WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance Subcommittee hearing today titled NHTSA Oversight: An Examination of the Highway Safety Provisions of SAFETEA-LU.

Witness List:

Panel I

The Honorable David Strickland, Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation 

Panel II

Ms. Jacqueline Gillan, Vice President, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety

Mr. Robert Strassburger, Vice President, Vehicle Safety & Harmonization, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers

Ms. Laura Dean Mooney, President, Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Mr. Neil Pedersen, Administrator, Maryland State Highway Administration, on behalf of the Governors Highway Safety Association

Panel III

Mr. Ethan Ruby, New York, NY

Mr. Ira Leesfield, Past President, Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers

Mr. Thomas M. James, President and CEO, Truck Renting and Leasing Association 

Key Quotations from Today’s Hearing:

“One of the ways NHTSA makes our roads safer is by improving driver behavior. Every year, NHTSA distributes more than $500 million in grants to states as an incentive to pass strict safety laws, and to pay for enforcement, education, and other efforts to promote safety. As we prepare for the next reauthorization of SAFETEA-LU, we need to carefully consider whether the programs and grants funded through SAFETEA-LU are being used as effectively as possible. We also need to ask whether there are new programs that need to be funded, or new safety concerns that need to be addressed. Through a continued focus on vehicle safety and highway safety, we can reduce the number of deaths and injuries on our roads.”

Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV

“Highway safety programs save lives and prevent costly accidents. This hearing gives us important information and feedback on how to improve these efforts and make our roads safer for families.”

Senator Mark Pryor, Chairman, U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance

“Clearly, even with the lowest absolute fatality number since 1950 and the lowest fatality rate number in our Nation’s history, more than 33,000 fatalities a year on our highways is not a number that we can accept. We need to renew our commitment to finding new and better ways to reach those difficult to reach populations to change their behavior, to make vehicles safer, to develop new technologies to improve our safety margin, so that we can continue to make steady progress in reducing this preventable epidemic of roadway crashes.”

The Honorable David Strickland, Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation

“The significant reduction in highway fatalities that has occurred over the last two years affords an opportunity to continue the downward trend and make substantial and lasting reductions in annual fatalities. There are no acceptable excuses for delaying any longer the adoption of lifesaving laws that can help secure these lower fatality levels in the future. Over the course of the next five-year authorization bill we can save thousands of lives each year if we act wisely and act now.”

Ms. Jacqueline Gillan, Vice President, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety

“In the past 60 years, vehicle miles traveled has more than quadrupled and the number of licensed drivers has more than doubled. Vehicle safety technologies combined with consumer education and tough laws combating the most dangerous driver behaviors have provided us sharp declines in critical fatality and injury statistics, all to the benefit of the traveling public.”

Mr. Robert Strassburger, Vice President, Vehicle Safety & Harmonization, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers

“By streamlining and revamping the current highway safety formula grant program, we can make changes which will ensure states receive their funding and spend it on activities that will save the most lives and prevent the most injuries.”

Ms. Laura Dean Mooney, President, Mothers Against Drunk Driving

“Traffic crashes not only cause devastation to families and individuals, but they also cost the nation an estimated $230 billion annually. Unfortunately, these crashes happen in one’s and two’s, so there is little public awareness about them and even less public outcry against them. To address this problem, the federal government must make the reduction of highway fatalities and injuries a national priority and play a strong role in developing highway safety policies and programs.”

Mr. Neil Pedersen, Administrator, Maryland State Highway Administration, on behalf of the Governors Highway Safety Association

“The reason the Graves Amendment has such a draconian and unfair impact is that it shifts the burden of loss from the profit-making rental car companies and their insurers who have the capacity to protect their economic interest to the potential victims of their negligent drivers. It is simply unfair to make the innocent victims of accidents protect rental car company coffers. Moreover, to the extent that victims then need help, any limited relief most likely has to come from the state. Taxpayers ultimately foot the bill if victims cannot. That is what the Graves Amendment has done.”

Mr. Ethan Ruby, New York, NY

“Under the Graves Amendment, a rental car company that rents to damaging drivers, without checking for insurance, has complete immunity. Innocent victims and their governments are left holding the bag. That bag is paid for by Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and/or state and local healthcare providers. The Graves Amendment should be repealed under our system of federalism and state legislatures should be permitted to govern legislation uniquely evaluated by state legislatures.”

Mr. Ira Leesfield, Past President, Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers

“In enacting the Graves Amendment, Congress acted pursuant to its historical authority to regulate interstate commerce, particularly the instrumentalities of commerce, and displace state laws in favor of federal rules that are both uniform and fair. The courts have recognized the legitimacy of the enactment.”

Mr. Thomas M. James, President and CEO, Truck Renting and Leasing Association

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