The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) has joined other highway safety stakeholders in advocating federal lawmakers remove program constraints hampering efforts to implement lifesaving programs.
The GHSA’s presence at the recent Senate Subcommittee on Transportation and Safety hearing via John Saunders, director of Highway Safety Services at the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, provided an overview of the national traffic safety landscape, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation’s roadways.
The GHSA maintains federal highway grant programs are fragmented into varied smaller programs, each with separate, complex eligibility requirements while states are awarded funding for having lifesaving highway safety laws. Per the GHSA, many states have been denied grant awards because their state laws do not exactly match federal standards.
“One hundred people die on our roadways every single day,” said Russ Martin, GHSA’s senior director of Policy and Government Relations. “We can’t afford to have NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), and the State Highway Safety Offices hamstrung by complex program rules, arbitrary federal guidelines on what highway safety programs they can implement and other administrative burdens. Lives are on the line.”
Martin said lawmakers need to also invest in highway safety across all modes.
“Without broad investment in federal and state highway safety programs that address the needs of all roadway users, there is no way we will ever get close to zero fatalities on our roadways,” he said.