Managing Risk
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Highlights]
More than 40,000 people are killed each year and millions more injured while traveling within the nation’s transportation system. About 95 percent of fatalities and an even larger share of injuries associated with transportation occur on roads and highways. Even as deaths and injuries per passenger mile of highway travel have generally decreased over time (Figure 4), the human toll remains high.
Safety thus continues to be a major emphasis of federal and state policy. Many safety features and regulations have been instituted for all transportation modes, covering vehicles, operators, and infrastructure. Each such innovation necessitates complex and often-contentious analysis of the associated safety benefits and costs. Given the potentially significant cost involved and sometimes uncertainty about benefits, it is essential that careful analysis be done to support such policy choices.
The importance of managing risk and achieving a safer transportation system has made this an area of focus for a number of TRB committees. Specific topics addressed include safer vehicles, infrastructure safety, regulation of drivers, means of informing consumer choices with regard to automotive safety and fuel efficiency, monitoring of shipments of hazardous materials, and safer travel to school.
Fatalities and Fatality Rate of Passenger
Car Occupants on U.S. Highways