​​Remarks as prepared for delivery.

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What I told you we could “flip a switch" and save 9,000 lives a year on our nation’s roads?

Would you believe me? Would you question my safety “creds?” 

What if I also said there’s a law on the books right now mandating that we do precisely that?

Because that’s exactly what I’m telling you.  

Before I go on, thank you to Director Lewis for hosting me today, and to the entire staff of the Tennessee Highway Safety Office for all you do. 

I’d also like to acknowledge another safety champion with us today: Commissioner Long from the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. Thank you, all, for your safety leadership. 

If you’re not familiar with the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, we’re a small but mighty independent Federal agency.

Our sole mission is to save lives.  

We investigate about 1,300 domestic accidents, incidents, and significant crashes in ALL modes of transportation: aviation, commercial space, maritime, oil and gas pipelines, railroads, transit, and roadways. 

If you’ve ever worked with us on scene, please come find me later so I can shake your hand and thank you for your work.

We also investigate about 450 foreign aviation accidents annually. 

And we do all this with only 435 people. 

You likely saw our team on the news following last week’s Amazon Air crash in Miami.

You may also know us from our highest-profile events: 

• ​The 2020 helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter, five of their friends, and the pilot. 
• The 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment and subsequent hazardous materials release in East Palestine, Ohio. 
• The 2024 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, which took the lives of six construction workers on the bridge after being struck by a containership known as the Dali.
• Or the 2025 midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport between a U.S. Army Black Hawk and a CRJ700 operated by PSA Airlines as American Airlines flight 5342, which claimed 67 lives. 
  

Though aviation disasters get a lot of attention, I often remind anyone who’ll listen: the most dangerous part of your next flight is the drive to and from the airport. 

Right here in Tennessee, two members of the Milligan University cycling team were killed in an August 19 crash; seven others were injured — five seriously so.

As a result of the crash, two cyclists sustained fatal injuries, five cyclists sustained serious injuries, two cyclists sustained minor injuries, and one cyclist was uninjured. The pickup truck driver sustained minor injuries.

Ninety-five percent ... 95% ... of all transportation fatalities take place on our roads. 

It’s our deadliest transportation mode by far. 

In every tragedy we investigate, our goal is the same: to prevent re-occurrence and save lives. 

We share that goal. 

That’s why I get so upset when I hear some point out that fatalities have been declining. 

They ARE down. Early estimates show 36,640 people died in traffic crashes across the U.S. last year — a 7% drop from 2024. 

Deaths are down in your state as well — considerably: you saw a 10% decline between 2023 and 2024. 

Don’t get me wrong: that’s fantastic. 

Every single life saved matters. 

But we can’t declare victory when 37,000 people are dying on U.S. roads … a thousand of them in your state … when millions more people are being injured, often seriously so. 

The biggest contributor to death on our roads, claiming over 12,000 lives annually? 

Impairment. 

Unfortunately, impaired driving is nothing new. 

The NTSB has issued more than 150 safety recommendations to address impaired driving over the past five decades.  

I applaud you for making it such a prominent theme at this conference.

The fact is, alcohol impairment contributes to 28% of Tennessee’s roadway fatalities.

That translates to 332 lives lost in 2024. 

These aren’t numbers; they’re people. Mothers. Fathers. Sisters. Brothers. Husbands. Wives. Children. Colleagues. Friends. 

Gone. 

Even one is too many.

I’m sure you’ve heard about Vision Zero or Toward Zero Deaths. 

Let me ask you a question: who thinks zero deaths on our roads is possible?

What should our goal be? What’s reasonable?

How about for your family? What should the goal be for your family?

Zero? So why not for everyone else? The goal should be zero; always zero.  

* * *

January 1st, 2021. It’s 8 p.m. in Avenal, California.

A 28-year-old man is heading home from a New Year’s Day gathering in a Dodge Journey SUV. 

He turns onto southbound State Route 33: a two-lane rural highway, divided only by a centerline. The posted speed limit is 55 mph.

Even though he knows the road well and uses it every day to get to work, he accelerates. 

He’s traveling between 88 and 98 mph when he swerves off the pavement, onto the dirt-and-gravel shoulder.

He over corrects and loses control of the vehicle. 

The SUV begins to rotate, crosses the centerline, and enters the opposing lane.

Coming the other way is a Ford F-150 pickup truck carrying eight people: a 34-year-old woman and seven kids between the ages of 6 and 15. 

She has almost no time to react. 

The vehicles collide head-on; both rotate after impact. 

The F-150 bursts into flames. 

Good Samaritans who witness the crash run toward the wreckage. 

Flames quickly engulf the pickup. There’s no time to help anyone escape. 

Everyone, in both vehicles, dies in the crash: nine people total ... most of them children.  

Our investigation determined that the SUV driver was impaired by alcohol at the time of the crash; his blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was two-and-a-half times the legal limit.

Adding to the heartbreak? This was 100% preventable.

The truth is, there are technology solutions in development and available on the market now that can eliminate drunk driving once and for all ... systems that we’ve recommended for years. 

Following the devastating crash in Avenal, we called on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to require all new vehicles to be equipped with passive alcohol-impairment detection systems or advanced driver monitoring systems, or both, to prevent drunk driving. 

Congress agreed. So, in the infrastructure law, lawmakers mandated that NHTSA issue a final rule requiring advanced impaired driving technology in all new passenger vehicles. 

The deadline? November 2024. 

Meanwhile, people are dying. 

Someone is killed or injured in a drunk driving crash every 78 seconds in this country. 

Think about that: Every 78 seconds. 

That means 23 people will die in the time I’m delivering this speech. 

Which is why the Board concluded earlier this year that NHTSA’s failure to meet the deadline “continues to expose the public to dangers posed by impaired drivers.”

We can’t afford to wait any longer. 

In-vehicle alcohol detection systems that “restrict blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to less than 0.08 g/dL could prevent more than 9,000 deaths.” 

That’s from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

If we restrict drivers with any alcohol in their system, the number jumps to 12,000 lives saved in a single year.

We could, quite literally, flip a switch and save 10,000 lives. 

Some opponents are calling it a “kill switch.” 

It’s not. 

As mandated by Congress, the technology doesn’t kick in until a driver’s BAC is .08 or higher; that’s the legal limit in all but one state. 

No one has the right to drive drunk … to put the public at risk … to put you at risk. 

What we’re talking about is lifesaving technology that will keep drunk drivers off your roads. 

I’ll be the first to admit: technology is not the “end all, be all.” 

Far from it. 

But we haven’t used technology to its full, lifesaving potential.

It’s a tool in our toolkit — a vital part of a Safe System Approach.

Just like enforcement. 

I’d love it if there were enough police to sit on every road to enforce drunk driving laws all day, every day, but there’s not.

What we can’t do is sit around and accept thousands of preventable deaths, year after year after year. 

We know alcohol-impaired driving is involved in nearly one in three traffic fatalities. 

But quality, national-level data on drugged driving is harder to come by. 

That’s why the NTSB recently issued a safety research report on the issue. 

I imagine many of the findings won’t surprise you. 

Alcohol was detected in 55% to 78% of the drivers in the study, making it the most commonly detected drug by far; it’s also the most common drug detected in fatally injured drivers, at 44%.

The second most commonly detected drug? Marijuana, which was detected in over 30% of drivers arrested for impairment and 20% of those killed fatally injured drivers.

Alcohol … both alone and in combination with other drugs … continues to be the drug with the most detrimental impact on traffic safety. 

Eliminating alcohol-impaired driving must remain a high priority.

But when it comes to marijuana, one thing is painfully clear: traffic safety hasn’t kept up.

We haven’t kept up. And neither have drivers.

* * *

It’s about 12:19 p.m. on March 22, 2022, in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.

The 16-year-old driver of a Chevy Spark is heading back to school after lunch with five of her friends. 

She’s driving on State Highway 22. She approaches an intersection where she has a stop sign, but cross-traffic doesn’t. 

A tractor trailer loaded with gravel is approaching to her left.

She slows down but doesn’t come to a complete stop.

Instead, she hits the gas, attempting a left-hand turn in front of the oncoming truck.  

Desperate to avoid the collision, the truck driver jams on the breaks and steers away from the Spark.

But he’s hauling heavy gravel. He can’t stop in time.

The truck strikes the driver’s side of the Chevy Spark, killing all six teenage occupants. 

The truck driver wasn’t injured in the crash but dies a year later; his family says it was of a broken heart. 

Our investigation determined that the teen driver in the Chevy Spark was likely impaired by marijuana at the time of the crash. 

I had the opportunity to sit down with the head of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation over lunch. 

He told me about all the great work they’re doing to prevent tragedies like this from happening again. 

But that’s not what stuck with me.

What I will never forget from our conversation is the profound impact this crash has had on him — not only as a public servant whose mission is safety — but how deeply this tragedy has affected him as a person.  

I bet you can relate to that. I know I can. 

We all, as traffic safety professionals, know that marijuana is impairing. 

It decreases motor coordination, slows reaction time, and impairs judgment of time and distance — all of which are critical for driving.  

But less well known is just how impairing it can be. 

Marijuana can increase a driver’s crash risk by 30%-40%. 

That risk skyrockets when you add alcohol to the mix: A driver with alcohol and cannabis in their system is seven times more likely to cause a crash than a sober driver.  

And no one’s at a greater risk than our newest drivers. 

The fatal crash rate per mile driven is nearly three times higher for drivers between 16 and 19 years old, as compared to their older counterparts (20 and older). 

The most dangerous ages? 16 and 17.

Our investigation of the Tishomingo tragedy revealed that the impairing effects of alcohol are much better understood by drivers as compared to marijuana — and it’s not just teens.

In the most recent Traffic Safety Culture Index conducted by the AAA Foundation, 94% of drivers said drinking and driving is “very” or “extremely” dangerous — but only 70% said the same of driving within an hour of using marijuana. 

Here’s another: Liberty Mutual Insurance partnered with Students Against Destructive Decisions to survey perceptions of teen drivers and their parents. 

In states where it was legal for adult recreational use, 33% of teens and 27% of parents thought that driving under the influence of marijuana was legal.

A third of teens and over a quarter of adults thought that driving under the influence of marijuana was legal.

Clearly, there are widespread misconceptions. 

Drivers aren’t clear about what marijuana does to them, the safety risks it poses... and that they’re driving impaired if they use it before getting behind the wheel. 

The misconceptions are understandable when you think about how marijuana use has soared in the U.S. — from 25.8 million people in 2002 to 61.8 million people in 2023 — when you think about how fast the laws are changing … and how confusing they can be.  

But we can do something about it. 

We must do something about it, together. 

We issued a safety alert for parents on the risks of marijuana-impaired driving, which is on our website at ntsb.gov; I’ll make sure you get it. We’d love to work with you all to circulate it.

To get to zero, we need every strategy, every tool at our disposal.

What you are doing is part of that. 

​Thank you for your leadership, especially in the toughest of times. 

Thank you for your selfless service. 

And thank you for your commitment to those who live, work, and travel throughout Tennessee and across the United States.