Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety calls for stronger road safety laws (Repairer Driven News)

The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) is urging leaders at all levels of government to use available solutions to save lives, as 112 people are killed on U.S. roads every day.

In 2023, the most recent year with finalized statistics, 40,901 people were killed in crashes, and an additional 2.44 million were injured, according to Advocates’ “2026 Roadmap to Safety” report.

Preliminary numbers for 2024 remain historically high, with speeding, red light running, impaired driving, distractions, and not buckling up as contributing factors.

“The Roadmap to Safety is a call to action for our elected officials to address the ongoing crisis of motor vehicle crashes,” said Cathy Chase, Advocates president, in an Advocates press release. “It serves as a guide and a challenge to enact proven safety measures throughout the nation. With traffic fatalities 26% higher than their historic low point in 2011, and injuries 10% higher, state lawmakers and Congress must prioritize improving the safety of road users as they begin to shape their agendas for 2026 legislative sessions. It is go-time for safer roads.”

The report rates every state and Washington, D.C., in six categories: occupant protection, child passenger safety, young drivers, impaired driving, distracted driving, and automated enforcement to curb speed and red light running. An overall grade of “green,” “yellow” and “red” is also given to reflect each state’s progress, or lack thereof, toward achieving the optimal laws and provisions.

No state meets all the criteria for improvement that are recommended in the report.

Maryland, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington State and Washington, D.C. received the highest rating of green. Nine states are rated red for lagging dangerously behind in the adoption of Advocates’ recommended laws (Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming). The remaining 36 states are rated yellow, cautioning that improvement is needed.

The report notes that no state has enacted all 18 of Advocates’ optimal countermeasures. Based on Advocates’ safety recommendations, states across the nation need to adopt 534 countermeasures.

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