A Traffic Safety History Lesson

For those of us working in the field of traffic safety, features on vehicles like safety belts, anti-lock brakes, air bags and traction control systems have become so second nature that we don't even think about it.

Yet as recently as 1965, Attorney Ralph Nader wrote a book titled "Unsafe At Any Speed" which gave detailed information about the reluctance of auto manufacturers to spend money on mechanisms that would enhance safety. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed . This groundbreaking book gave rise to a new awareness about the important of consumer protection and advocacy in the automobile industry.

In 1966, Congress passed the Highway Safety Act. This created a highway safety office in each state that was charged with reducing deaths,  injuries and property damage caused by crashes.  In addition, this act estabished nationally what we know today as our Emergency Medical Services (EMS) System. In 1967, the Department of Transportation was formed under then-President Lyndon B. Johnson. At that time, over 50,000 persons a year were dying on our roadways. At the signing of the bill, he said,

"...we have tolerated a raging epidemic of highway death … which has killed more of our youth than all other diseases combined. Through the Highway Safety Act, we are going to find out more about highway disease—and we aim to cure it.”

The MI Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP) was established in 1969 under Governor William Millikan as part of the Michigan State Police. The 1970 Highway Safety Act formed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), formerly known as the National Highway Safety Bureau.  NHTSA is charged with a variety of roles, including setting and enforcing safety standards, providing grants to state highway safety offices,  investigating safety defects in motor vehicles, setting and enforcing fuel economy standards, investigating odometer fraud, establishing and enforcing vehicle anti-theft regulations and providing consumer information on motor vehicle safety topics. NHTSA also conducts research on driver behavior and traffic safety to develop the most efficient and effective means of bringing about safety improvements.

http://www.usrecallnews.com/2008/06/history-of-the-u-s-national-highway-traffic-safety-administration-nhtsa.html

So there you have it- a short lesson in why we are where we are today. Keeping our highway safe is an important job because of the human toll. It took our country many years to come to that conclusion, but we seem to be doing a pretty good job.

Perhaps Sgt. Joe Friday says it best: