TRANSPORTATION - BTS - Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Together, these systems provide an overall measure of highway traffic safety and are used toidentify traffic safety problems, suggest solutions, and provide a basis on which to evaluatethe effectiveness of motor vehicle safety standards and highway traffic safety initiatives.Box 3-6Safety In NumbersThe Safety In Numbers project was developed in response to Secretary Slater’s 1999 NationalTransportation Safety Conference, where stakeholders identified better data collection and reportingacross all jurisdictions as one of the top priorities for safety improvement.Under this initiative, four Safety Data Workshops were organized by the Bureau of TransportationStatistics (BTS) in September and October 1999, with a concluding national conference held inApril 2000, in Washington, D.C., to gather input and develop an action plan for improving thequality of safety data. Organized along “ modal” lines, these workshops (two surface transportationand one each for aviation and maritime transportation) brought together more than200 stakeholders representing the diverse interests of the transportation community, such asnonprofit organizations, associations, businesses, government (state, local, and federal), advocacyorganizations, and academia.These workshops laid the foundation for a “ Safety Data Action Plan” with BTS as the lead USDOTagency for improving data quality and ensuring intermodal collaboration. Key issues addressed inthis plan include improving data quality, timeliness, and relevance; developing methods for examiningsafety intermodally; developing data standards; increasing data accessibility and sharing; andusing technology to automate data collection and dissemination.Keys to the FutureOver the last 25 years, the highway fatality rate has dropped steadily, reaching an all time lowof 1.5 per 100 million VMT in 1999. However, the rate of decrease has slowed in recent years,and we are seeing “diminishing returns” on current safety improvement efforts. If the currentfatality rate is not reduced and VMT grows at the current rate of 1.96 percent annually, about60,000 people will be killed on the highways in 2015.In order to continue the trend of significant yearly reductions in the VMT fatality rate over thenext 25 years, greater application of safety management to our nation’s roads will be required.It will be necessary to adapt new safety strategies and vehicle technologies to match changingdemographics and ever-increasing highway traffic. Vehicle safety also must be enhanced, andoccupants must be encouraged to take advantage of the protection provided by safety belts,child safety seats, and motorcycle helmets.The USDOT has targeted a 20 percent reduction in highway-related fatalities and injuries by2008. To achieve this goal, safety strategies and advanced technologies will need to addressissues such as:high levels of alcohol-impaired driving,alcohol-impaired pedestrians,failure of nearly one-third of the driving population to wear safety belts,growing size of vehicles and safety problems due to incompatibility between largeand small vehicles,high numbers of pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities,highway-rail grade crossing fatalities,special needs of the rising numbers of aged drivers,issues relating to growing population of young drivers,rising incidence of aggressive driving and speed-related crashes,run-off-road crashes, andintersection crashes.3-26