Amid a troubling resurgence in U.S. traffic fatalities, now taking roughly 100 lives a day in this country, a report card came out from Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety on Monday. The group identified states that do the most, and least, for highway safety. As they put it in their press conference, “The solutions are in this book."
And where does Nevada rank in that book? Right in the middle. Six states, including California, Oregon and Washington have the most protective road safety regulations. Thirteen other states, including Arizona, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are at the bottom.
They say Nevada's missing some key laws like these: infants in a rear-facing restraint system in the back seat, and booster seats once they outgrow those. No learner permits until the age of 16. For teens, restricted nighttime driving, a limit on their passengers, no license until they're 18, and not even hands-free cellphone calls. Most important, they want a stronger Nevada seat belt law for everyone.
The seat belt law the group would like to see here is called "primary enforcement" for front and rear seats. In the top six states, police can pull over and ticket the driver for a seat belt violation. In Nevada, police have to witness another infraction before they ticket you for the seat belts, because the seat belt law here is not a primary offense.
But not everyone thinks more laws are the answer. At the Nevada Trucking Association, CEO Paul Enos told me, "Don't just look at the seat belt law itself. I look at how many folks are using their seatbelt. According to a CDC study done in 2012, 91% of Nevadans are using their seat belts. So is a new law really going to change that?"
As a group, truckers use our highways more than anyone, 24 hours a day. But Nevada is seeing a drop in highway deaths. Last year, 303 people died on Nevada roads. Enos says, "That is 9% lower than the year before, the first time since 2013 where we've seen a reduction in the total number of fatalities."
And Nevada has been a forerunner in safety technology. As Enos says, "Nevada was the first state in the country to allow automated vehicles on the road. We're the first state in the country to have an automated truck on the road." And he expects that automatic emergency braking and lane departure warnings will be standard equipment in all vehicles, soon: "The cost is coming down. In terms of what we're seeing in the trucking industry, folks are adopting that voluntarily, today."
He says highway safety here...really depends on educating drivers on the golden rules of the road.
If you would like to check out the full 58-page report on highway safety in the U.S., including the recommendations for Nevada, we have the link for you. Just click it below:
https://www.fairwarning.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Roadmap-Report.pdf
