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7335951
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President's Letter to Congress on highway safety
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7335951
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document
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President's Letter to Congress on highway safety
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
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1974-09-04
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1974
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Digitized from Box 1 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 4, 1974
Office of the White House Press Secretary
THE WHITE HOUSE
TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
The 1950's and early 1960's were marked by enormous
growth in the Nation's highway systems -- the number of
vehicles which used them and the miles which they traveled
nearly doubled. We developed a modern, flexible form of
transportation. It was also deadly. Deaths rose from
34,700 in 1950 to top 53,000 in 1966, when the Congress
determined that a national effort was needed to contain
the runaway slaughter and passed the Highway Safety and
National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Acts. The
attached reports, which I am transmitting in accordance
with the reporting requirements in those acts, describe
the various traffic safety programs, with emphasis on
activities during 1973.
Without question, the seven-year-old national traffic
safety effort has proved beneficial. As will be seen by
figure 1 in the motor vehicle safety report, annual deaths
among passenger car occupants, which were rising throughout
the early 60's, have since leveled off and remained fairly
constant in face of a rise through 1972 in traffic deaths.
This is in spite of large increases in mileage driven,
number of vehicles, drivers, average speed, and alcohol
consumption -- to name some of the factors which we know
contribute to highway accidents. The overall growth in
traffic fatalities is attributable to motorcycle, pedestrian,
and bicycle accidents. There is little doubt that our
motor vehicle safety standards are saving lives and reducing
the severity of injuries.
Improvements in the Nation's highways are also making
a major contribution to progress in traffic safety. Since
1967 the death rate per 100 million miles traveled has
declined steadily on our modernized roadways.
Although total traffic fatalities remain shockingly
high, the fatality rate has declined from 5.5 per 100
million vehicle miles to 4.3 -- a significant decrease of
22 percent since 1967. Had the 1967 fatality rate continued,
almost 72,000 Americans would have been killed in highway
accidents in 1973, instead of the estimated total of just
over 56,000. This estimated saving of 16,000 lives in a
single year represents an enormous financial saving to
society in terms of wages, medical costs, legal expenses,
and property damage, not to mention human suffering. Such
savings would not have come about without the combined efforts
of Federal, State, and local officials involved in this national
emphasis, as well as private citizens who have supported the
program.
In 1973, the lowering of speed limits and other effects
of the energy shortage situation had a dramatic impact on
highway fatality statistics. During the last two months of
the year, as States reduced their speed limits and motorists
voluntarily limited their driving, the number of fatalities
more
2
declined by as much as 25 percent below the November/December
1972 totals in some States. As a result, the Nation as a
whole ended the year having lost 2,000 fewer lives than had
been projected.
The saving in lives during the past year provides an
added incentive for the Government and the Nation to persist
in the endeavor to make our vehicles, our highways, and our
drivers safer. I am confident that well-managed programs
and well-managed use of our resources will continue to have
a positive effect in improved highway safety.
GERALD R. FORD
THE WHITE HOUSE,
September 4, 1974
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