Equity

GHSA has awarded a total of $125,000 from the National Road Safety Foundation to five states to partner with community-based groups to implement safe youth mobility programs focusing on walking, biking and/or riding a scooter. This is the third consecutive year that GHSA and NRSF have provided funding to State Highway Safety Offices for youth safety initiatives in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas with limited financial resources.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 27, 2024

Contact: Adam Snider, 202-580-7930, 202-365-8971 (after hours)

Despite modest progress, dangerous driving and inadequate infrastructure continue to pose deadly threat to people walking

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 21, 2024

Contact: Chris Minar, 202-466-5073, 301-395-6565 (after hours)

Statement by Jonathan Adkins, Chief Executive Officer, Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA)

Early this year, the United States will mark a grim and tragic milestone: Four million roadway deaths since 1899. Every single one of these people left behind countless family members, friends, colleagues and neighbors. It’s impossible to fully comprehend the grief and tragedy caused by a single death, let alone four million. Something must change.

Four Million Total U.S. Traffic Deaths Shows Need for National Safety Strategy

GHSA News Release
February 21, 2024

This year, the US will reach a total four million deaths on the road since 1899, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). Marking this 'grim and tragic milestone', the organisation's CEO Jonathan Adkins calls for a renewed sense of urgency in tackling this "safety crisis" and suggests more enforcement and better road design as key areas in which improvements can be made.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2023

Contact: Adam Snider, 202-580-7930, 202-365-8971 (after hours)

Statement by Jonathan Adkins, Chief Executive Officer, Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced today an estimated 3.3% decrease in roadway deaths in the United States in the first half of 2023. Twenty-nine states saw fewer traffic fatalities, while 21 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are projected to have more deaths this year than last.

“This recent trend toward fewer deaths on our nation’s roads is welcome news,” Jonathan Adkins, chief executive officer of the Governors Highway Safety Association, said in a statement, “but these decreases pale in comparison to the troubling and unprecedented rise in dangerous driving and fatalities experienced during the height of the pandemic.”

“We’re at a pivot point from the way it was to the way it will be in the future. We, as a community, are trying to figure out what we need to change in order to preserve the benefits from traffic enforcement but to correct systemic problems we see,” Russ Martin, GHSA’s senior director of policy and government relations, told Vox.

GHSA's Annual Report highlights the Association's accomplishments for the 2023 Fiscal Year (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023).