Senate Bill Promises Increased Vehicle and Highway Safety in the U.S.

Houston injury attorneys on some promising new safety legislation that could have some real effect.

OK, I’ll admit I enjoy poking holes in those lawmaker announcements that arrive with such pomp and circumstance while extolling the virtues of completely lame safety-related legislation. Well, now I’m forced to admit that the Senate might just have passed a piece of bipartisan legislation that could actually have some real value to your safety.

S.1813, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (or “MAP-21”), is a vehicle and highway safety bill. The 2-year, $109 billion surface transportation authorization bill combines a multitude of provisions from different safety initiatives designed to enhance vehicle safety requirements, increase some licensing regulations, prevent accidents, reduce injuries, and save money. Our Houston injury attorneys note some of MAP-21’s important provisions:

• A call to the NHTSA to issue vehicle safety standards such as pedal placement and brake override standards.
• A call for NHTSA action to increase agency and automaker accountability and responsibility for government safety defect investigations.
• An incentive grant program to encourage all U.S. states to adopt an effective “Graduated Licensing Program” aimed at phasing in teen drivers’ autonomy behind the wheel in a safe manner.
• Funds for distracted driving program grants.
• Funds for high visibility enforcement programs.
• A call to U.S. states to adopt primary enforcement seat belt laws, child booster seat laws, and laws requiring the installation of ignition interlock devices on the vehicles of all first time DWI offenders.
• Requirements regarding testing of child safety seats in frontal and side impact crashes.
• Requirements for improved child safety restraint systems.
• Requirements for rear seat belt and child restraint reminder systems.
• Enhanced commercial motor vehicle (CMV) training and medical qualifications requirements.
• Stronger registration requirements for motor carriers.
• Increased oversight, enforcement, and penalties for carriers.
• Some provisions of the Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act (MESA, S. 453).
• A DOT requirement to develop safety ratings systems for motorcoach (bus) service companies to help customers decide with which carriers to ride.

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The legislation appears fairly comprehensive, and seems to address a number of current gaps in vehicle, motor carrier, and highway safety. And our Houston injury attorneys emphasize that it does not include the dangerous provision to allow increases in commercial truck sizes and weights on our roads. (Yet. The bill provides for further study of the issue at this time. We expect that the legislation permitting increased sizes and weights of the commercial behemoths beside us on the roads will be quietly passed or added as a last minute amendment to some other bill without publicity.) Keep in mind that while traffic fatalities declined overall in 2010 from previous years’ numbers, those fatalities related to large commercial trucks increased by 9%.

To learn more about what steps you need to take to protect yourself and your rights following a collision caused by a heavy truck, read our book on how to make a successful truck accident claim. The book by our experienced Houston injury attorneys is free to our readers, and available for download from this web page.