Roads and highways are an integral part of the American transit system. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) helps oversee and regulate the system and recently announced a new strategy, “The Road Ahead,” as part of its larger project “The Road to Zero,” to improve America’s roads and the lives of the people who use them.

The NHTSA’s strategy consists of three points:

• Proactive Vehicle Safety, which entails ensuring that vehicle manufacturers place priority on constructing vehicles that lack defects but have proper safety features and meet safety standards established by the federal government. It also involves locating and fixing problems faster, making comprehensive vehicle recalls, and enabling purchasers to make informed purchasing decisions.
• Advanced Vehicle Safety Technologies, which involves autonomous vehicles and connected vehicles, focuses on new technology that allows for quick, precise communication and awareness among drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and others in order to promote safety and prohibit auto accidents occurring in the first place.
• Human Factors, which includes drunk drivers, distracted drivers, and sleepy drivers. According the NHTSA’s data, drunk, distracted, and/or sleepy drivers are involved in 94 percent of auto accidents that lead to death. The NHTSA hopes to raise safety awareness, encourage changes in driver conduct, and collaborate with police more closely in order to address, reduce, or eliminate said troublesome human elements.

Why is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration implementing The Road Ahead?

According to the NHTSA, roughly 35,092 people died in auto accidents in 2015. That number of auto-accident-related deaths is way too high; therefore, the NHTSA is implementing its new strategy to ensure America’s roads are safer and to reduce and ultimately prevent auto accidents and auto-accident-related injuries and deaths.

The Road to Zero is an ambitious project, but a needed one: far too many lives are lost each year in auto accidents. The NHTSA’s new plan for The Road Ahead outlines some great first steps in helping to protect drivers here in Tennessee and around the country.

If you were in an auto accident and got injured as a result of the accident, turn to us Sevierville personal injury attorneys at Delius & McKenzie, PLLC for help. For more information, call us at (865) 428-8780 or fill out our contact form. We are proud to serve Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Seymour and Pigeon Forge.