Highway Safety: Factors Contributing to Traffic Crashes and NHTSA’s Efforts to Address Them: Statement of Peter Guerrero, Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues

Guerrero, Peter · 2003 · ROSA P / United States. General Accounting Office

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Summary

This testimony by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) addresses the stagnation in highway safety improvements and evaluates the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) efforts to reduce traffic fatalities. While annual fatalities decreased from 44,525 in 1975 to 42,850 in 2002, the rate of decline has leveled off since the early 1990s, and alcohol-related fatalities have risen since 1999. The document aims to identify factors contributing to crashes, review funding mechanisms under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), and assess NHTSA’s oversight of state highway safety programs. The GAO conducted its analysis by reviewing three Department of Transportation databases containing data through 2001, interviewing experts from academia, insurance organizations, and advocacy groups, and examining relevant studies. To evaluate program implementation and oversight, the GAO visited six states and their corresponding NHTSA regional offices, interviewing representatives from the Governors Highway Safety Association and other organizations. The findings are drawn primarily from two GAO reports issued in March and April 2003. The study identifies three categories of crash factors: human, roadway environment, and vehicle. Human factors, such as speeding, alcohol impairment, and inattention, are the most prevalent contributors. Speeding was a factor in approximately 30% of fatal crashes between 1997 and 2001, disproportionately affecting young male drivers. Alcohol-related crashes accounted for 42% of fatalities in 2002. Vehicle factors, particularly the higher rollover risk of SUVs compared to passenger cars, also contribute significantly to fatalities. Regarding funding, approximately $2 billion was provided to states under TEA-21 from 1998 to 2002. This included $729 million for core safety programs, $936 million for incentive programs, and $361 million transferred from construction funds to penalize states for non-compliance with drunk driving laws. The GAO found that NHTSA’s oversight of state programs was inconsistent due to a lack of specific guidance on when to use management reviews and improvement plans. Consequently, some states with worsening safety metrics, such as rising alcohol-related fatality rates, lacked improvement plans. The GAO recommended that NHTSA provide clearer criteria for utilizing these oversight tools to ensure states meet safety goals. NHTSA agreed with the recommendation and began developing improved guidance for its regional offices.

Key finding

NHTSA regional offices have made inconsistent use of management reviews and improvement plans because guidance does not specify when to use them, leaving some states with declining safety performance without oversight plans.

Methodology

review

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• demographic disparities
• comparative international
• incidence prevalence
• pre crash contributing factors
• fatality injury trends
• regulatory evaluation

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes, observational prevalence
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource