New Highway Report Grades States on Their Road Safety
Posted in Auto Insurance
January 15th, 2010
The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety has released its 2010 Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws report, which has graded states on their ability to keep their drivers safe. By issuing this yearly report card, the Advocates hope to increase safety on the road for the millions of drivers in the country.
About the Advocates and the Report
The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety is a coalition of groups from the insurance industry, law enforcement and consumer organizations. By putting together its report each year, it is able to grade states on 15 passages of model or recommended laws, summed up as follows:
- Adult occupant protection (2 laws) – This looks at a seat belt enforcement and all-ride motorcycle helmet law.
- Child passenger safety (1 law) - This is a child booster seat law that requires children ages 4-7 to be placed in a booster seat.
- Teen driving graduated driver licensing (7 laws) - These laws address offering teens full driving privilege in a three-stage process that allows for primary enforcement of the law.
- Impaired driving (4 laws) - These laws look at requiring ignition interlock devices for all drunk driving offenders, child endangerment, mandatory blood alcohol level testing in fatal crashes and an open container ban.
- Distracted driving (1 law) - This is a ban on text messaging for all drivers, except in the case of an emergency.
The Advocates look at how well each state is abiding by the 15 model laws then grades them accordingly with a red, yellow or green designation (red is danger, yellow is caution or improvement need, green is good). While the laws, of course, aren’t real, they give an indication to which states need to make adjustments to improve the safety of the roads.
The Report Cards Are In
Here are some states that fall into the green category:
- District of Columbia
- New Jersey
- Illinois
- Maryland
- New York
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- Tennessee
- Minnesota
- California
- Washington
Some states that earned red ratings include:
- South Dakota
- Arizona
- North Dakota
- Wyoming
- Virginia
- Vermont
- Pennsylvania
- Ohio
- Nebraska
The report cards come at a time when states will be coming together to convene for their first 2010 sessions. Some experts believe that this will put pressure on many states to begin adopting some of the model laws.
With an annual average of 5.8 million crashes occurring on the nation’s highways, the Advocates believe the time is now to begin making the roads safer for 2010.