TRB Special Report 300 - Achieving Traffic Safety Goals in the United States Lessons from Other Nations (2010) / Chapter Skim
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4 Case Studies of Safety Interventions
4 Case Studies of Safety Interventions
Pages 93-150
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From page 93... ...
and can intervene in vehicle control in high-risk situations. The five intervention cases selected were alcohol-impaired driving prevention, speed control, seat belt laws, motorcycle helmet laws, and practices with regard to roadway hazard 93
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From page 94... ...
Seat belt laws and helmet laws are primarily state legislative issues; the laws are effective and relatively easy to enforce once enacted. Impaired driving prevention and speed control are ongoing management responsibilities of state and local law enforcement and highway agencies; the legislature is responsible for laws concerning limits, penalties, and enforcement techniques and for providing agency resources.
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From page 95... ...
For example, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) tabulates numbers of alcohol-related fatal crashes, defined as fatal crashes in which at least one driver or one involved pedestrian had a BAC exceeding 0.01 percent.
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From page 96... ...
The numbers of fatalities in 2007 determined by NHTSA to be speeding-related and alcohol-related and the number of deaths of light-vehicle occupants who were not using restraints (seat belts or safety seats) were as follows: Type of Fatality Number Speeding-related fatalities 13,040 Fatalities in crashes in which a driver had BAC ≥ 0.01 percent 15,387 Car or light-truck occupants killed who were not wearing restraints 14,390 More than one of these factors were present in some fatal crashes.
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From page 97... ...
The decline in the fraction of all fatalities determined to be alcohol-related is consistent with the pattern of enforcement effort in this period. Arrests for alcohol-impaired driving increased by 300 percent from 400,000 in 1970 to 1.6 million (1 arrest per 100 licensed drivers)
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From page 98... ...
. International Comparisons Most of the benchmark countries track alcohol-related crashes by using measures similar to those of the United States.
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From page 99... ...
. Swedish Road Administration officials interpret the recent increase in the percentage of drivers in fatal crashes who are alcohol-impaired as partly the consequence of the reduction in the total number of fatal crashes, while the frequency of impaired driving has remained constant (Breen et al.
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From page 100... ...
courts, citizen monitoring of court handling of impaired-driving cases -- Offender monitoring: monitoring of sentence completion, alcohol interlocks • Prevention: actions to reduce drinking and to prevent drinkers from driving -- Responsible beverage service (training of beverage servers) -- Alternative transportation provision -- Designated drivers -- Alcohol screening and brief intervention in general medical practice -- Underage drinking and other alcohol sales enforcement • Communications: establishment of positive social norms with regard to drinking and driving Mass-media campaigns -- School and youth education programs -- • Treatment to reduce alcohol dependency among drivers, including court assignment to treatment • General traffic safety measures that protect impaired drivers as well as others, for example, enforcement of seat belt laws Interventions in the Benchmark Countries The interventions used in the benchmark countries that are believed to have the greatest effectiveness are high-frequency roadside alcohol testing, low BAC limits, intensive follow-up on offenders through the judicial system, and the coupling of social marketing techniques with enforcement.
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From page 101... ...
NHTSA, on the basis of the scope of federal government responsibilities and capabilities, has identified four strategies for special promotion through its technical assistance and coordination activities (NHTSA 2007a) : • High-visibility enforcement, • Support for prosecutors and DWI courts, • Medical screening and brief intervention for alcohol abuse problems, and • Enactment of primary seat belt laws.
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From page 102... ...
The review concluded that lowering the limit from 0.08 to 0.05 in other countries reduced alcohol-related fatalities and that this effect cannot be accounted for solely by changes in publicity or enforcement that were introduced in some countries simultaneously with the lowering of the BAC limit. Research has found that crash risk is substantially higher for drivers with BAC of 0.05 than for drivers with 0.00 BAC and that lowering the limit to 0.05 can reduce the incidence of impaired driving at much higher BAC levels (i.e., at BAC over 0.15 percent)
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From page 103... ...
. State legislative actions on impaired driving are monitored by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
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From page 104... ...
States without such laws lose up to 3 percent of their federal highway construction aid funding. The lost construction funding is transferred to the state's federal highway safety funding and may be used only for drunk driving prevention programs or road hazard elimination.
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From page 105... ...
. NHTSA has identified four strategies that it views as crucial for reducing alcohol-related traffic deaths and that it promotes through its technical assistance and leadership activities: high-visibility enforcement, support for prosecutors and DWI courts, medical screening and brief intervention for alcohol abuse problems, and enactment of primary seat belt laws (NHTSA 2007a)
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From page 106... ...
NHTSA includes enactment of primary seat belt laws among its four crucial anti–drunk driving strategies because fatally injured drunk drivers are far less likely to have been wearing seat belts than fatally injured drivers with zero BAC. Stronger enforcement of seat belt laws would therefore be expected to reduce alcohol-related motor vehicle deaths.
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From page 107... ...
Summary observations are presented in the final section. Value of Speed Control in Reducing Crash Risks The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA)
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From page 108... ...
. Effectiveness of Speed Regulation and Enforcement The accepted view of conventional practice with regard to speed limits and speed control is that "generally, motorists do not adhere to speed limits but instead choose speeds they perceive as acceptably safe.
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From page 109... ...
since expansion of automated enforcement and the substantial systemwide safety benefits that French and Australian evaluations attribute to speed control, as well as the smaller benefits estimated in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Such a large disparity in the cost of application between the United States and the benchmark countries probably does not apply to any of the other countermeasures that are prominent in the benchmark countries' safety programs.
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From page 110... ...
. As with alcohol-impaired driving and seat belt use enforcement campaigns, the main costs are for law enforcement time and for publicity." Research support cited is from NHTSA demonstration projects, which were inconclusive on the whole.
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From page 111... ...
The speed management programs in other countries described in Chapter 3 rely on close monitoring of speeds to measure performance, to direct resources, and to communicate the effectiveness of the program to political officials and the public. Speed trends also provide a test of the GHSA report's conclusion cited above that speed is a worsening safety problem and that gains from successful safety interventions have been offset.
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From page 112... ...
The downward trend in the measure may reflect the raising of speed limits during the 1980s and 1990s. Measuring how speed affects crash risk requires exposure data (i.e., data on average speed and the speed distribution for all vehicles on the road)
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From page 113... ...
FIGURE 4-3 Speed trends on rural Interstate highways, 1965–1995.
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From page 114... ...
80 75 85th percentile speed (mph) Rural freeway 70 Rural divided highway Urban freeway Rural 2-lane 65 Urban divided highway 60 55 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 FIGURE 4-4 Speed trends on Minnesota roadways, 1995–2002.
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From page 115... ...
speed 55 60mph non-IS, 85th %ile speed 60mph non-IS, % ≥ limit 50 45 40 35 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 FIGURE 4-5 Speed trends, 2000–2010, Washington State. Key: 70 mph IS = Interstate highway with 70-mph speed limit; 60 mph non-IS = non-Interstate arterial with 60-mph speed limit.
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From page 116... ...
, per vehicle mile of highway travel and as a share of total noncapital highway spending, according to the FHWA national highway finance summaries. [FHWA defines this spending category as follows: "Highway law enforcement and safety expenditures are: traffic supervision activities of State highway patrols; highway safety programs including driver education and training, motorcycle safety; vehicle inspection programs; and enforcement of vehicle size and weight limitations.
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From page 117... ...
Percent of trafic fatalities that are speeding-related by state, 2008 60 50 40 percent 30 20 10 0 TX TN IN ID IL CT MT VT UT AZ MI IA RI HI NJ AR OH ND NH MN OR SD MD NC DC SC FL AL CO MO NM MS NE KY GA MA KS LA NV OK ME DE VA CA NY PA AK WI WV WA WY FIGURE 4-7 Percentage of fatalities that are speeding related, by state, 2008.
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From page 118... ...
Highway law enforcement and safety expenditures, U.S. total, as percentage of total noncapital expenditures, 1980–2008; (bottom)
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From page 119... ...
. • Most states were not able to isolate federal highway safety grant funds received that were allocated specifically to speed control.
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From page 120... ...
Speed Control Programs The first subsection below describes the federal government's involvement in speed control through the NMSL of 1974–1995. The second presents examples of present state and local speed management programs.
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From page 121... ...
• State and local police increased speed enforcement on selected segments of the roads with increased speed limits and on selected segments of the state's network of 1,870 miles of freeways and divided highways with limits of 65 or 70 mph. Stepped-up enforcement was organized in a series of 6- to 8-week waves, with periods of normal enforcement intervening.
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From page 122... ...
. Phoenix "Heed the Speed" Program A pilot study was initiated in Phoenix and Peoria, Arizona, in 2002 to test and demonstrate methods of speed control in urban residential streets as a means of reducing crash risks and especially pedestrian injuries.
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From page 123... ...
. Concluding Observations There are grounds for concern that speed management has been underemphasized in federal and state safety programs in comparison, for example, with the prominent and generally effective efforts devoted to drunk driving, seat belts, and vehicle crashworthiness and occupant protection.
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From page 124... ...
SEAT BELTS Regulations requiring vehicles to be equipped with seat belts and requiring occupants to use belts have been among the most beneficial safety interventions of the past three decades in the United States and all the benchmark nations. The sections below describe the effectiveness of seat belts in reducing traffic fatalities and of government actions promoting belt use, describe trends in use and in interventions in the United States, and compare U.S.
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From page 125... ...
Seat belt use rates vary greatly among the states. Rates for front seat occupants in 2008 were 95 percent or higher in five states (California, Hawaii, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington)
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From page 126... ...
. Trends in Seat Belt Use and Belt Laws By 2009, belt use had reached 84 percent for passenger vehicle front seat occupants in the United States, an increase of 16 percentage points since 1999.
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From page 127... ...
2009, 2-1; NHTSA 2009c, Table 22; NHTSA 2009b.) 40 35 30 number of states 25 20 15 10 5 0 1984-89 1990-94 1995-99 2000-04 2005-09 States enacting initial belt law in period States enacting primary law in period FIGURE 4-10 Enactment of state seat belt laws, United States, 1984–2009.
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From page 128... ...
Use of seat belts by rear seat occupants of passenger vehicles was required by law as of 2006 in all OECD countries except Japan, Korea, Georgia, Mexico, and the United States (OECD and International Transport Forum 2006, 25)
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From page 129... ...
2007, 55; DfT 2007; NHTSA 2008b; NHTSA 2009f. France approached belt use laws more gradually: a front seat occupant seat belt law was enacted in 1973, applicable only on rural roads and in vehicles first registered in 1970 or later.
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From page 130... ...
Some of the benchmark countries are giving increased attention to increasing belt use by rear seat occupants and commercial vehicle occupants. Summary Observations The cases of seat belts and of motorcycle helmets (discussed in the next section)
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From page 131... ...
A 1991 General Accounting Office review summarized nine studies that reported compliance rates of 92 to 100 percent with universal helmet laws (i.e., laws requiring all motorcycle occupants to wear a helmet) , helmet use rates of 42 to 59 percent in states with no law or a law with limited applicability, and low compliance with state laws requiring use by minors only (GAO 1991, 4)
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From page 132... ...
Helmet use among fatally injured motorcycle occupants has remained constant in the past decade (Shankar and Varghese 2006)
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From page 133... ...
In 1992, Congress reinstated milder penalties for states without universal helmet laws (part of the federal-aid highway funds for states without helmet laws were to be transferred to the states' highway safety programs) and provided incentive grants rewarding states that enacted and enforced both helmet laws and safety belt laws.
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From page 134... ...
134 Special Report 300: Achieving Traffic Safety Goals in the United States: Lessons from Other Nations Annual motorcycle occupant fatalities, 1995-2009 6,000 5,000 4,000 fatalities 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 year Motorcycle occupant fatality rates, 1995-2008 80 70 60 50 fatality rate 40 30 20 10 0 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 year per 100,000 vehicles per 100 million VMT FIGURE 4-13 Annual motorcycle occupant fatalities, 1995–2009 (top) and motorcycle occupant fatality rates, United States, 1995–2008 (bottom)
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From page 135... ...
The 1995 National Highway System Designation Act eliminated the federal penalty for states without helmet laws as well as the NMSL. Both provisions were part of a package of program reforms aimed at reducing federal control over state highway programs.
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From page 136... ...
The NHTSA state studies do not describe the political debate that led to the changes in state laws, but NHTSA has summarized the common arguments of opponents of motorcycle helmet laws in these debates (NHTSA 1998) : • Helmet laws violate individual rights: because motorcycle riders suffer the primary consequences of crashes, they should have the right to decide whether the benefits of helmets outweigh their disadvantages.
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From page 137... ...
In contrast, in other areas of highway safety, such as speed control and hazard elimination, effective execution of programs poses great management challenges and is at least as critical for success as the legal framework. • The history of federal motorcycle helmet regulation is similar to that of the federal speed limit laws.
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From page 138... ...
, the roadside environment, and other features intended to provide an acceptable level of safety. The AASHTO Highway Safety Manual and its supporting design tools (See Box 3-7 in Chapter 3)
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From page 139... ...
FHWA has also estimated that each $100 million spent in targeted highway safety capital improvements results in 14.5 fewer fatalities per year (FHWA 1996)
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From page 140... ...
Example of a State Highway Network Screening Program The following outline of Oregon's Highway Safety Program (ODOT 2007) is presented to illustrate the procedures in a representative state program to identify and correct high-hazard locations.
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From page 141... ...
Within the program, the law sets aside $220 million annually for rail–highway grade crossing projects and $90 million annually for improvements on high-risk rural roads. A new provision requires each state to coordinate its hazard elimination program with the state's federally required Strategic Highway Safety Plan.
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From page 142... ...
. Practices in the Benchmark Countries The four benchmark country safety programs described in Chapter 4, and probably the programs of all the high-income countries, include a traditional hazard elimination component.
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From page 143... ...
In Europe, the RAP maps attract considerable public attention, which exerts pressure on road agencies to act on the high-crash locations. RAP is a potentially significant experiment in highway safety action.
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From page 144... ...
The parties that may be involved include several offices within the highway agency (which administers the federal HSIP funds) , the state agency responsible for administering NHTSA highway safety grants (which may fund enforcement, data systems, public information programs, or EMS improvements)
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From page 145... ...
Has the new federal structure enhanced the performance of the state programs? REFERENCES Abbreviations ABATE Alliance of Bikers Aimed Toward Education ACEM Association des Constructeurs Européens des Motocycles DfT Department for Transport ECMT European Council of Ministers of Transport ERSO European Road Safety Observatory ETSC European Transport Safety Council FHWA Federal Highway Administration GAO General Accounting Office GHSA Governors Highway Safety Association IIHS Insurance Institute for Highway Safety MADD Mothers Against Drunk Driving NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NTSB National Transportation Safety Board ODOT Oregon Department of Transportation OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ONISR Observatoire National Interministériel de Sécurité Routière TRB Transportation Research Board USDOT U.S.
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From page 146... ...
1991. Highway Safety: Motorcycle Helmet Laws Save Lives and Reduce Costs to Society.
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From page 147... ...
2007. Countermeasures That Work: A Highway Safety Countermeasures Guide for State Highway Safety Offices.
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From page 148... ...
2008. New York State Highway Safety Strategic Plan: FFY 2009.
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From page 149... ...
2007. Highway Safety Program Guide.
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From page 150... ...
1998. Special Report 254: Managing Speed: Review of Current Practice for Setting and Enforcing Speed Limits.
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