A recent national survey by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety confirms that Americans desire a greater level of safety than they now experience on our roads and are open to more government action to make it happen.
Yet, according to AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, many are unwilling to change potentially deadly driving behaviors and candidly admit they are part of the problem. That is why AAA and the Foundation are challenging motorists to examine their driving habits and make a resolution to drive safer in 2012 and beyond.
The Department of Transportation recently released updated fatality and injury data which indicate that 32,885 lives were lost in automobile crashes in 2010, fewer deaths on record than any time for the past 60 years.
“Even one death on our roads is unacceptable,” says AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety President and CEO Peter Kissinger in a press statement. “Something is terribly amiss in our traffic safety culture when, in the safest year since 1949, on average there is still one needless death every 16 minutes in motor vehicle crashes. To reach zero deaths each driver must take a moment to assess his driving habits and ask, when it comes to safe driving, am I part of the problem or part of the solution?”
For the fourth consecutive year, the AAA Foundation’s Traffic Safety Culture Index finds that most drivers (86 percent) view it as unacceptable to drive without wearing a seatbelt, yet nearly one in four admit that they have done so in the past 30 days.
Additionally, a substantial number of drivers find it unacceptable to drive 10 mph over the speed limit on residential streets and admit to having done so in the past month. Such findings indicate that a false comfort exists among many drivers who believe ‘it’s the other guy behind the wheel’ yet admit to regularly engaging in potentially deadly behaviors like texting, driving while drunk or drowsy, excessive speeding, and red light running. “This ‘do as I say, not as I do’ attitude that persists among drivers needs to change before we can experience a traffic safety culture where safe driving is the norm,” explains Kissinger.
The following is a snapshot of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety key findings from the 2011 Traffic Safety Culture Index: .
