Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety released the 2012 Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws, the ninth annual report grading all 50 states and Washington, D.C., on adoption of 15 basic traffic safety laws.
States were given one of three ratings based on how many of the 15 optimal laws they have: Green (good), Yellow (caution, state needs improvement) and red (danger, state falls behind). Rating placement was based solely on whether a state had adopted a law as defined in the report and not on any evaluation of a state's highway safety education or enforcement programs.
Among the 15 model laws Advocates evaluated in its 2012 report (available at saferoads.org) are seat belt, booster seat and motorcycle helmet measures, in addition to restrictions and requirements for teen drivers, all-driver texting bans and tougher impaired driving laws.
Among the report's findings:
- District of Columbia and 17 states were rated in the highest-rated category of green: New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, North Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Washington, Delaware, Maine, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Louisiana and California
- Eight states received the red rating: South Dakota, Arizona, Mississippi, Virginia, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio and Wyoming
- In 2011, 13 states enacted one or more of Advocates' recommended highway safety laws for a total of 16 new laws.
Additional laws need to be adopted in all states and D.C. to meet Advocates' 15 legislative recommendations:
- 18 states still need an optimal primary enforcement seat belt law
- 30 states still need an optimal all-rider motorcycle helmet law
- 21 states still need an optimal booster seat law
- No state meets all of the criteria of Advocates' recommended Graduated Drivers' License program
- 45 states and D.C. are missing one or more critical impaired driving laws
- 18 states still need an all-driver text messaging restriction.
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