Road to Zero Annual Meeting Remarks

Thanks very much, Lorraine. Among the privileges of my role at NHTSA is the opportunity to interface with NSC and other safety advocates. I am honored to be speaking with you. We had a positive meeting with Lorraine and members of the NSC team a few weeks ago. It was a real pleasure to meet them all and hear their perspectives. We appreciate NHTSA’s long partnership with the National Safety Council.

And to everyone here, I want to say that we greatly appreciate your dedication and commitment to road and vehicle safety. I know that some of you have lost loved ones in crashes. Our hearts go out to you, and we salute and thank you for sharing your stories in the hope that others will learn and not have to experience the tragedy, loss and grief that you have. Thank you.

Since its founding in 2016, the Road to Zero Coalition featuring USDOT, NHTSA, FHWA, FMCSA and the National Safety Council has been a vital partnership. NHTSA remains committed to the goal of reaching zero traffic deaths by 2050 and partnering with you on that challenging endeavor during the next 25 years.

We are strongly aligned with the RTZ’s framework, laid out nearly 10 years ago: Focus efforts on what works, accelerate technology, and prioritize safety. We believe in these pillars, and they continue to shape NHTSA’s thinking.

NHTSA wants to partner with you to solve the biggest safety challenges on our roads, including risky driving behaviors like speeding, impairment, distraction, and lack of seat belt use. Allies like all of you in this room and online are critical to helping us address these behaviors and moving toward broader adoption of solutions that save lives.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Deputy Secretary Steve Bradbury fully support NHTSA’s road safety mission. As recently as last week, Secretary Duffy affirmed his unwavering commitment to NHTSA’s mission of significantly reducing the number of roadway crashes, fatalities and serious injuries.

That commitment is embodied in the President’s and Secretary's safety priorities. These include an AV regulatory framework, and less than two weeks ago, Secretary Duffy announced this framework. The new framework will help maintain safety standards while unleashing American ingenuity and preventing a harmful patchwork of state laws and regulations. Spurring transportation innovation will significantly improve road safety, because current and emerging automated technologies promise to significantly reduce crashes.

The Secretary has also stated his concern about Americans being able to afford newer, safer vehicles. Lowering car prices will mean more people in new cars sooner, and that is a major pro-safety measure that will save lives. We expect our ongoing review of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards will lead to newer, safer vehicles being within reach for more hardworking American families.  

NHTSA also remains focused on ensuring that the vehicles on our roads meet exacting safety standards. To accomplish this, we are strengthening the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) that helps educate vehicle buyers about vehicle safety features. NCAP has a demonstrated history of accelerating the adoption of advanced safety technologies in the U.S. automotive fleet. NHTSA also is continuing to ensure that manufacturers of motor vehicles and equipment deploy safe products, through our data-driven, risk-based investigative and enforcement processes.

I know that many of you are focused on behavioral safety, and I want to discuss our efforts in this area. While we’re only three months into the new administration, we are looking comprehensively at behavioral safety countermeasures and trying to identify those that have the greatest potential and where we can make the most positive impact using our federal platform.

We want and welcome the input of the people and organizations with us today as we undertake that evaluation.

I want to highlight six areas that have stood out to us.

First, we are committed to reinvigorating NHTSA’s partnership with law enforcement. A huge part of putting safety first means working more closely with law enforcement to save lives. There has been reduced traffic enforcement in recent years. We know that having officers on our roads is a significant deterrent to the risky driving behaviors that cause many fatalities. So, we intend to reengage with law enforcement.

National Police Week is next week, when we will honor and remember those who have tragically lost their lives in protecting and serving us. We owe unceasing gratitude and respect to our law enforcement partners. Thank you for all you do, every hour of every day, truly 24/7/365.

And we are going to spend significant time this year speaking to law enforcement about how we can support and enhance their efforts. In consulting with NHTSA’s in-house specialists and with external experts, I have been told repeatedly that the most effective deterrent to risky driving is high-visibility police enforcement. We are committed to encouraging and supporting this vital activity, and to ensuring law enforcement personnel are safe when conducting it.

Second, to support high-visibility enforcement activities, NHTSA expects to continue to conduct media campaigns. Studies show that these campaigns are effective, especially when coupled with targeted law enforcement actions. We will be partnering with states on HVE campaigns for impaired and unbelted driving, as well as continued work on speed and other priorities.

I encourage you to join us in each and every campaign. You can find more at TrafficSafetyMarketing.gov.

Our next high-visibility campaign, Click It or Ticket, begins May 19, and we hope you will join us in reminding everyone to buckle up and supporting our law enforcement partners who will be focused on deterring unbelted driving.

Third, we want to bring renewed energy to deterring and reducing excessive speeding. As mentioned, we think increased traffic enforcement, including roadside visibility, is critical. We’re also examining approaches to automated enforcement that are carefully designed to target driving behaviors that are widely accepted as unsafe – for example speeding in school zones, work zones and pedestrian safety zones.  

We want to encourage states and municipalities to avoid the issues that have led in many instances to criticisms of automated enforcement. We met recently with traffic safety officials from Connecticut, who described their thoughtful and well-considered approach. There, the public is notified in advance of upcoming automated enforcement activity, with pre-enforcement awareness campaigns and posted warning signs in enforcement zones.

When automated enforcement begins, first-time offenders are given a warning and only repeat offenses are ticketed. And funds collected are not used for municipal coffers – they go to traffic safety and other transportation programs.

We’re also exploring whether the current use of NHTSA’s grants for automated enforcement can be expanded in the re-authorization to include pedestrian safety zones and high crash corridors. Additionally, we are starting to see judges require the use of intelligent speed limiters on those convicted of excessive speeding. We encourage this use of judicial discretion where it exists.

Fourth, we continue to seek to make headway in the fight against impaired driving. We are committed to continuing to partner with MADD, SAFE and other organizations who devote their incredible energies to this cause. We support efforts to educate prosecutors and judges on the importance of bringing cases against DUI offenders in order to get a conviction on record. We are also exploring ways to advocate for expanded use of ignition interlock devices, including for longer use-periods. We also know cannabis and other drug impaired driving are major issues, so we’re considering increasing Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) and Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) training. And we expect to continue funding research into technologies for roadside drug testing.

Fifth, we are exploring ways to leverage NHTSA’s data, statistics and technology resources so that they provide increased value and utility to our safety partners. While NHTSA currently provides substantial data and search tools, we’re looking to make crash data easier to work with through a new tool that is under development. Our hope is that via this tool we will be able to provide recommended best practice countermeasures for specific areas and problems.

Sixth, NHTSA continues to explore and support how to make prehospital blood transfusion available to crash victims. We know how critical post-crash care is to survival. Research shows that prehospital blood transfusion decreases mortality among trauma patients with severe bleeding by 37%. So we’re partnering with the Department of Defense to invest $30 million in establishing prehospital blood transfusion demonstration programs throughout the country. This partnership will launch the largest federally sponsored prehospital blood transfusion project ever undertaken, with an aim to create at least 25 new prehospital blood transfusion programs throughout the country in the next three years. In coming months, we look forward to sharing more about these initiatives and areas of focused effort.

This event isn’t structured to have Q&A, so I thought I might address some questions that may be on your minds.

How is NHTSA's safety work going to be impacted by the reductions in force across the federal government, and at DOT and NHTSA in particular?

Through retirements and resignations, NHTSA is losing many team members, including many long-tenured people who have made invaluable contributions over the past decades to saving lives and making our vehicles and roads far safer. We thank all our departing team members for making a difference and for improving safety. As we transition, I am partnering with our senior career team to ensure that all our safety-critical and mission-critical actions and activities will continue and have the support they need.  

The Secretary is fully committed to not compromising any of these functions, and we are confident that we will have the staffing and support we need. In some situations, this will entail teams being consolidated and/or team members moving to new roles. We are fortunate to be retaining a very strong cohort of agile subject matter experts who are committed to continuing NHTSA’s public service mission, and who have the talent and ability to propel us forward. And we are especially appreciative of all these team members during what is a stressful time for everyone at the agency. And we look forward to working together with all of you as we continue to fulfill our safety mission.

You discussed law enforcement – how will you rebuild trust with that vital community?

It’s unfortunate that in recent years DOT and NHTSA leadership were seen as pulling back from law enforcement. We know we have work to do. In the near term, we intend to spend a lot of time showing up at law enforcement conferences and events and speaking publicly about our support. Secretary Duffy will be active at events during Police Week and we’re moving forward with several programs that we believe will signal our strong support and respect for the men and women who enforce our traffic laws. These programs will recognize enforcement heroes and support roadside safety of enforcement personnel during traffic stops. These, too, are preventable deaths and injuries.

In the longer term, we will be building and maintaining enduring relationships with leading law enforcement organizations that enable us to leverage our federal platform to support and where possible influence their efforts to implement successful behavioral countermeasures.

What is the situation with grants going to be? On grants, the Secretary has made clear that the Department will focus grant monies on their central purposes, whether it’s building roads or enhancing traffic safety. On formula grants, these are of course directed by Congress, and we will be working closely with the Committees on next year’s re-authorization bill. Secretary Duffy has ordered the Department to review discretionary grants, ensuring their focus on real infrastructure and safety. We expect our approach will ultimately allow recipients to move faster and get more done, and this Secretary wants to see progress across these programs.

What can this community do to support NHTSA in accomplishing its safety mission? It’s encouraging to see that traffic fatalities are continuing to fall from their COVID pandemic highs. However, total fatalities remain significantly higher than a decade ago, and America’s traffic fatality rate remains high relative to many peer nations. We have a lot of work to do, and we need your help.

We want to use our platform in partnership with all of you to accomplish as much as possible to reduce fatalities and injuries, and we are steadfast in that commitment. As noted, we have had initial meetings with Lorraine and the NSC, with MADD and SAFE, and with the GHSA. We appreciate all these groups and others reaching out to begin a dialog about collaborating in the years to come. Hopefully our Administrator will be with us soon, and I encourage you to come share your input with him.

The Road to Zero is an incredibly challenging goal and journey, and making measurable progress toward it will require all our collaborative efforts. We at NHTSA look forward to partnering with you in the weeks, months and years ahead.

Thank you.