How Safe Are Your State's Roads?

Mike Bryant

Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 555

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The Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety released their 7th annual national highway safety report. The reports look at each state and determine how safe their roads are through the use of questions of whether the state has passed 15 basic safety laws to effectively save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce health care and other costs. For the first time, they included whether there were laws against texing and driving.

A review of the laws used will have some controversy, such has the age for kids to drive and the use of helmets on motorcycles, but for the most part, they are mostly laws that just about everyone will agree with. The States are then rated and marked with colors:

Green: Good—State is significantly advanced toward adopting all of Advocates’ recommended optimal laws;

Yellow: Caution—State needs improvement because of gaps in Advocates’ recommended laws; and,

Red : Danger—State falls dangerously behind in adoption of Advocates’ recommended laws.

Looking at the above map it's nice to see that Minnesota is green. The drop in highway deaths seems to support that rating.The report found that Minnesota still needs :

The report also identified the cost of accident in Minnesota to be $3.07 billion annually. So there is money to be saved with all of the anti accident efforts.

Maybe the other members of the Injuryboard can look at why their state is rated as it is.

All-Rider Motorcycle Helmet Law

GDL - Minimum Age 16 for Learner’s Permit

GDL - Nighttime Restriction Provision

GDL - Age 18 for Unrestricted License

Ignition Interlock Law

The ignition lock is starting to be used in some pilot projects. While the state looked at a number of changes for young drivers recently, it doesn't look like they will be doing anything here soon. Helmets will always be a battle and one which I understand is a strong held belief by many of those I have represented.