Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety has released its 2014 Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws. This annual report grades all 50 states and the District of Columbia on 15 basic traffic safety laws. It also focuses on progress over the past 25 years and gaps that it says put drivers and children at risk.
“We release this report at a critical time as the nation's motor vehicle fatalities climbed for the first time in 2012 after six consecutive years of decline,” said Jackie Gillan, Advocates' president. “The Roadmap Report provides practical and proven solutions to reduce the highway death and injury toll.”
The report evaluated what it characterized as 15 optimal laws and gave states ratings of Green (Good); Yellow (Caution); and Red (Danger).
New in this year's report was the inclusion of a primary enforcement seat belt law covering passengers in the rear seating positions. A state without a primary enforcement law covering all passengers was ineligible for a Green rating.
New state laws enacted in 2013 (and the Advocates' view on what still is needed) follow:
- Primary Enforcement of Seat Belts: WV (front) and HI (rear); (17 states still need front seat; 33 states need rear seat);
- All-Rider Motorcycle Helmet Law: None adopted or repealed; (31 states still need);
- Booster Seats (ages 4 through 7): None adopted; (19 states still need);
- Graduated Driver Licensing for teen drivers: HI, MD, UT (cell phone restriction) and TX (supervised driving requirement); (No state met all the criteria/174 laws still needed);
- Impaired Driving: ME, TN (ignition interlock devices for all offenders); (39 states and DC are missing laws/46 laws still needed);
- All-Driver Text Messaging Restriction: HI, VA; (13 states still need).
The states with the best ratings were:
- District of Colombia;
- Illinois;
- Oregon;
- Delaware;
- Hawaii;
- Indiana;
- Maine;
- Rhode Island;
- Washington;
- California; and
- Louisiana.
Those with the worst ratings were:
- South Dakota;
- Mississippi;
- Arizona;
- Iowa;
- Montana;
- Nebraska;
- Alabama;
- Florida;
- New Hampshire;
- North Dakota; and
- Wyoming.
Learn more: http://www.saferoads.org/.
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].