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January 29, 2007

HIGHWAY SAFETY LAWS LAGGING, STUDY SAYS

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety has rated the states and D.C. for progress in adopting “15 proven-effective laws to significantly reduce death and injury on the nation's roads” and found all of them lagging in one way or another. The group’s study found that “no state has adopted all 15 traffic safety measures, which cover five major areas of safety behavior: seat belt use, motorcycle helmet use, child booster seat use, teen driving, and impaired driving. An analysis of the extent to which the 50 states and D.C. adopted these 15 laws found nearly 300 gaps nationwide at the start of 2006, yet only 22 of these state traffic safety loopholes were closed by the end of the year.”

The "2007 Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws" report divided the 15 model laws into four issue categories: Occupant Protection (2 laws) - A primary enforcement seat belt law and an all-rider motorcycle helmet law; Child Passenger Safety (1 law) - A child booster seat law from ages 4 to 8; Optimal Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) Program (5 laws) - A six-month "holding period" during the learner's permit phase, restricted cell phone use and other conditions, and Impaired Driving (7 laws) - Repeat offender penalties, open container ban, and other provisions.

Posted by MVHAP at January 29, 2007 03:59 PM