On December 18, 2020, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released its 2019 Crash Fatality Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). According to the federal transportation safety agency, things are looking good with “[t]raffic deaths decreased nationwide during 2019 as compared to 2018, and alcohol-impaired driving fatalities decreased to the lowest percentage since 1982, when NHTSA started reporting alcohol data.”
From NHTSA Deputy Administrator James Owens:
“We are encouraged by the 2019 FARS data, which shows that fewer lives were lost on our nation’s roads than the year before, a trend for three years now even while economic growth was increasing. We saw notable reductions in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, as well as fewer lives lost in alcohol-impaired driving crashes.”
Things may be much different when the 2020 Crash Fatality Data is released.
NHTSA does acknowledge the complexities of the 2020 Pandemic Year. There was an unexpected increase in the number of traffic fatalities involving (1) younger drivers (16-24 years old); (2) risky drivers (speeding, DUI, etc.); (3) rollovers; (4) ejections; and (5) older vehicles (10+ years).
From the December 2020 NHTSA report:
“The elevated total fatality rate is strongly driven by the higher fatality rates on rural local/collector, arterial, and interstate roadways during the first half of 2020.”
Questions of NHTSA’s Effectiveness Against Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents
More and more questions are being asked about NHTSA’s activities. They are being raised within the Department of Transportation as well as within the nation’s safety community.
Inspector General Audit
Earlier this year, we reported on an investigation instituted by the Inspector General into NHTSA, specifically its enforcement (or failure to enforce) safety standards. Read, “Inspector General Investigates NHTSA’s Enforcement of Federal Car Crash Safety Standards.”
Internally, the federal agency’s effectiveness has been called into question. From the D.O.T.’s Office of the Inspector General:
According to preliminary estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 36,000 people died in motor vehicle crashes in the United States in 2019. As part of its mission to prevent and reduce vehicle crashes, NHTSA establishes Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards that incorporate Federal laws intended to improve traffic safety. Given the importance to the traveling public that all new vehicles and components meet Federal safety standards, we are initiating this audit. The objective of this self-initiated audit is to assess NHTSA’s efforts to set and enforce Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
Fair Warning Exposé
This month, non-profit news organization Fair Warning published its own analysis and exposé on the effectiveness of NHTSA in protecting against fatal motor vehicle accidents in this country. Read, “In Battle Against “the Highway Disease,” Traffic Safety Agency Attacked as Asleep at the Wheel,” written by Myron Levin and Eli Wolfe and published by Fair Warning on December 16, 2020.
Included in the article are numerous viewpoints of safety advocates including those who were formally involved with (or headed) the agency, such as Joan Claybrook (NHTSA head 1977-1981); David Strickland (NHTSA Administrator 2010-2014); and David Friedman (NHTSA deputy administrator 2013-2015).
It begins with an explanation of how the agency began back in the mid-1960s as a response to “the highway disease,” a term coined by President Lyndon Johnson. At the time of its inception, more Americans had died in roadway accidents than in all of its wars combined, with 50,000 victims perishing in traffic crashes each year.
Looking at NHTSA’s 50th anniversary, the exposé characterizes it as being “asleep at the wheel” and a “total do-nothing agency” with traffic deaths climbing each year since 2011.
It is more than a political statement. The article confirms that NHTSA has “long suffered from neglect no matter who is in office.”
The realities from the piece include:
- Road crashes are the number one cause of death for those who are between 1 – 19 years old;
- 100 people die each day in this country in a motor vehicle accident;
- Road crashes cause 95% of U.S. transportation deaths;
- Over 2,000,000 people are injured in a motor vehicle accident each year in the United States; and
- The costs of health care and other expenses resulting from these road accidents are in the “tens of billions of dollars.”
Meanwhile, Consumer Reports opines that 11,000 lives could be saved each year in roadway accidents if NHTSA would make sure that just four (4) things were required: automatic emergency braking; pedestrian detection systems; blind spot warnings; and lane departure warnings.
Justice for Fatal Motor Vehicle Accident Victims in Indiana and Illinois
Serious and fatal motor vehicle accidents are a sad reality for those of us who live and work in our part of the country. Our risks of a collision while driving is higher than those who drive in other states, as we maneuver on huge interstates and among huge semi-trucks and big rigs here in the “Crossroads of America.”
The failure to have effective safety standards in place as well as the inability to enforce safety regulations on the books creates unacceptable risks for a deadly accident on our roadways.
For many, it is apparent that the NHTSA is not trustworthy in protecting against violations of FMVSS (federal motor vehicle safety standards) nor is the agency effective in implementing new regulations that meet with modern safety needs.
As a result, there will be preventable accidents on our roads where people are permanently harmed or killed in a motor vehicle crash. Their recourse will be to seek justice from those who are legally liable for the accident via the personal injury, product liability, negligence, and/or wrongful death laws of the States of Indiana and Illinois.
For more on fatal motor vehicle accidents, read:
- Defective Parts in Fatal Car Crashes: Fight to Make Auto Makers Keep Records of Safety Defects;
- Car Crashes and Automated Car Technology: The Changing Focus of Auto Accident Claims in Illinois and Indiana;
- Defective Car Parts & Liability for Fatal Crashes and Serious Injuries in Illinois and Indiana.
The failure of the NHTSA to effectively police federal highway safety regulations does not limit the responsible party’s legal duty of care and resulting legal liabilities for its breach under our state law. The federal safety standards can form the basis of a personal injury or wrongful death claim for justice under Indiana or Illinois law. Please be careful out there!
