The Distracted Driving Summit hosted by the U.S. DOT and Secretary Ray LaHood last September was a success, launching distracted driving and traffic safety to the forefront of the national and local media.  And, as we close out the first quarter of 2010, the U.S. Department of Transportation just announced a substantial drop in highway deaths in 2009.  This is great news and something we should all applaud, but we can’t allow this good news to in any way diminish our resolve to continue our individual and collective efforts to enhance traffic safety.  Let us not forget, 33,693 lives were still lost on our roads last year – that is an outrageous, unacceptable number.

Many traffic safety experts believe we could reduce this carnage by as much as 50% if we had the political courage to implement known solutions. Laws that implement and enforce graduated driving licensing systems for teen drivers, and require seat belts and motorcycle helmets have been proven to work, but they aren’t in place in all states. Similarly, we know that roads can be improved with features such as roundabouts, rumble strips, better shoulders and median barriers, if we were willing to allocate more resources to support these types of improvements. And, even though about 55% of the deaths occur on rural roads, we have historically underinvested on this class of roads.  Furthermore, new technologies such as electronic stability control offer tremendous potential, especially if they were standard equipment.

At the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety we initiated new research to understand why we drivers remain so complacent. To that end, one of our major findings is that many drivers have a “Do as I say, not as I do attitude.” For example, 80% of respondents viewed distracted driving as a serious problem. But, 2 out of 3 of those same drivers said they used their phones while driving in the last month and of those half said they knew it increases the likelihood of being in a crash. Changing society’s current attitude toward safety is perhaps our greatest obstacle and will be the subject of the Second Annual Traffic Safety Culture Summit in July. Hope to see you there.

Each of us must look in the mirror and honestly evaluate our own attitudes and behaviors, and not just always blame the other guy for all the problems. And, now more than ever, we should all get more involved in asking our Federal, state and local road authorities, regulators and legislators to increase efforts so that one day a zero death vision will be a reality.

Very truly yours,

J. Peter Kissinger
President and CEO
AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety