Safe Roads for a Safer Future Brochure

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Safe Roads for a Safer Future

pedestrian crossing sign, roads, traffic, and girl riding bicycle

Working Together to Save Lives

U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration

Safe Roads for a Safer Future - Investment in roadway safety saves lives

Publication No. FHWA-SA-07-021


We are headed in the right direction. Overall fatalities in 2006 were down 2% compared to 2005. This decline in traffic deaths contributed to the lowest fatality rate ever—1.41 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Still, there is much work to be done to ensure that this progress is maintained and accelerated.

We face many challenges in highway safety. No single agency can meet these challenges working alone; it is crucial that we collaborate to save lives. The SAFETEA-LU (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act – a Legacy for Users), signed into law in August 2005, has provided tools and resources to help generate more innovative ideas and countermeasures, but it is up to all of us to apply those tools to our objective of providing safer roads for all highway users. At FHWA, we continue working with partners to find solutions, and make them available to our customers. For us to continue to improve our programs, we seek the support of the entire highway safety community.

What Are We Doing?

The FHWA Safety Program includes the Office of Safety, the Office of Safety Research and Development, the Resource Center Safety & Design Team, and the FHWA Division Offices in each state. In addition, we work very closely with our modal partners: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Working together, we are able to maximize resources and provide comprehensive research, targeted programs, technologies, technical assistance and training to states, localities and others engaged in improving highway safety.

We are targeting 5 primary areas to help save lives:

  • Comprehensive Strategic Planning Approach (e.g. Strategic Highway Safety Plan)
  • Roadway Departure Crashes (including run-off-road and head-on crashes) 58% of all fatalities involve roadway departure;
  • Intersection Crashes—account for 21% of all fatalities;
  • Pedestrian Highway Deaths—represent 11% of all fatalities; and
  • Speeding Related Crashes—32% of all fatalities involve speeding

Strategy

Safe Roads for a Safer Future—The FHWA Safety Program's core mission is to improve the safety of roadway users. We focus on infrastructure design, and operational improvements; which must be in concert with educational and enforcement efforts in a comprehensive approach. Increasing awareness of the need for roadway safety infrastructure improvements is very important. We are striving to provide decision-makers important information, tools and resources that will improve the safety performance of roadways.

Focus on Safety Data—More than ever before, the highway safety community is using data to help us make effective decisions to develop robust programs to improve efforts to save lives. A data-driven strategic approach to improving roadway safety is key. The FHWA has developed innovative tools for decisionmakers such as the Minimum Model Inventory of Roadway Elements (MMIRE) and the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) and others. In addition, NHTSA has the National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA), which focuses strongly on high quality safety data. We encourage you to learn about these tools by visiting their websites:

Working Together to Save Lives—Engaging and working with our customers and partners to achieve life-saving goals is an ongoing effort. We are developing stronger and broader partnerships for roadway safety, and are always open for your input, concerns and innovation. The FHWA Safety Program seeks your input on a continuing basis into what we do, and we want to thank you for your ongoing support.

We pledge to help spread the word about new ways to save lives. Find out more about what we are doing at: http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov.

traffic barrels, parking lot, bicyclist, country road, pedestrian crossing sign, and pedestrians

Investments in roadway safety will help us save lives as we all work together!

Saving Lives: A Vital National Priority

It is a dismal fact that someone is killed every 12 minutes on American highways. That's approximately 120 persons killed in vehicle-related crashes per day. This is simply not acceptable. We must reduce these numbers. Safe roads for a safer future can only be achievable by working together.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) calls on the highway community to help advance "Safe Roads for a Safer Future". We can significantly reduce the annual highway death toll by continuing our focus on reducing the following fatal crash types (nationally there were 42,642 fatalities*):

  • Road Departure: 24,806
  • Pedestrians: 4,784
  • Intersection: 8,797
  • Speeding Related: 13,543

Take Action to Help

The FHWA is committed to working together with our partners to enable us all to make America's highways safer. Some things to keep in mind as you implement your own safety programs:

  • State and local transportation agencies may request assistance from FHWA in developing highway safety programs that meet their specific needs.
  • SAFETEA-LU provides tools and resources to help build effective programs.
  • Gathering and using accurate and timely data is essential to good decisions about highway safety improvements
  • Work with your partners to work towards common goals and leverage resources
  • FHWA's available resources – When searching for new safety programs, improvements, technologies, technical assistance and best practices you can find detailed information on our website at: http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/.
  • We want to learn about your innovative and effective approaches and strategies that have had a positive impact for your safety program.

The FHWA is located in every state plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico; please contact us through the following options:

* NHTSA FARS 2006 Annual Report

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