Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Thursday released a new national safety plan for U.S. roadways.
“This is a big day,” said Buttigieg during a press conference about the new plan. “I think every one of us can close our eyes right now and picture people we’ve known – friends, family members, a high school teammate, a coworker – someone whose life needlessly ended far too soon because of a crash on our roads,” he added.
For years, the U.S. has averaged around 3,000 deaths per month on roadways, according to Buttigieg. Added up over the last decade, 350,000 deaths have been reported on U.S. roadways. In recent years, things have become worse.
An estimated 38,680 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2020. In the first half of 2021, an estimated 20,160 people died, up 18.4 percent compared to the first six months of 2020, said Buttigieg in a letter introducing the new plan. Millions more are injured every year.
Buttigieg said these fatalities are a national crisis.
It is “as if we were living through a war, it is as if it were normal,” he said.
According to Buttigieg, the National Roadway Safety Strategy has at its core a department-wide adoption of the “Safe System Approach,” which focuses on five key objectives: safer people, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds, and post-crash care.
Equitable and fair policing, the impact of climate change on roadway safety, encouraging safe motorist and pedestrian behavior, making vehicle safety features available and emergency medical care are all addressed in the plan.
“We will launch new programs, coordinate and improve existing programs, and adopt a foundational set of principles to guide this strategy,” he said. The plan also includes a call to action for communities to improve local road safety.
Roadway infrastructure improvements are also included as part of the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill.
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