(Washington, D.C.) — A national highway safety group says stronger traffic safety laws will save lives.
The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety group released its tenth annual report card, grading states’ road safety laws. The president of the group says while there has been some progress, not a single state has yet to adopt all 15 of the recommended traffic safety laws.
“We cannot continue to allow common sense and life-saving safety laws to languish in state legislatures when the death and injury toll continues to grow,” says Jaqueline Gillan, president of the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “Right now, we’re all very focused on the flu epidemic and the flu epidemic is affecting more than half the states right now. But highway crash epidemic effects every single state, every single year, year after year. And we have the proven vaccines to address this public health epidemic.”
Some of the recommendations include a primary enforcement seat belt law, which 18 states still do not have. The report also lists six states as having a dangerous lack of basic safety laws. 14 states and Washington, D.C. were given high marks — as showing “significant advancement” toward adopting all the recommended laws.