Highway Improvements Reduce Roadway Fatalities

The U.S. Department of Transportation recently announced that roadway deaths in the United States in 2010 fell to 32,885, the lowest level since 1949. The American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) credits the nation's Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), a core part of the Federal-aid highway program, as a major contributor to this record low number. Signed into law in August 2005, the HSIP was established to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads through the implementation of infrastructure-related highway safety improvements. "The HSIP enabled states to improve roadways and install lifesaving safety features like guardrails, cable barriers, highly-reflective signage, rumble strips and other improvements," says ATSSA President and CEO Roger Wentz. "Since its inception, the national number of fatalities has continued to decline year after year, from 42,708 in 2006, to 32,885 in 2010." In 2009, ATSSA commissioned Science Application International Corporation to assess the linkage between the HSIP and the declining fatality numbers. The study concluded that for every $1 million spent on safety, seven lives were saved, yielding a benefit to cost ratio of 42 to one. "The study clearly illustrates that the increase in HSIP obligations provides a tremendous savings in terms of lives saved and the societal costs of traffic fatalities," Wentz adds. HSIP funds are typically spent on deploying lifesaving infrastructure safety measures that remain effective for years.