National Sheriffs’ Association Winter Conference

AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY

Thank you, Sheriff Cole (TSC Chair Brad Cole of Christian County, Missouri). Thanks for having me today. It’s an honor to be with you. 

I want to start by recognizing you, TSC Vice Chair Sheriff James Quattrone, of Chautauqua County, New York, and all the committee members for the work you do. Your sacrifice and dedication help NHTSA save lives and prevent injuries on our nation’s roads. 

I also want to congratulate Jonathan Thompson (former NSA Executive Director) on his retirement. Thank you, Jonathan, for more than ten years of service to this critical organization.   

I also want to offer my best wishes to Sheriff Justin Smith, who took the reins from Jonathan as new NSA Executive Director, after retiring from 32 years of service with the Larimer County, Colorado Sheriffs’ office—including 12 years as Sheriff. Very impressive.  I look forward to our positive collaboration in the years ahead.   

Lastly, I want to say thank you, NSA, for your endorsement of my nomination for NHTSA Administrator.

Watching that remembrance for your fallen colleagues was incredibly humbling. One of the toughest, and most important, parts of my job is that I’m notified anytime a law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty on our roadways. I write a condolence letter to their agency, and now also their family, and we place a memorial to them in our headquarters building.  The risks you take to keep our roads and communities safe is not forgotten at NHTSA.   

President Trump, Transportation Secretary Duffy, all my colleagues at NHTSA, and I thank you for your courage and the lifesaving work you and your offices do putting your lives on the line each day to improve safety on our roadways. Secretary Duffy sent a video message to your June Conference, and he sends his best wishes today. 

At NHTSA, our mission is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce the economic costs of vehicle crashes.  We know we cannot come close to accomplishing our mission without traffic enforcement, especially traffic enforcement that targets impaired and distracted driving, speeding, and seat belt use. And we depend on you and the nation’s great sheriffs’ offices to help us in that endeavor.  

NHTSA recently released early estimates of fatalities in the first nine months of 2025. We estimate a continued year-over-year decrease in fatalities and in the fatality rate. Our statistical projection shows an estimated 27,365 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes, in the first nine months last year, a decrease of 6.4% compared to the 29,245 fatalities projected over the same time in 2024. 

While recent fatality numbers overall have decreased, we’re still well above where we were a decade ago. And we know that the vast majority of annual traffic fatalities involve poor driver choices.  

Approximately 50% of vehicle occupant fatalities involve people who choose not to wear a seat belt; approximately one-third of fatalities involves people who choose to use drugs or have an extra drink or two—increasingly both—and pick up the keys to drive while impaired; another third involves people who choose to drive above the speed limit—decreasing reaction times and dramatically increasing crash forces; and far too many fatalities—the data are not very reliable—choose to drive while distracted. 

So, we’re pursuing a significant Behavioral Safety initiative to save more lives. We’re working hard to convince drivers to do the right thing, leveraging technologies, and spurring “encouragement” from you and the rest of our legal system. 

The central pillar of our Behavioral Safety Plan is reengaging with law enforcement in a focused and concerted way. We know that previous leaders pulled back NHTSA's support for law enforcement, cancelling substantive programs and grant opportunities, and we’re making crystal clear that we fundamentally reject that approach. We’re sending a message that we support the men and women of law enforcement, and we fully endorse your getting back to vigorous traffic enforcement. 

We’ve been working with Secretary Duffy on National Police Week activities, speaking at and meeting with organizations like this one, restoring and upgrading grants and partnerships, and creating a new public service award to recognize exemplary traffic enforcement service.   

We’re also supporting greater use of our high-visibility enforcement campaigns, in partnership with local law enforcement, because enforcement coupled with education—like Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over and Click It or Ticket—works. Last year, our three main media buys led to an estimated four billion impressions and $11 million in added value. We’re also increasing training for state and local prosecutors and judges—to ensure that the unsafe drivers you pull over face consequences for their actions—and expanding public recognition of heroic traffic enforcement officers. 

Today, I would like to announce that NHTSA is again fully supportive of the Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety, or D-DACTS, initiative to help law enforcement put resources where they’re most needed and when they’re most needed. We know that crime and traffic violations take place together, and using data to identify those needs just makes logical sense. We’re looking at new ways to support the program, so watch this space for more. 

NHTSA also continues to partner with our friends at the Department of Justice COPS Office. We have a number of virtual trainings on the COPS Office training portal, including an ARIDE Refresher, Police and People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Testifying in Court as a Drug Recognition Expert, Vehicular Pursuit Management, and coming soon, a course on combatting Human Trafficking.   

Rural America is a particular focus for NHTSA, because rural populations are overrepresented in traffic fatalities. NHTSA recognizes that sheriffs’ offices are often the primary provider of police and other emergency services in those areas. We depend on sheriffs to provide traffic enforcement in those communities, and when a crash does occur, to provide lifesaving assistance to crash victims until EMS help arrives. To that end, we encourage sheriff's offices to apply for funding under the new Improving Police Critical Aid for Responding to Emergencies Act. The CARE Act establishes national standards for police trauma kits and authorizes funding for their purchase through Byrne-JAG funds.   

Our Behavioral Safety Plan is also targeting risky driving behaviors – the top contributors to many traffic fatalities. If we can get people to drive sober, wear their seat belts, slow down, and focus on the road, we can save countless lives. Our plan sets ambitious goals because we need to aim high – the status quo simply isn’t enough.

When it comes to saving lives, we know taking impaired drives off the road is essential. One area we’re emphasizing is ignition interlock devices. We should use them on a driver’s first offense and ensure compliance before removing them.     

To better understand the extent of the impaired driving problem and to identify ways to reduce recidivism, we need to fill gaps in data. NHTSA will shortly release a report and guide promoting the adoption of state data systems that link an impaired driving arrest through adjudication. If we want to stop repeat offenders, we need to better track them from the moment they are arrested through adjudication, including treatment-based sentencing. We hear far too frequently about somebody being arrested and/or convicted of several DUIs without losing their license or requiring an interlock, and then killing people in a crash.  We think these systems can go a long way toward identifying and addressing repeat offenders.   

As more states decriminalize recreational marijuana use, we also know it’s crucial to remove drug-impaired drivers from our roadways. To that end, NHTSA is committed to not just supporting but expanding the Drug Recognition Expert Program. To support these efforts, we recognize the importance of agency collaboration to ensure the training is offered to every law enforcement agency. We appreciate the great job NSA did a few years ago to coordinate Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement and DRE training for deputies across the nation. And we know that not every deputy wants to become a DRE. Efforts are again being made to increase the number of ARIDE courses being offered to support state DRE programs. We encourage you to reach out to your State Highway Safety Office and DRE State Coordinator to find course offerings.   

Recently, NHTSA has been evaluating the use of oral fluid devices on the roadside for testing drivers for marijuana usage. A report will be released soon that will help states establish their own program to detect and apprehend drug-impaired drivers. 

As mentioned, about half of vehicle occupant fatalities involve people who choose not to wear a seat belt. More unbelted fatalities occur at night, and evening enforcement of seat belt laws can save lives. NHTSA has resources available to help with night-time enforcement, and you should talk with your SHSO and LEL about funding to support these efforts.   

It’s important to ensure not only belt use but also that all passengers are using the best seat. Booster seats are the most commonly skipped stage of child passenger safety, but they are critical to ensure a child correctly fits with a seat belt. 

A fourth area of focus is reducing excessive speed by promoting wider use of data to target areas of speeding for enforcement and supporting tougher speeding laws. As with impaired drivers, we support use of IID-type devices to limit excessive speeders from re-offending. We’re also looking at telematics devices and information and data they may provide to identify areas of unsafe driving, including speed.

Another area that we’re excited about is evolving the way emergency medical services provide care. Between 2019 and 2023, 43% of vehicle crash fatalities in the U.S. were alive when emergency services arrived on the scene, which means there’s a lot of room to increase survivability. One of the most promising innovations in post-crash care is prehospital blood transfusion, which research shows decreases mortality among trauma patients with severe bleeding by 37%. Our behavioral safety group is looking at research and demonstration projects to explore and support how to make prehospital blood transfusion available to crash victims. 

I am very pleased to let you know that Sheriff Chris Swanson of Genesee County, Michigan, is spearheading a cooperative effort with the American Red Cross and Genesee’s Hurley Medical Center to equip paramedics in his office with pre-hospital whole blood transfusion capabilities. Additionally, the Department’s new Safe Streets for All grants packages included $50 million for 25 prehospital blood transfusion programs in 15 states.   

This comes on top of $30 million in grants earlier this year for 25 transfusion demonstration projects under a NHTSA partnership with the U.S. Department of War. Both steps mark major expansions of transfusion programs under the Trump Administration which sees more aggressive post-crash care as central to bringing down elevated levels of traffic fatalities.

This year, we’ll direct approximately $1 billion in highway safety grants to the states to fund a range of activities ranging from law enforcement to toxicology labs to state messaging campaigns. We just launched a modernized electronic grants management system to greatly improve efficiency. 

We’re also using AI to help states better target risk areas by identifying countermeasures that have proven successful in other jurisdictions, and expanding our education campaigns’ reach through new partnerships. 

I want to note that too often, we, the citizens that you protect and serve, take for granted the dangers that you face each and every day in your profession. Although I am happy to report that according to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, law enforcement line-of-duty deaths were down 25% in 2025 from 2024, with traffic-related fatalities down 23%, this – like all fatalities – is still too many. 

NHTSA cares about you and your safety. We are proud to collaborate with the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund and Below100 to develop and provide training to keep officers safe on our roadways, and encourage all officers to take this training.  We are also committed to helping to raise awareness of “Move Over” laws. Moving over is not only the right thing to do; it’s the law nationwide. We offer a host of free resources available to download from trafficsafetymarketing.gov to help state and local governments and agencies educate drivers about moving over to protect you. 

Before I conclude, I’m hoping this committee and the nation’s sheriffs can help NHTSA with a serious vehicle safety issue, as you are so often our eyes and ears in the field. NHTSA has issued two advisories and opened an investigation into substandard airbag inflators produced by a Chinese company called DTN. These dangerous airbag inflators are likely being illegally imported into the US and put into airbag modules sold on electronic marketplaces.  Bad actors are buying salvage vehicles that had airbag deployments and installing these during reconditioning before selling them to consumers. In a crash, these inflators are rupturing, sending large metal fragments into drivers’ chests, necks, eyes and faces. We're aware of 11 crashes with rupture, resulting in 9 fatalities and 2 very serious injuries, all across the United States.

Although all known crashes have occurred in Chevrolet Malibu and Hyundai Sonata vehicles with salvage or rebuilt titles, NHTSA does not have information to confirm the risk is limited to these makes and models.   

We actually learned of several of these tragic ruptures from law enforcement directly. While we work with our partners in Federal law enforcement, I ask you remain vigilant and to be on the lookout for ruptured airbag deployments during a crash and contact us if you see something. 

Finally, let me end as I began by saying thank you for all that you do. Thank you for your service and leadership. Most importantly, thank you for the invaluable lifesaving work that the women and men that you represent do every day enforcing traffic laws nationwide. NHTSA supports you and your efforts, and we never take for granted that your profession is a dangerous one and truly a calling.

Thank you.