Highway Safety Act

In 1965, activistRalphNaderwrote the book Unsafe at Any Speed The Designedrin Dangers of the American Automobile. This expose led to the formation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under the Highway Safety Act of 1970. 

Two months after the Vehicle Safety Act and Highway Safety Act were signed by President Lyndon Johnson, the National Traffic Safety Agency and National Highway Safety Agency were established within the Department of Commerce and William Haddon was appointed as Administrator of both. In April of 1967 the two safety agencies were transferred into the Department of Transportation and three years later became the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). 

U.S. Congress. Highway Safety Act of 1966. Public Law 89-564. 89th Congress, 2nd Session, 1966, Introduction. 

The mandate from the Vehicle Safety Act was to reduce traffic deaths and injuries by establishing vehicle safety standards which were practicable, objective and stated in terms of performance. The vehicle safety standards presumably protect the public against unreasonable risk. The mandate from the Highway Safety Act was to reduce traffic deaths and injuries by assisting... 

U. S. Department of Transportation. The National Midway Safety Needs Report. Report to Congress under the Highway Safety Act of 1973. April 1976, pages III-3 and III-4. 

The FHWA acknowledges the interrelated system of vehicle, hiunan and roadway environment in their general discussion of traffic safety. See U. S. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Highway Administration. Midway Safety 84. A Report on Activities Under the Highway Safety Act of 1966.1986, page 68. The fact that two administrations vduch deal with traffic safety are located in the same Department and use incompatible approaches is an example of nonmarket failure. 

Health and Safety Act 1974 (Part Ij Highway Act 1980 Sections 161 and 161A Environmental Protection Act 1990 Clean Air Act 1993 Environment Act 1995... 

The Hazardous Materials Transportation Act of 1975 (HMTA) and the 1990 Hazardous Materials Uniform Safety Act were promulgated to protect the public from risks associated with the movement of potentially dangerous materials on roads, in the air, and on waterways. They do not pertain to the movement of materials within a facility. Anyone who transports or causes to be transported a hazardous material is subject to these regulations, as is anyone associated with the production or modification of containers for hazardous materials. Enforcement of the HMTA is delegated to the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Railway Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, and Research and Special Programs Administration (for enforcement of packaging rules). 

At the direction of the U.S. Congress under the Commercial Motor Vehicles Safety Act of 1986, national standards were developed for every individual driving commercial motor vehicles in the country. The regulations (49 CFR Part 383) were finalized by the Federal Highway Administration on July 1, 1988). 

Under the provisions of the Vehicle Safety Act manufacturers are required to notify consumers and NHTSA of safety defects and the proposed remedy. Since 1966 more than 88 million vehicles have been recalled. Most recalls have been initiated by manufacturers without formal NHTSA involvement. Letters and phone calls from car owners are the primary source of information for defect investigations. As with highway safety programs activity has increased in the recall program in recent years. 

U. S. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic Safety 84. A Report on activities under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 and the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act. 1. Pages 35-43 and U. S. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Srffety Related Recall Campaigns for Motor Vehicles and Motor Vehicle Equipment, Including Tires. DOT HS 806 927. For Calendar Year 1985. 

Transportation Safety. The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 created the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and authorized it to promulgate and enforce motor vehicle safety standards and to order recalls of unsafe motor vehicles. Two earlier enacted transportation safety statutes empowered the Federal Aviation Administration to regulate airline safety and the Federal Railroad Administration to regulate railroad safety. 

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 10 228 21 590 National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), 15 767 24 284 National Formulary, 18 701 National Highway Traffic Safety... 

Congress, in recognition of the dangers associated with heavy trucks traveling on public roads, enacted the Motor Carrier Act in 1935 to regulate motor carriers responsibility for safety on interstate highways. 

States faced a 5 in 100,000 chance of dying on the job in 1992. Although higher than the National Safety Council estimate the BLS figure of a 5/100,000 fatality rate still implies workers faced greater hazards at home than at work. More interestingly, the BLS also found that 40 percent of all workplace fatalities were caused by transportation accidents (45 percent of the fatal transportation accidents were highway accidents), and 20 percent of workplace fatalities were caused by assaults and other violent acts (85 percent homicides and 15 percent suicides). Neither transportation accidents nor assaults are likely to be reduced much by OSHA inspections for workplace health and safety violations. 

If an accident cannot be anticipated or expected by anyone, then it is indeed due to chance or to forces beyond our understanding (Figure 17-1). In that case, the term accident causation is an oxymoron. Alternatively, if we accept the notion that traffic accidents are not chance events or acts of God, then they can be predicted and prevented. This rationale led the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the journal Nature to replace the term accident with the term crash . With this approach we assume that if a person with some relevant expertise has at his or her disposal all of the necessary data immediately before an accident happens, he or she can foresee the accident. From the perspective of that expert the accident can or could have been avoided. The knowledge that is available to our mythical expert is what we seek in our attempts to understand the reasons or causes of accidents. 

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