Why the United States lags in auto safety and lessons it can import

Abstract

The United States has slipped in recent decades from its role of leadership in combating road crash injuries. The early promise of the country's approach to vehicle safety regulation, adopted by law in 1966, has suffered because of decades of regulatory inertia caused by antiregulatory government policies, industry obstructionism, and failure to set meaningful goals. Meanwhile, other industrial nations have vastly outpaced the United States in reducing crash deaths and injuries. The Obama administration is thus challenged to learn from other nations' successes while reestablishing the US presence as a vigorous proponent of effective crash injury reduction strategies. It can best accomplish this by crafting approaches and objectives that reduce motor vehicle use, reduce harmful disparities within the US vehicle population, and reduce motor vehicle travel speeds.