Safe System Approach

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

GHSA's annual spotlight report, Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State: 2022 Preliminary Data, offers a comprehensive look at state and national trends in pedestrian deaths in 2022. The report projects that drivers struck and killed at least 7,508 people walking in 2022 – the highest number since 1981 and an average of 20 deaths every day.

Significant disparities exist in the U.S. traffic fatality rate per capita based on race and ethnicity, according to new federal research. The solution may lie in a safe system approach to traffic regulation, rather than a punitive approach, said officials April 6 at the World Traffic Safety Symposium in New York.

The Safe System approach to roadway safety envisions eliminating fatal and serious injuries for all road users by creating a transportation system that accommodates human mistakes and keeps impacts on the human body at tolerable levels (Federal Highway Administration, 2021).

Jonathan Adkins, chief executive of the Governors Highway Safety Association, called the deaths, “heartbreaking, unacceptable and preventable.” “We will not accept such incremental safety progress after two years of escalating deaths and more dangerous driving on U.S. roads,” he said in a statement.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that an estimated 42,795 people died in traffic crashes in the United States in 2022 – down 0.3% from the year before. That’s an average of 117 people dying on our roads every single day last year.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today announced that an estimated 42,795 people died in traffic crashes in the United States in 2022 – down 0.3% from the year before.

We’re excited to bring you GHSA’s Directions in Highway Safety newsletter, now with a fresh new look and feel.

In 2022, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) was awarded funds from the National Road Safety Foundation and GHSA to pilot a Safer Walking Routes to School initiative at Iroquois Elementary School with the United Way of Erie County.

The Governors Highway Safety Association is pleased to support and celebrate the National Roadway Safety Strategy, an ambitious safety plan released by the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) one year ago that sets a national goal of zero deaths on our nation’s roads.