6 Ways to Prevent Driving Deaths

CARS.COM — If someone told you the federal government could spend $146 billion and save nearly 64,000 lives and prevent nearly six times as many serious injuries on U.S. roadways, would you support it? AAA is asking President Donald Trump to do just that. The travel-services giant today released a report showing that the investment in our nation’s highway system would stave off an “infrastructure crisis.”

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“With the U.S. ranked nearly last among high-income nations in annual traffic fatalities, which continue to rise, AAA urges the Trump administration to make repairing and maintaining America’s roadways a top priority,” AAA stated.

Here are six ways AAA says highway improvements would prevent more than 415,000 crash deaths and serious injuries over a 20-year period, followed by the approximate percentage of the overall reduction each accounts for:

1. Convert key intersections into roundabouts; a 30 percent reduction
    
2. Install roadside barriers and clear roadside objects; 20 percent
    
3. Add sidewalks and signalized pedestrian crossing to the majority of roads; 20 percent
    
4. Install median barriers on divided highways; 14 percent
    
5. Install shoulder and centerline rumble strips; 9 percent
    
6. Pave and widen shoulders; 3 percent
    

“Current investments in highway infrastructure improvements in the U.S. are substantially lower than what is necessary to fix the nation’s aging roads and bridges,” AAA stated. “While the $146 billion investment outlined in the report will have a significant national-level impact, increased investment is required at all levels of government to prevent an infrastructure crisis.”

AAA urged state and local governments to prioritize safer highway designs; improve road conditions; eliminate roadside hazards; align highway and street improvements with high-priority needs; and fund effective, ongoing cleanup of road debris.

The plea for infrastructure improvements comes amid alarming annual spikes in traffic fatalities. In 2015, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 35,000 U.S. motorists were killed and 2.4 million injured in crashes, a more than 7 percent increase over the previous year and the largest spike in half a century. Things weren’t looking any better for 2016, with a projected 8 percent increase in the first nine months compared with the same period a year earlier, with pedestrians and teen drivers at particular risk.