Thank you Senator Wyss. It is indeed a privilege to be sharing this time with you.

You have heard the statistics from Dr. Shults. Unfortunately, I suspect that everyone in this room also has heard stories about a loved one dying in a traffic crash. Unfortunately, it is not an uncommon event.

• Last year, 43,443 people died on our nation’s roadways. Almost 17,000 of those were alcohol-related.
• Last year, nearly 6000 teens lost their lives on our roadways.

As a parent, I am concerned. As a citizen I am concerned. As a representative of the National Transportation Safety Board, I am concerned.

Improving safety on our nation’s roadways must become a political and social priority.

You probably know the National Transportation Safety Board as agency that investigates aircraft accidents, such as the August 27 crash in Lexington, Kentucky. But many people do not realize that we are involved with all modes of transportation, investigating marine, railroad, pipeline and highway accidents, such as the recent school bus crash in Huntsville, Alabama. These investigations, and the safety recommendations that arise from them, are our sole product.

In addition to conducting accident investigations and safety studies, we also work with legislators and others across the country to advance legislation aimed at improving transportation safety. As legislative leaders, you are in a position to enact such legislation. You need to know our most important recommendations for reducing the death toll on our highways.

Each of these is on the NTSB’s “Most Wanted” list of transportation safety improvements. These are proven to save lives and reduce injuries.

Graduated Driver Licensing

Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers – more than suicides or drugs. They account for 40 percent of all deaths among 15-20 year olds. Further, young drivers crash at significantly higher rates than other ages.

We need to provide the safest possible environment for young, inexperienced drivers to learn to drive. To do this, the Safety Board, AAA, and many others have recommended that the States implement a comprehensive Graduated Driver Licensing system. The idea is very simple – we place protective restrictions on these young, inexperienced drivers so that they can gain needed real-world experience in the safest possible conditions.

The model program requires young novice drivers to proceed through three stages:

• Learner’s permit held for an extended period
• Intermediate or provisional license with restrictions on high risk driving
• Full licensure

Recommended restrictions include:

• A nighttime driving restriction
• Limits on the number of passengers they can carry
• A restriction of the use of cell phones and other wireless communications devices

Virtually every State has strengthened its driver licensing system in the past 10 years, and so most of you have enacted some of the graduated licensing provisions. Today, there are only 3 States that do not have 3-stage systems. But, of the remaining 47 states that do have GDL, the laws of many systems have significant gaps. Look at the number of teens killed in your State, and I suspect you will be compelled to act. The status quo just isn’t acceptable.

Graduated licensing makes a difference. A conservative estimate is that by implementing strong GDL programs, you will reduce teen driver fatalities by at least 20 percent.

Primary seat belt enforcement

The single greatest defense against highway fatalities is for each person to wear a seat belt. When used properly, seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury to front seat vehicle occupants by 45 percent.

Unfortunately, seat belt use in the United States remains considerably lower than seat belt use in other industrialized nations.

Although 49 States require motor vehicle occupants to use seat belts, 25 States allow only secondary enforcement of their seat belt laws. As you know, secondary enforcement means that police officers cannot issue a citation for a seat belt violation unless the vehicle has been stopped for another reason.

States with primary enforcement generally have higher belt use rates that those with secondary enforcement. Those States that have recently enacted primary enforcement laws have experienced substantial increases in seat belt usage.

Primary enforcement costs nothing, but will save much. Last year, more than 5,300 lives and billions of dollars might have been saved if everyone had used a seat belt.

Primary enforcement probably has the potential to save more lives than any other piece of legislation you will consider next year.

Child Passenger Safety

We mentioned that traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers. Well, it is also the leading cause of death for our young children. This is because young children are often either unrestrained or restrained in inappropriate devices such as adult seat belts.

In the past decade, more than 3,000 unrestrained or improperly restrained children 4 to 8 years old have died in motor vehicle crashes.

Because seat belts are designed to protect adults, they do not provide sufficient protection for children.

When children use booster seats, the odds of injury are 59 percent lower than when children use only seat belts. Yet, a recent survey conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed that nearly 80 percent of 4 to 8 year olds had never traveled in a booster seat.

Requiring booster seat use will save lives and reduce serious injuries for our young children – our future leaders. We’ve seen a movement in the States to strengthen child passenger laws in recent years, but 35 State laws don’t require children to use booster seats until age 8.

DWI

Since the early 1980s, when MADD and other groups aroused public attention, the rate of impaired driving fatalities has dropped significantly. Virtually every State and Congress approved a variety of measures to address the problem. But, progress has stalled in past 10 years. About 40 percent of highway deaths nationwide continue to be alcohol-related.

It is no longer socially acceptable to drink and drive. But, social mores don’t affect one important group – the hard-core drinking driver. These drivers are involved in more than half of all alcohol-related fatalities. A hard-core drinking driver is one who:

• Drives with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.15 percent or greater, or
• Is arrested or convicted of driving while intoxicated within 10 years of a prior DWI conviction.

About 55 percent of the 16,000 alcohol-related deaths each year come at the hands of these hard-core drinkers.

Many impaired drivers persist in their behavior because they believe that they will not be caught and/or convicted. Unfortunately, that perception is based on reality. On average, an individual makes about 1,000 drinking driving trips before being arrested.

How can you help? Create a system to intervene effectively with DWI offenders the very first time they are arrested. Don’t make excuses for them.

The problem of hard core drinking drivers is complex. There is no “silver bullet.” Simply adding creative new penalties is not enough.

Following an extensive research review, the Safety Board adopted a model program for addressing hard core drinking drivers. Our model program contains 11 elements aimed at prompt intervention, timely and effective sanctions, such as vehicle restrictions, and improvements in our systems for enforcement, prosecution, adjudication and treatment. We’re seeing progress in the states, but solutions often are not simple.

Real solutions will require increased resources, and especially increased political attention. If you haven’t done so recently, convene a high level task force that will take a comprehensive look at your system for dealing with impaired drivers.

Conclusion

We have highlighted four initiatives that you can take home with you to reduce injuries and fatalities on our roadways. You need to make sure that highway safety is at the top of next year’s agenda – that it is a priority when the 2007 session begins. Let the Safety Board be a resource for you as you work to enact these initiatives. We are here to support you.

Thank you.