NTSB TO ASSESS STATE ACTIONS TO REDUCE HIGHWAY AND BOATING DEATHS AT SEPTEMBER 14 MEETING

The National Transportation Safety Board holds a public Board meeting Tuesday, September 14, at 9:30 a.m., in its Board Room and Conference Center, 429 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C.

The meeting will focus on a discussion of the NTSB's "Most Wanted List" of safety improvements - a series of recommendations the Safety Board has issued to the States over the past few years. The Board will evaluate how responsive the States have been to its recommendations.

The recommendations that will be discussed at the meeting, and the NTSB press contacts for each item, are:

--Require booster seats for young children (Paul Schlamm).

--Increase the number of people who wear seat belts through stronger enforcement laws (Ted Lopatkiewicz).

--Strengthen underage drinking and driving laws, enact graduated driver licensing legislation, prohibit nighttime driving by young novice drivers and restrict the number of teen passengers traveling with young novice drivers (Keith Holloway).

--Reduce "hard core drinking drivers" (Lauren Peduzzi).

--Require mandatory education of recreational boat operators, use of life jackets by children and safety instruction before renting a personal watercraft (Keith Holloway).

The Board will also consider adding to its Most Wanted List a recommendation dealing with safe operations of school buses at railroad grade crossings (Lauren Peduzzi).

The Most Wanted List was established in 1990 as a way for the Safety Board to focus attention on needed safety improvements in all modes of transportation. The list highlights recommendations that, if implemented, the Safety Board believes will have a significant impact on reducing deaths and injuries.

Directions to Board Room: Front door located on Lower 10th Street, directly below L'Enfant Plaza. From Metro, exit L'Enfant Plaza station at 9th and D Streets escalator, walk through shopping mall, at CVS store take escalator down one level. Board room will be to your left.

NTSB Press Office: (202) 314-6100