By Member Bella Dinh-Zarr, PhD, MPH
Today is the first day of the United Nation’s Global Road Safety Week. The week was started as part of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020, and now builds momentum to achieve the worldwide UN Sustainable Development Goal of reducing by half the number of deaths and injuries on the roads by 2020. This year, the theme is #SlowDown, and the safety focus is on speed management.
At the NTSB, we investigate some of the worst motor vehicle crashes each year, and speed has been a factor in many of our investigations. We recognize that speed often contributes to the severity of a crash, and we are addressing this safety issue through our recommendations to improve work zone safety, to require and improve collision avoidance systems, to develop V2V technologies and require installation in all vehicles, and to improve speed-limiting technology for heavy vehicles. In fact, to highlight the importance of speed on safety, the four Board Members of our independent agency approved a special study on speeding, which we anticipate releasing later this year.
Our federal colleagues at the CDC Injury Center remind us that speeding is a major risk factor for crash deaths, and that almost 1 in 3 deaths on our roads involve speeding. NHTSA data show that speeding-related deaths increased by 3% from 9,283 in 2014 to 9,557 in 2015; speed is clearly a continuing safety issue.
We probably all need to #SlowDown a little in our hectic lives, both on and off the road. Perhaps like many of you, I race around every day juggling work and family life, and I rarely stop to enjoy things as much as I should. When I was younger, unlike the wise FCCLA youth whom I met recently, I probably raced around a little too much on the roads in Texas. One of my older brothers was my willing partner then, but now, we both know that our speeding could have had devastating consequences. That brother grew up to be a surgeon who spends many hours working in emergency departments and operating rooms, so, like me, he also sees the tragic consequences of speeding. Meeting the smart and capable youth from the FCCLA, some of whom have conducted Teen Road Safety Assessments (#TeenRSA) around their schools, reminded me that we all need to remember to lower our speeds, especially around schools, to protect the most vulnerable and promising members of our society. Lower speeds really can save lives. A child hit by a car going 50 mph almost certainly will die, but perhaps a child hit by a car at 20 mph can survive. At slower speeds, a car could avoid hitting a person (or another car) altogether. Let’s #SlowDown this week, and every week, for our children and our communities.
NTSB Safety Compass Blog 