Dear Friends,
As you turn the pages of Driving Down Lane Departure Crashes—A National Priority, think of this. By the time you have finished reading this report, one more person will have died as a result of a run-off-the-road crash. Every 21 minutes a highway death occurs from lane departure.
All of us within the state Departments of Transportation have a responsibility for improving the safety of people on our roads, but some states have emerged, through top level leadership, as true champions. As shown throughout this report, they have implemented systematic, low-cost improvements that have resulted in dramatic reductions in crashes and fatalities. It is something you can do in your own state beginning right now.
A key concept here is a systematic approach. Oftentimes we act to improve a high-incident location, when there may be another identical situation elsewhere on our system. The improvements described in this report are most effective when they are applied throughout the highway system, as a means to prevent future crashes from occurring.
While this report highlights a number of remedies for keeping drivers on the road, the essential ingredient in improving our safety record is your commitment as the leader of a state department of transportation. Through AASHTO we have set an aggressive goal to reduce the nation’s current level of highway fatalities by 1,000 every year for the next two decades. That will reduce highway deaths by half, on our way to the ultimate goal of eliminating them entirely.
We have many partners in this campaign—law enforcement, emergency services, educators, and safety advocates. You can be the catalyst that, working with them, sets in motion a highway safety program that delivers more than promises, it delivers a son, a daughter, a family to their home at the end of a journey alive and well. Make that commitment today.
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