Vehicle Safety Standards, Crash Prevention & Increased Fatalities Addressed in Federal Law

Vehicle Safety Standards, Crash Prevention & Increased Fatalities Addressed in Federal Law

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that became law in November 2021 not only lays out a spending plan for the repair of roads and bridges but also requires vehicle safety standard revisions and research as well as safety component additions over the next one to three years.

As attorney Michael R. Lemov points out in an opinion piece published by The Hill, the law within its 1,039 pages contains “little-noticed sections designed to implement a reduction in the rising toll of automobile crashes, deaths and injuries.”

In February, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg unveiled the DOT’s new safety plan to decrease the number of roadway deaths that will be implemented over the next three years to reach zero deaths.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data, released in March, found an estimated 38,824 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2020 – the highest number of fatalities since 2007. In the first nine months of 2021, an estimated 31,720 people died in vehicle crashes while the fatality rates in the second and third quarters of 2021 declined compared to 2020, according to NHTSA.

Read the full story on the Repairer Driven News.