones more readily than other occupants. Air bags are now required for front seat occupants in all new passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. because of their great safety potential-- it is estimated that 3,000 lives could be saved each year when all passenger vehicles are air bag equipped. Nevertheless, air bags have been responsible for more than 140 deaths, mostly to children and shorter adults. These losses have occurred primarily in low speed crashes where an air bag deployment was not required to save lives. Many of the children killed were not sitting back against the seat and were considered to be "out-of-position." Many of the adult drivers were sitting too close to the steering column and the air bag. All but a few of the people killed by air bags were either unbelted or improperly belted. Interim action has been taken to reduce the power of air bag deployments. Safety considerations for children and out-of-position occupants necessitate that air bags do not deploy, or do not harm occupants if they are deployed, in low speed crashes, while still deploying fast enough to ensure occupant protection in high speed crashes. NHTSA is presently considering a proposed rule to set performance standards for advanced air bags and is trying to determine what tests are needed to ensure that air bags perform as intended. The air bag requirements need to be upgraded to include various crash test dummy sizes, both belted and unbelted, that are tested in a variety of positions and at various speeds in crashes into a fixed barrier. Performance requirements are also needed to ensure that air bag technology protects all size occupants in real world crash conditions. Vehicle sensors must also be capable of properly determining that a crash is severe enough to deploy the air bags, and that determination must be made early enough in the crash to allow for a safe deployment. In the future, sensors will be required that determine the characteristics of the occupant and the crash and which can instantly fine tune the air bag deployment based on both these factors. Because air bags and safety belt are saving lives and reducing the probability of serious head and chest injuries, more people survive crashes with other injuries, especially broken legs and ankles. These type of injuries are generally less severe for most of the population but present serious injuries for older occupants. In order to reduce or prevent these injuries, greater protection from intrusion must be provided to the vehicle occupant compartment. This can be done by testing vehicle designs against intrusion and at higher impact speeds. A higher speed frontal crash test and a high speed offset frontal crash test should be considered and eventually adopted to ensure greater occupant protection in high speed crashes. RECOMMENDATIONS: NHTSA must issue a final rule on advanced air bag systems that includes performance requirements that protect: children and other out-of-position occupants in low speed crashes; unbelted occupants in high speed crashes; all occupants against neck, head and chest injuries; NHTSA should require that safety belt systems include pre-tensioners and load limiters as standard equipment; NHTSA should require improved protection against intrusion that causes leg, foot and ankle injuries; NHTSA should provide more funding for research and development of improved crash and occupant sensors; NHTSA should increase the speed required for frontal crash tests and consider adding an offset frontal crash test. ISSUE: PASSENGER VEHICLE COMPATIBILITY An important aspect of both crash avoidance and crashworthiness designs and performance is the controlled, predictable interaction of vehicles prior to and during collisions. Each passenger vehicle shares the road with other vehicles, and compatible operation is crucial to securing high levels of resulting traffic safety and crash protection. For crash avoidance operations, for example, headlamp designs are critically important not only for providing sufficient illumination to drivers to see the road and traffic control devices such as signs and pavement markings, but also to supply necessary light without generating disabling glare for other drivers. Similarly, strategic placement of marker and tail lamps are needed so that other drivers can easily detect other vehicles in the vicinity. Other systems that govern crash avoidance maneuvering, such as brakes which must perform repeatedly in a reliable manner to guarantee safe deceleration and stops, especially near other vehicles sharing the road. In the crashworthiness arena, the challenge facing regulators and safety engineers is to provide good occupant protection despite a wide variety of possible types of crashes, including those between vehicles of different sizes, weights and designs. While some disparity in vehicle size has always existed, especially between passenger vehicles and medium and heavy trucks, there is growing disparity among passenger vehicles. The growth of the light truck and van market in recent years -- especially in sport utility vehicles (SUVs) - has aggravated this serious problem of crash incompatibility. Large SUVs, pickups, and vans inflict far more damage and cause greater vehicle intrusion when they collide with smaller passenger vehicles, especially cars. Not only are these vehicles often considerably heavier than most cars, but they also are higher and stiffer so that much more crash energy is transferred to the smaller vehicle in a crash than would be produced by another car. This means that crash management for protecting occupants in the smaller vehicle is shouldered primarily by the smaller vehicle's safety design and performance. Statistics show that most smaller vehicles don't do a very good job in preventing dangerous, life-threatening crash forces from reaching occupants when their vehicles are struck by larger vehicles. This is especially true in side impact crashes where the larger, heavier, taller, stiffer vehicle is particularly dangerous when its front end collides with the sides of small vehicles, as often occurs in intersection crashes. In these side impacts, there is little structure intervening between occupants and the crash forces. As an example, the chances of death for small car occupants when their vehicles are struck in the side by a large pickup truck or a SUV are more than 20 times greater than when the collision is with another small car. Whether front or side crashes, it has become rapidly apparent that improving the safety of small vehicles in crashes with larger vehicles requires a systems engineering approach of both further improving the crash management capabilities of smaller vehicles as well as softening the severity of impacts by larger vehicles. Many of the possible countermeasures are just now being implemented or are being studied, but, in the main, they center on better front and, especially, side impact energy management in smaller vehicles, and improved active and passive restraint systems in cars, paralleled by efforts to modulate the height, weight, and general aggressive character of large vans, pickup trucks, and SUVs. Given the 50 percent new vehicle market share now enjoyed by the general class of light trucks and vans, offsetting the excessive crash losses currently suffered by occupants of smaller passenger vehicles when struck by larger vehicles is clearly an urgent topic for safety researchers, government decision makers, and motor vehicle manufacturers. RECOMMENDATIONS: NHTSA should develop safety countermeasures to improve front end and side impact energy management in smaller vehicles; NHTSA should develop approaches to modulate the height, weight, and general aggressive character of large vans, pickups, and SUVs; NHTSA should require improved active and passive occupant restraint systems in cars. ISSUE: ROLLOVER PROTECTION Rollovers of passenger vehicles are particularly severe crashes with very high rates of fatalities and severe injuries which usually are the result of massive trauma, especially to the head and neck. Also, a substantial portion of rollover fatalities is due to occupant ejection. Thus, both crash avoidance and crashworthiness countermeasures are needed to address the enormous annual losses from rollovers. Over 7,000 fatal rollover crashes have occurred each year for the past few years and more than 9,000 deaths in rollover crashes may have occurred in 1998. Vehicles with narrower wheelbases and a relatively high center of gravity are particularly susceptible to rollover. While rollover occurs in cars, especially smaller, lighter models, the highest rollover rates occur among SUVs and pickup trucks. One of the main difficulties with current SUVs and pickup trucks is their relatively high centers of gravity compared with most passenger cars. Combined with narrow and often very short wheelbases, these design features inherently increase the rollover tendencies of these multipurpose passenger vehicles. SUVs and pickup trucks are involved in half of all fatal rollover crashes and together suffer fatal rollover crashes at twice the rate of all light vehicles (under 10,000 pounds) taken together. The primary task facing government decision makers and safety engineers is to prevent most rollover crashes from occurring by changing some of the safety performance deficiencies, to enhance vehicle stability, especially in the light truck and van class of passenger vehicles. In cases where rollovers nevertheless occur, multiple countermeasures to prevent ejection are needed including improved performance standards for door locks, latches and hinges, and window materials that prevent occupant ejection. In addition, given the lower rate of seat belt use by occupants of light trucks and vans, increased occupant restraint use must be a priority. Improvements are also needed in vehicle crashworthiness to prevent or mitigate serious injuries resulting from occupant impact with interior surfaces and components of passenger vehicles in rollovers. These countermeasures include padding, advanced air bags, and revised standards for roof crush and localized intrusion. In 1994 NHTSA terminated rulemaking on a rollover standard. The agency held meetings on providing consumers vehicle stickers or other rollover information. While such information is no substitute for a performance standard, the agency has not proposed a consumer regulation to provide comparative information on vehicle rollover. RECOMMENDATIONS: NHTSA should establish a new stability performance standard for vehicles under real-world operating conditions; NHTSA should require improved padding on vehicle interiors; NHTSA should upgrade the current standard for door latch/hinge performance; NHTSA should require innovative anti-ejection glazing; NHTSA should upgrade the roof crush standard; NHTSA should develop and provide consumers with comparative information on vehicle rollover. ISSUE: ROOF CRUSH The roof crush standard governs passenger vehicle roof crash strength, but this safety requirement is inadequate in real-world crashes and has not undergone major revision since 1971. The present standard only requires that a force equal to one and one-half times the weight of the vehicle be applied to the reinforced sides of the roof structure at the roof rails. Moreover, this is merely a static test, the force is applied while the vehicle is standing still, that does not apply to the central portion of the roof structure that is not supported by the roof rails. As a result, roof crush and localized intrusion into the passenger compartment are common events in on-roof rollover crashes and crashes in which the roof rails strike narrow cross-section objects at the roadside such as trees and poles. The standard, therefore, is a poor measure of roof crush performance under actual crash conditions and provides inadequate occupant protection. The standard needs to be upgraded to include performance requirements that provide for occupant protection in full, on-roof rollover crashes. The standard should require a dynamic crash test that meets the real-world demands placed on car and light truck roofs in order to preserve occupant compartment crush space. In particular, a new standard must ensure that vehicle roofs are resistant in full rollover crashes both to general failure of support structures as well as to localized intrusion. In 1994, when NHTSA terminated rulemaking on a performance standard for vehicle rollover, one of the actions it promised to take was improvement of the roof crush standard. While the agency has continued to research the issue, no regulatory action has been proposed. RECOMMENDATIONS: NHTSA should upgrade the roof crush standard to include performance requirements that control general roof failure and localized roof intrusion; NHTSA should upgrade the roof crush standard to require a dynamic crash test that reflects real-world crash experience. ISSUE: SIDE IMPACT PROTECTION Side impacts have increasingly become a leading source of motor vehicle deaths and severe injuries. More than one-third of serious to severe injuries sustained each year by occupants in passenger vehicles are the result of side impacts. A major aspect of the problem is the fact that there is so little protective structure in passenger vehicles between occupants and collision forces. While the front ends of vehicles often have several feet of structure which can manage some or most of the crash forces, this is not true of the sides and doors of most passenger vehicles. This safety problem has grown more acute over the last several years in large part because of the expansion of the light truck and van market, including SUVs, which has surpassed sales of new cars. As a result, the side impact problem has taken center stage because of the disproportionate losses suffered by car occupants when their vehicle is struck in the side by larger, heavier light trucks and vans. Two standards govern side impact protection: one standard addresses lower vehicle interior protection of the lower torso; the other requires at least some additional padding to offset upper interior head injuries. A key shortcoming of these standards is the lack of a systems engineering approach to side impact occupant protection. The standards were separately developed and issued without specific coordination so that an overall, uniform set of countermeasures are usually not implemented by manufacturers complying with their minimum requirements. At the present time, manufacturers are responding to both standards with widely varying levels of protection for motorists, some supplying side impact air bags of varying effectiveness while others rely only on extra padding. Some vehicles successfully complying with the minimum requirements of both standards nevertheless are clearly not equal to the task of preventing death and serious injury in collisions with both fixed objects and with other vehicles. Almost a third of all fatal crashes are single vehicle events and a large portion of these involve roadway departures into highly dangerous roadside environments. One of the most lethal kinds of side impacts is a car or light truck that skids out of control and slides sideways into a tree, telephone pole, light or signal support, or other object which results in deep, localized intrusion into the passenger compartment. As part of a systems engineering approach, roadside protective barriers and crash cushions would be used routinely, and solid roadside objects such as p | ||||||||||||||||||||
