The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent federal agency created in 1967 to investigate transportation accidents and promote transportation safety. The NTSB recently issued its updated Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements. The list highlights important safety actions that federal transportation agencies and all 50 States need to take to prevent accidents and save lives.
At the press conference announcing the updated list, NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman noted that someone dies in a traffic crash in the U.S. every 13 minutes. Chairman Hersman went on to say that “the number of people who die every week on our roadways is the equivalent to five 757 passenger jets crashing every seven days. If that many people were killed in airplane crashes, the American people would be up in arms.”
Accordingly, one of the critical safety improvements the NTSB’s most wanted list focuses on to help keep drivers safe is eliminating hard core drinking while driving. The NTSB’s recommendations for accomplishing this goal focus on state legislation targeting repeat offenders who drink large amounts of alcohol. In the press conference announcing the most wanted list, Chairman Hersman observed that “state governments are in a unique position to effect the most significant improvement in certain areas of transportation safety.”
Having represented victims and having seen firsthand the devastating impact that serious transportation accidents and drunk driving have on society, we hope that states take seriously their responsibility to reduce the number of injuries and deaths caused by transportation accidents including drunk driving by following the safety recommendations of the NTSB.