The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (“IIHS”) and the Highway Loss Data Institute (“HLDI”) have named David L. Harkey as the next president of the two traffic safety research organizations. Dr. Harkey succeeds Adrian K. Lund, who is retiring after serving as IIHS-HLDI president since 2006.
Dr. Harkey, 54, has directed the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center since 2006 and has more than 30 years' experience in road safety research. As an engineer, the majority of his work has focused on improving roadway design and operations for all users, including motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Dr. Harkey has collaborated with IIHS researchers on past projects and in August was the keynote speaker at the IIHS's second roundtable on the problem of large truck underride crashes.
The IIHS's work, supported by insurers, has helped lead to stricter laws on alcohol-impaired driving, graduated licensing laws for teen drivers, higher safety belt use rates, airbags, and more crashworthy vehicles.
“Our roads and vehicles are much safer today because of the strong and internationally respected work of IIHS and HLDI,” Dr. Harkey said. “Even with so much progress, it is unacceptable that nearly 100 lives are still lost in crashes every day. As we work with our safety partners toward the goal of zero crash deaths, we will continue to conduct high quality research about ways to reduce crashes and the deaths, injuries, and property damage that result from them. We will build on the Institutes' groundbreaking research and testing of crash avoidance technologies — the foundation for autonomous vehicles — to steer consumers toward the systems that perform the best and speed the adoption of effective systems on all new vehicles. And we are positioned to evaluate current and future automated vehicle technologies at our expanded Vehicle Research Center.”
IIHS-HLDI research is guided by the Haddon Matrix, the most commonly used paradigm in the injury prevention field. It shows the problem of motor vehicle crashes can be mitigated by changing one or more factors — people, vehicles, and the road environment — at any point in the progression of a crash. It is named for Dr. William Haddon Jr., who served as IIHS president from 1969 until his death in 1985. Dr. Harkey said that as IIHS-HLDI continues to work with insurers and safety partners, he will seek new ways to move IIHS research to action for safer roads, safer road users, and safer vehicles.
“Recognizing that the full benefits of advanced technologies will only accrue decades from now, we need to continue to remind policymakers of the many proven countermeasures we could be deploying more widely right now to save lives. I look forward to working with the Institutes' tremendously talented, dedicated, and productive staff to move our mission forward,” Dr. Harkey said.